fairer scotland fund Fairer Scotland Fund Board Note of meeting held on Saturday, 17th June, 2013 Present: Cllr Gordon Graham ACC (Deputy Chair) Andy MacLeod Aberdeen Civic Forum Aileen Davidson Regeneration Matters Moyra Mair Regeneration Matters Acky Stewart Regeneration Matters Fay Morrison Regeneration Matters Nick Bruce Regeneration Matters Sylvia Davidson Regeneration Matters Aileen Davidson Regeneration Matters Jody Reid Regeneration Matters Andy Verreydt Police Scotland Linda Smith NHS Joyce Duncan ACVO Agenda Item Notes 1. Apologies Cllr Barney Crocket Cllr Yvonne Allan Cllr Jim Noble Adrian Watson Arthur Forbes In Attendance: Dave Kilgour Anne Knight Susan Thoms Aberdeen City Council Aberdeen City Council Aberdeen City Council Invited: David Fryer Lesley-Anne Mullond Jenny Oelman Nigel Spencer Old Torry Community Centre Old Torry Community Centre Sport Aberdeen Sport Aberdeen Actions ACC (Cllr Graham deputising for Chair) ACC ACC Police Scotland Aberdeen Civic Forum 2. Note of meeting held on 24th January 2013 Notes approved 3. Matters Arising Moyra Mair’s apologies for attending the meeting had not been noted 2a. Note of meeting held on 16th March 2013 Notes approved 3b. Matters Arising Item 2: The Registrar of Interests was explained to Board members at the beginning of the meeting and those who declared an interest in a topic would decide whether they should leave the room when a relevant item was discussed. Members of the Regeneration Matters group were unhappy that they were advised to leave the meeting for the item relating to Community Support Fund. It was agreed that the information received about the Registrar of Interests was not completely clear. Item 3.4: Any refund that we were due from the Job Parents project would be classed as an underspend for 12/13 and therefore would be returned to the Council. To find out if we can reclaim the amount of £64,000 given to Job Parents in 12/13 it was agreed that the Board would have to put in a request to the Finance & Resource Committee giving a case why DK to update this money should be returned to FSF. Item 3.5: £14,000 of FSF funding had been ringfenced for Meganexus, this would support hub and satellite points. Dave had negotiated with the providers a reduction in the cost of using meganexus and this was agreed at £5,000. This frees up £9,000 of FSF funding. Item 4 - 1.5 The amount of funding agreed for St Machar Credit Union was omitted it should read £40,000 Item 4 – 3.13 For deliberation on the M26 group Aileen Davidson left the meeting, this should have been recorded on the minutes 4. Arts R Us – discussion Fay discussed the application she had submitted to the FSF with applicant for an arts group (ARTS R Us) in Torry. There was discussion on what art groups, if any, are currently based in Torry. Fay explained that Arts R Us are presently running with contributions from members to provide resources and payment for a freelance tutor from their centre funds. The Board agreed to get more clarification on provision ST/DK of art work in Torry and whether the previous arts group had disbanded and if so have they any remaining funds. The Board agreed to delegate to the FSF team final decision on funding application. 5. Torry Outdoor Sports Centre – discussion with applicant Fay declared an interest in this item as a member of the Old Torry Community Centre Management Committee Meeting but did not leave the meeting. Invited guests were asked to give brief presentation on the case to fund their application. They discussed the following: Extending the work of the community centre by pulling resources to promote the Outdoor Sports Centre Need for volunteers to staff the Outdoor Centre for sustainability Need to build up activities at the Outdoor Centre Promotion of the Centre through SHMU, NHS Grampian Diversifying activities at the Centre to attract new people Increase equipment available at Centre After the presentation there was an opportunity for members to put questions to the invited group. Who would run the Centre – It will be run by new committee and the coordinator would be based in Old Torry Community Centre Active School would link in with the activities to be held at the Centre There would be the offer of coaching and build up trained coachers to provide a safe place for all ages to enjoy Need for the amenities at the Centre to be affordable Evidence has shown that diversionary work with young people e.g. sports activities to get young people off the street has shown a reduction in criminal activities and anti social behaviour. If the Centre does not receive funding to employ coordinator the Old Torry Management Committee, because it is developing its own programme, would not have time to do the work that is required without someone to oversee the volunteers. There was a lengthy discussion outlined in the above bulletin points. A point of interest to the Board members was the pay scale given for the Volunteer Co-coordinator which seemed to not reflect the work required of that member of staff. It was stated that without realistic remuneration for the job of coordinator that it would be difficult to get the right person for the job. The invited group was asked to leave the meeting at this point for the Board members to deliberate on the application. It was discussed that the forthcoming asset review by ACC may have implications for this application. Members had concerns about the application particularly the wages of the Co-coordinator. The Board discussed whether a revised application should be asked to be submitted with more clarification on the