Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor Dr Andrew Parmley, Jeremy Mayhew, Deputy Edward Lord and Deputy the Revd. Stephen Haines.

There were no declarations.

To agree the minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 6 February 2017.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 6 Feb 2017 be agreed as an accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

RESOLVED – That the Outstanding Actions update be noted and updated as appropriate.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee received the regular progress report of the Chief Grants Officer (CGO) and discussed the updates provided, together with a request to agree that the CBT enter the Lord Mayors Show 2017.

The CGO gave updates on the following:

The Work Continues

During the five year Strategic Review, the Trust’s everyday work continued with visits to see some of the 500+ charities being supported across Greater London.

Support for the LGBT sector

Further to the initiative delivered by the Trust in 2016 to determine the funding landscape and potential support needs of London’s LGBT sector, and after a well-attended seminar in August 2016, jointly hosted with Trust for London, organisations were asked to identify any needs, especially those which might be more strategic. As a result three outline proposals had been received which were strategic in nature and which had the potential to make a significant, positive, difference to the LGBT community in London. Officers would now assess these requests fully with the intention of bringing them to the May Committee for decision.

Stepping Stones

The Trust planned to launch the fourth round of Stepping Stones, its partnership programme with UBS, on March 20^th 2017.

Since the Fund was launched £2.2m had been shared between 49 organisations across 20 London boroughs. Most of the grants awarded so far funded work which was still underway although 10 organisations had completed their projects, accounting for a grant funding total of £368,000. Of these three had raised social investment to a total value of £16.05m, four reported they had a much clearer idea of the work they needed to deliver before they approached the market, and three had concluded that social investment was not for them. The latter outcome was not a sign of failure since the Stepping Stones Fund was

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee received a report seeking to allocate up to £3.3m in 2017/18 towards a detailed grants programme to get young disabled Londoners into work and to help maintain their employment.

The programme, the suggested name for which was ‘Bridge to Work’, aimed to narrow the disability employment gap by funding projects which provided employability support for young disabled people in London and strengthen links between employers and the disabled community.

The Committee discussed the proposed allocation of £1.3m from this year’s budget, consistent with the purposes for which those funds were originally allocated by the Court of Common Council on 23 July 2015 (and carried forward to 2016/17); with the balance of funding for the programme of £2m intended to be funded from next year’s budget uplift for those same purposes. As the grants under the programme would only be awarded in 2017/18, the funds from this year’s budget could not be committed in the charity’s accounts in this financial year and would need to be carried-forward to next year’s budget. 

It was noted that authority to take these carry-forward decisions, and those relating to budget allocation in each financial year, fell outside this Committee’s terms of reference but that there was an urgency in achieving approval to both the carry-forward and the Committee’s budget allocation for 2017/18 before the May Committee meeting to allow funding decisions under the new grants programme to be taken at that meeting. The Committee also heard advice from the Comptroller and City Solicitor regarding the City of London Corporation’s duties as trustee of the charity to act in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries by adopting policies and procedures which support the efficient and effective governance and administration of the charity in the management of its assets and in applying

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

With reference the previous item on the Agenda, the Committee received a report seeking an allocation of up to £1.5m from the Committee’s budget uplift agreed in 2016/17 for a detailed programme supporting people, predominantly young people, with mental health issues into employment and noted the discussion under the previous item relating to the City Corporation’s governance procedures for annual budget allocation and the carry-forward of unspent funds from one financial year to the next.

Members were advised that the mental health element of the programme, which was part of the proposed Bridge to Work grant programme, would build on internal research undertaken in 2016 to identify the most effective mechanisms for supporting young people with mental health problems into and in employment.  The funding of the programme would require the carry-forward to the 2017/2018 budget of unspent monies allocated in the 2016/17 budget.

RESOLVED – To agree

a)            A grant of £65,000 to the Centre of Mental Health.

b)           An allocation of £1,435,000 for the “Employment & Disability – Bridge to Work Programme: Mental Health” to be funded in the next financial year.

To consider the Chief Grants Officer’s reports on grant recommendations as follows:-

APPROVED - agrant of£300,000 tosupport thethree-year LondonBorough of Cultureprogramme toengage disadvantaged and/orhard toreach communities/people.The grantwill bepaid toand managedby theGreater LondonAuthority (GLA)as partof awider fundbeing madeavailable tosupport thisinitiative. Thegrant isconditional onnone ofthe fundsbeing usedto covercosts incurredby anystatutory body.

Chief Grants Officer David Farnsworth left the room for the consideration of this item.

APPROVED -   agrant of£300,000 over three  years(3 x£100,000)  to  LondonFunders tocontinue todevelop place-basedgiving inLondon.

APPROVED - agrant of£350,000to continue thepartnership withPrisonersAbroad untilthe Implementationof your newprogramme in2018.

APPROVED – £98,900over 3years (£32,300,£32,800; £33,800)for aPositive Steps DevelopmentInstructor (14h/p/w), sessionalworkers andthe associatedcosts ofthePositive Steps project.

