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