Issue - meetings

That the Grant Criteria and Funding Opportunities Guide, as amended, be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

To support the adoption of a Grant Criteria and Funding Opportunities Guide,which creates a clear process and ensures that the Council maintains a fit for purpose set of guidance and rules to govern the award of grants.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Business Services said that the Grant Criteria and Funding Opportunities Guide set out how the Council governed allocation of funds by officers via grants. The new procedure formalised the approach to grant awards, reflecting best practice and Council priorities. She referred to the recommendations of the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee presented to Cabinet on 25 March 2014 and tabled an amendment to the Grant Process: 3.5.1 Briefing Document, proposing to add the following sentence to the end of that section:

‘Officers should ensure that any grants awarded are aligned with and support the Council’s Corporate Priorities.’

She said that this Guide would make it easier for organisations to understand the process and that the table set out in Section 2.2 (Grant or Tender Process) clearly set out how to decide the most appropriate way to fund the project / service.

Other Members welcomed the report and the Guide, and stressed the importance of the whole grant programme and the need to support the Council’s Corporate Priorities. The Cabinet Member for Community Services commented on the excellent Equalities Impact Assessment and said that it had already been considered at Communities Select Committee where Members had suggested that the Guide was circulated to Local Committees.

RESOLVED:

That the Grant Criteria and Funding Opportunities Guide, as amended, be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

To support the adoption of a Grant Criteria and Funding Opportunities Guide,which creates a clear process and ensures that the Council maintains a fit for purpose set of guidance and rules to govern the award of grants.