AGREED - £129,000over threeyears(£38,600;£43,000; £47,500) towardsone FTEYoung People &FamiliesCoordinator, London-basedprogramme costsincluding, workshops,family events,volunteer costs,and a contributionto overheads.

APPROVED - £75,000over three years(£27,500, £25,000,£22,500) towardsthe costof sessional staff; workshopleaders, generalmanager andadministrator, andassociated project  costs.

APPROVED - £100,000for theaccess worksat AlekaHouse whichinclude anew lift,two disabled toilets,internal doors,accessible entrance,staircase handralls and associated costs.

APPROVED - £61,800over 3years (£13,900;£23,900;£24,000)to contributeto thesalary costsof theProject Manager,TeamLeader,and SupportWorkers andassociatedrunning costsfor the'Giving BackClub' project

APPROVED - £85,300over threeyears (£25,800;£29,100;£30,400) towardsstaffing andoperationalcosts ofthe Hearto Informand Connectproject forolder peoplein London.

APPROVED - £66,000over  threeyears (£20,000;£22,000; £24,000) towards 50%  of  the  full­ time Project Coordinator's post;activity costsfor CreativeHomes andThe RotherhitheShed anda contributionto overheads.Funding inthe finalyear to becontingent onsecuring match-fundingfrom TheBig Lottery.

APPROVED - £100,100over threeyears(£27,000,£36,100, £37,000) towardsthe full-timeOlder Carers Advice and SupportOfficer andassociated projectcosts.

APPROVED - £69,500over threeyears (£22,000;£23,000,

£24,500)towards alive readingservice for elderlystroke survivorswhile inhospital andupon discharge.

APPROVED - £150,600over threeyears (£47,000;£50,000; £53,600)towards salarycosts ofa care managerand administrator(both 0.5FTE)and activitycosts ofsupporting peoplewith dementianearing theend oflife andtheir carersin Newham.

APPROVED - £60,000over threeyears (3x £20,000)towards thecost ofa SeniorCare Assistant(salaried ator abovethe levelof LondonUvlng Wage) and associated activitiesfor workwith clientswith dementia.

APPROVED - £87,900over threeyears (£35,900;£27,800; £24,200}towards thecost of establishing SharedReading groupsin Croydontargeting isolatedolder people75 plus.

APPROVED - £122,000over threeyears (£43,000,£39,000, £40,000)towards ahalftime AdviceOfficer CommunitySolutions, ahalf timeAdvice OfficerOn-line Solutionsand associatedrunning costs.

APPROVED - £133,500over 3years(£43,500;£44,500; £45,500)for aWelfare Benefit& Debt ProjectCase Workerpost(31.5h/plw),and theassociated projectcosts of a new debtand welfarebenefits adviceoutreach project.

APPROVED - £92,200over threeyears (£31,500,£30,100, £30,600)as acontribution towardsthe ServiceManager (8.5hours perweek), AdviceCaseworker (11.5hours perweek), ProjectAdministrator (11hours perweek), sessionalworkers eachwith differentlanguages (6hours perweek), andassociated runningcosts.

APPROVED - £37,100over 3years (£2,600,£17,000, £17,500) forthe salaryof ap/t (2dpw) VolunteerManager andassociated costs.

APPROVED - £166,300over threeyears (£55,900;£55,700; £54,700)towards anInclusion Championpost (2.5days perweek),  thePolicy Co-ordinator(0.5 daysper week) and aproportion ofthe Director'stime (5hours perweek) andthe CommunicationsOfficer (1day permonth),aswell asthe costsof developing the e-hub,and trainingand capacitybuilding costs.

APPROVED - £99,400 over two years (2 x £49,700) towards Eastside Primetimers Foundation's financial mentoring services for the third sector in Greater London conditional on EPF confirming it is a registered charity.

The Committee considered a report of the CGO which recommended that 31 grant applications be rejected for the reasons identified in the schedule in the attached report.

RESOLVED – That 31 grant applications detailed in the schedule attached to the report be rejected.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer which advised Members of six expenditure items, totalling £115,425 which had been presented for approval under delegated authority to the Chief Grants Officer in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer which provided details of seven applications which had been withdrawn or had lapsed.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer which advised Members of a variation to two grants agreed by the Chief Grants Officer since the last meeting.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer about two visits that had taken place.

RESOLVED – That the report be received.

A Member asked if the information regarding charities supported by the CBT could be grouped under more general headings instead of individually.

The Committee asked that the Events Report & Table (which was circulated separately) continue to be provided.

MOTION – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2017.

RESOLVED – That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 6 Februarybe agreed as an accurate record.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee received a report of the CGO outlining the pipeline for strategic grants and detailing the status of those Strategic Initiatives currently under consideration by officers or where the status had changed since the last meeting.

The Committee received a report concerning a learning visit to the North London Hospice.

The Committee received an update concerning an account of an organisation’s first period of funding as a Strategic Initiative.

There were no questions.

Members noted an update given by the CGO.