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London Councils Grants Committee update [14 July]
The New London Councils’ Grants Committee has 20 new members. The committee is dominated by Labour, with 18 seats. The new chair of the committee is Mayor Sir Steve Bullock (Lewisham). There are 3 vice chairs Cllr Helal Abbas (Labour, Tower Hamets), Cllr Stephen Carr (Conservative, Bromley) and Cllr Penny Shelton (Liberal Democrat, Kingston upon Thames.
The Grants Committee discussed the ‘Review of the future role and scope of the London Boroughs Grants Scheme’ at some length and want a report in November and decisions to be made on the future of the scheme by December.
They made a recommendation to the Leaders' Committee to proceed with the review following the scope and timetable outlined in the paper that was presented to it by London Councils’ officers.
Grants committee want more information from London Councils’ officers on the periods under which the current commissions will end, legal advice as to what is and what isn't possible (with regard to ending commissions) and the possible implications.
The committee agreed that a very substantial part of the budget would be 'repatriated' to boroughs, they discussed the potential for sub-regional money to also be 'repatriated' and to be distributed as groupings of boroughs saw fit.
This would leave a residual pot for truly pan-London commissions. We do not know at this stage what those truly pan-London services might be. There is no guarantee that any of the money will be spent on the VCS locally.
The committee agreed that they cannot guarantee that any commissions will be continued past 31st March 2011.They therefore agreed to send a letter to all funded organisations to that effect. It may be that all current commissions will be cut at the end of March 2011 but it may be that they will continue after that until the end of the current arrangements.
The impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review and Local Government Settlement (expected in October) is also a key factor.
What appears certain however is that the London Councils grants budget will be very much smaller when the new commissioning round begins (in 2011, with the majority to begin in 2012).
We are unsure as to what, if any, the impact of potential cuts might be before then.
This for VSF and VSF members is the ‘worst case scenario’. It may of course end up being better for members with the programme being wound down over a longer period of time, time in which we can all plan for the future. There seems to be still a great deal of uncertainty not least of which is the very difficult funding environment away from London Councils.
It was agreed to do some further work on the future of the Strategic Monitoring Zone groupings. A recommendation was made by officers to reduce the number of SMZs from 10 to 6.
Councillors did make reference during the meeting to 'we need to work with our valued VCS partners' and there will be consultation with the sector - we don't know when that consultation will be.
That will be our opportunity to feed in our views and evidence of the impact of our services on beneficiaries in London. It will also be important for us to demonstrate why we think it is essential that some services are commissioned regionally or sub-regionally.
There will be a fundamental change in the London Boroughs Grants Scheme and we should not assume that any of our commissions are guaranteed post March 31st 2011. As a result and to minimise the risk to our organisations we should be making contingency plans.
Start making plans based on the assumption that none of us are guaranteed funding beyond March 31st 2011 – it may never happen but best to be prepared!
What you can do straight away:
Contact VSF with your concerns – tim@lvsc.org.uk
Contact VSF with evidence of the impact of your work - tim@lvsc.org.uk
Contact VSF with reasons, supported by evidence, why your work must be commissioned regionally or cross-borough - tim@lvsc.org.uk
If your work is best delivered locally, tell us - tim@lvsc.org.uk
Contact Grants and Leaders’ committee with your concerns (lists on the VSF website)
VSF invites all members to submit items, notices and advertisements for inclusion in the bulletins. The bulletin is due to go out on the penultimate or last day of the month - please get copy to tim@lvsc.org.uk a week before that deadline
Any suggestions for articles for the next bulletin, or anything you would like to see included, if you would like your work showcased please email tim@lvsc.org.uk.
Please also let us know what you think of this bulletin so that we can improve our service to VSF members.
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Posted by ELN at July 23, 2010 10:35 AM