Councillors and committees

Decision details

Hardship payment to VCF sector organisations: The Richmond Fellowship

Decision Maker: Interim Executive Director for Customers and Communities

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

Applications for financial support for Voluntary, Community & Faith sector organisations are being received by the Council. These requests for support are a direct result of financial hardship felt as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, due to either additional costs being incurred by these organisations to meet increased demand for their services or enable remote working, or as a result of reductions in their usual funding sources (eg donations and fund raising events). 

 

Applications are submitted on a standard request from and are being considered initially by a panel made up of Strategy and Finance colleagues.  The panel is assessing requests against the following criteria:

 

  • Small and medium sized organisation with an annual income of less than £1million during the financial year 2018/19
  • Are not in receipt of any outstanding, adverse judgements from relevant regulatory bodies e.g. Charities Commission, CQC
  • Operate within and provide services to meet needs in the county of Surrey
  • Provision of services to support vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, and/or later in the recovery phase
  • Have provided SCC commissioned and/or funded services between 2015-2020, including organisations funded via grant, contracts and/or one-off commissioning
  • Provision of broader, strategic services to Surrey residents that SCC considers vital to maintain
  • Have evidenced and substantiated the additional financial pressures caused to the organisation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Will remain viable and able to assist Surrey during the post COVID-19 recovery phase, taking account of financial pressures already incurred and those that are forecast
  • Where funding will support the long term, future sustainability of the organisation.

 

In addition, applications must also demonstrate that:

  • Funding is actively being sought from alternative, relevant sources e.g. central government and Community Foundation for Surrey. SCC hardship funding will particularly favour residual pressures that cannot be met from other available means.
  • Organisations can remain viable between the receipt of staged payments from the SCC COVID-19 Hardship Fund which may be paid in several tranches

 

The following applications were recommended by the Panel and approved by the Executive Director for Transformation, Partnership & Prosperity & the Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Fire & Resilience.

 

Name

Amount awarded

Reason

The Richmond Fellowship

£16,773

The applicant was able to demonstrate hardship as a result of loss of income and ongoing costs associated with service provision. They originally asked for the panel to make a recommendation on how much funding they should apply for but after reviewing the application, they asked for £22,784.80. The panel is recommending hardship funding to the organisation for £16,773 which is the cost of running the service for one month, in line with the criteria and recognising they are an important service, providing mental health support which is a priority area for the county council. 

 

 

Decision:

Decision made:

 

It was AGREED that:

 

The following applications met the agreed criteria for financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic:

 

The Richmond Fellowship

£16,773.00

 

A one-off payment of £16,773.00 will be made to support the above organisations.

 

Reasons for Decision:

 

To ensure the sustainability of the organisations and the continued provision of their services to the residents of Surrey during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Reasons for the decision:

To ensure the sustainability of the organisations and the continued provision of their services to the residents of Surrey during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Alternative options considered:

The alternative is to not provide financial support and leave the organisations to try to find alternative means of financing additional costs incurred and loss of income due to COVID-19.  This could put the continued delivery of the services they provide to residents of Surrey at risk.

 

Interests and Nature of Interests Declared:

None.

Publication date: 23/07/2020

Date of decision: 14/07/2020