points raised. A member of the Board proposed not funding the project and a vote was taken, 8 votes agreed to the proposal and 2 voted for a new application to be submitted. The Board agreed not to fund the application 6. Correspondence a) St Machar Credit Union Jody left the meeting at this item as she is a member of St Machar Credit Union Board Dave read out a letter from St Machar Credit Union in support to their appeal to reconsider the cut of funding requested in their application. The Board discussed the correspondence and were made aware that a member of staff would be lost if no further funding was found. It was stated that there will be more people turning to credit unions for a variety of reasons once the universal credit is adopted. It would not be prudent for the credit union to presently lose a skilled member of staff at the current time. The Board agreed to the request for funding the credit union the amount requested on the application received for 13/14. b) Middlefield Project A letter was received from the Chairperson of Middlefield Community Project’s Management Committee regarding the non-funding of their volunteer development through playschemes. It had been previously explained that the Fairer Scotland Fund would not fund playschemes however the Middlefield project stated they were unaware of this when they submitted their application. They stated it was essential to their volunteers to work in the playschemes and asked the Board to reconsider withdrawing the funding for the playschemes. It was stressed that the Board/FSF Team should not just give feedback to projects who were unsuccessful with their bids but also advise projects, if required, about completing applications. The Board agreed that it would not change its original agreement on not funding the playscheme element of their application. c). Powis Gateway Community Centre A letter was received from Rev. Andy Cowie from the Learning Hub requesting the Board to reconsider the nonfunding of the afterschool homework group. The Board had a brief discussion on this topic. The Board agreed not to fund this project. 7. Financial Update Susan presented the Board with a Financial Update and explained the amount of unallocated funding remaining for 13/14. It was also stated that there was an underspend in 12/13 which would not be carried forward. As mentioned in Matters Arising there is a reduction in the amount of funding for Meganexus and the repayment of funding from Job Parents is still outstanding. Dave stated that if we are asking for the underspend from last year to be returned, it would be a good option to show what we will spend the funding on. A report needs to be completed detailing this for the next Finance Committee meeting. The Board noted the current financial position of the FSF funds and will seek clarification on the Job Parents repayment from the Flexible Support Fund for work carried out in 2012/13. The Board also agreed to produce a report for the next Finance & Resource Committee meeting, to be held on 26th September, outlining how the funding will be used. DK (This will now go to full Council meeting on 31st October) 8. Social Return on Investment verbal update – Susan Thoms Susan informed the Board that it was agreed at a FSF review on Pathways and Station House Media Union (SHMU) that they should undertake a Social Return on Investment evaluation (SROI). Susan had contacted Social Value Lab who supported the projects to undertake the work, she stated that she would be happy to go over the report in more detail if the Board wished. “The SROI method has been standardized by the SROI Network which provides a consistent quantitative approach to understanding and managing the impacts of a project, business, organisation, fund or policy. It accounts for stakeholders’’ views of impact, and put financial ‘proxy’ values on all those impacts identified by stakeholders which do not typically have market values. The aim is to include the values of people that are often excluded from market in the same terms as used in a market, which is money, in order to give people a voice in resource allocation decisions”. The result from the report showed the value for each of the projects as: £1 invest in Pathways – value £4.67 £1 invested in SHMU - value £3.69 9. Guidance for Board members and register of interest The community representatives on the Board from the Regeneration matters group requested that some guidance for members on the Board should be produced. Susan stated that she had looked at other guidance for groups similar to the Board e.g. Arts grant and will develop draft ST guidance for the Board to consider. 10. Regeneration matters review report Anne gave a brief statement on the content of the report presented to the Board. The report gave a comprehensive outline of the activities the Regeneration Matters group undertook on their weekend review. This included workshops on: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation – an update on SIMD 2012 and comparisons with other Scottish Cities. How to use the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website Fairer Scotland Fund – the application process and discussion on the roles of community representatives on the Board Dates and Topics for future Regeneration Matters meetings One morning session devoted to the changes in the Welfare Reform and the implications of that change, with further discussion on Community Care Grant and Food Banks. 11. AOCB Dave requested that dates for Board meetings for the remainder of the year be confirmed. 12. Date of future meetings TBA