Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor Alderman the Lord Mountevans, Karina Dostalova, Simon Duckworth, and Stuart Fraser.

Alderman Alison Gowman declared two non-pecuniary interests: in St Hilda’s East, by virtue of her firm carrying out pro-bono work for the organisation, and in Toynbee Hall, on the list of withdrawn applications, by virtue of volunteering for them.

Ian Seaton declared a non-pecuniary interest in Chicken Shed, which was on the list of rejected applications, by virtue of his Livery Company supporting them.

Alderman Vincent Keaveny declared a non-pecuniary interest in St Hilda’s East, by virtue of his firm carrying out pro-bono work for the organisation.

Vivienne Littlechild declared a non-pecuniary interest by virtue of supporting Islington Giving which was listed on the attended events.

To receive the Order of the Common Council from 21 April 2016.

The Committee received an Order of the Court of Common Council of 21 April 2016 appointing the Committee and approving its Terms of Reference.

To elect a Chairman in accordance with Standing Order 29.

The Committee proceeded to elect a Chairman in accordance with Standing Order No.29. The Town Clerk read a list of Members eligible to stand and Alderman Alison Gowman, being the only Member who expressed her willingness to serve, was duly elected as Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing year.

To elect a Deputy Chairman in accordance with Standing Order 30.

The Committee proceeded to elect a Deputy Chairman in accordance with Standing Order No.30. Jeremy Mayhew, as the immediate Past Chairman, confirmed he did not wish to serve as Deputy Chairman for this year. The Town Clerk read a list of Members eligible to stand and Ian Seaton, being the only Member who expressed his willingness to serve, was duly elected as Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: THAT the Members of the City Bridge Trust Committee express their sincere thanks to:

JEREMY PAUL MAYHEW

for the knowledgeable, humorous, and warm-hearted manner in which he has presided over the business of The City Bridge Trust Committee for the past 2 years.

As Chairman, Jeremy has considered almost 1,000 applications and awarded over £36m in grants. He has been a well-informed and committed Chairman, and his understanding and strategic oversight has helped ensure that the Committee has a clear focus, despite the continued challenges and pressures on public expenditure and the impacts on the charitable sector.

Jeremy has demonstrated a sincere commitment to representing The City Bridge Trust Committee in all manner of public events and activities with charm and professionalism. In fact, he has even been prepared to go into prison on behalf of the Trust! During his Chairmanship, Jeremy has overseen the significant development of the Trust’s bridge between grant making and social investment through the Stepping Stones fund work, and secured surplus income of the Bridge House Estates charity to be used for the City Bridge Trust’s Grants Programme. This allowed for more proactive grant making and a more strategic response to the ever-changing needs of London and its civic society without affecting the monies available for the regular grants programme, allowing the Trust to enhance its role as London’s largest grant-making trust

The Committee received a presentation from Sarah Greenwood, London Foodbank Network Manager at the Trussell Trust, after which Members had the opportunity to ask questions.

Ms Greenwood thanked the Committee for their current and previous funding, and detailed some of the key work the Trussell Trust had been able to undertake, including opening new foodbanks, facilitating mental health and Health and Safety training, re-training for struggling foodbank members, and a number of public appearances, including on the BBC news. Ms Greenwood advised Members that there were 39 foodbanks and 96 centres in the network and the oversight allowed by the Network Manager post allowed for best practice and stress management information to be disseminated across the network, and a strategic team to be assembled to address the underlying reasons for poverty.

In response to Members’ questions, Ms Greenwood reported that most referrals came from statutory agencies (primarily Citizens Advice Bureaux and Job Centres). Ms Greenwood advised that there was an increase in footfall but the Trussell Trust focussed on reducing the number of return visits, and increasingly on enabling people to solve the underlying problems affecting them, e.g. through provision of debt management advice.

The Chairman thanked Ms Greenwood for her presentation.

To agree the minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 18 March 2016.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 18 March 2016 be agreed as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

Members noted that the West London Gay Men’s Project had changed their name to Spectra.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members noted that the composition of the Social Investment Board included the Chairman of the City Bridge Trust Committee, for the time being, or his/her nominee. The Chairman confirmed that she would be taking up the appointment.

Report of the Town Clerk.

RESOLVED – That the Outstanding Actions update be noted.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer regarding the next City Bridge Trust Quinquennial Review of its funding priorities. Members discussed the proposals, including a timeline from May 2016 to March 2018, an appropriate methodology, and the resource needs to support the Review.

Members agreed that this be discussed at the Committee Away Day scheduled for the morning of 20^th October 2016.

RESOLVED – That the proposed Quinquennial Review principles, methodology and timeline be agreed, and a budget of £190,000 be approved to support the Review.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee received the regular progress report of the Chief Grants Officer and discussed the updates provided, including the London Living Wage accreditation and media coverage for the Trust received since the last meeting. Members noted that some applications were still outstanding over many months and the Chief Grants Officer agreed to consider these and ensure they would be resolved without delay.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

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

APPROVED - £94,500 over three years (£30,000; £31,500; £33,000) towards the salary of the full-time Adult Learning Manager and a contribution to project on-costs.

APPROVED - £112,000 over three years (£36,200; £37,300 and £38,500) towards staffing, running-costs and overheads of a counselling service for refugees in London.

APPROVED - £91,000 over three years (£30,300; £30,200; £30,500) for a full-time Outreach Worker and associated running costs.

APPROVED - £98,850 over three years (£32,800; £32,950; £33,100) towards the costs of therapy provision; the psycho-social holding groups; the part-time (2 days per week) Community Link Worker; and a contribution to overheads.

APPROVED - £90,000 over three years (3 x £30,000) towards the costs of Thames Reach's Mental Health Matters project delivering support to entrenched rough sleepers with undiagnosed mental ill-health. The award is conditional on the organisation using its own reserves towards the balance of funds needed for the project.

APPROVED - £62,300 over three years (£20,600, £20,700, £21,000) for the salary of a part­time counsellor (14 hours per week) including external clinical supervision costs.

APPROVED - £111,270 over 2 years (£56,000; £55,270) for the salary of a full-time Peer Support Coordinator and related costs of a peer support programme in liaison and diversion services in North and West London, conditional on a revised monitoring framework.

APPROVED - £119,850 over three years (£39,150, £39,950, £40,750) for the salary of a part­time (21 hours per week) Project Manager, Sessions/staff costs and associated project costs.

APPROVED - £100,000 for access and related Improvement works at Poetry Place in Covent Garden.

APPROVED - £112,100 over three years (£36,600; £37,400; £38,100) for a full-time Family Services Coordinator and related overheads.

APPROVED - £220,000 over three years (£85,000; £75,000; £60,000) towards securing the long-term sustainability of the London Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Consortium.

APPROVED - £96,700 over two years (£47,850, £48,850) for the costs of the 'Inspired Caring' project for older carers and the people that they care for who have dementia, with the funding being released on receipt of satisfactory quarterly management accounts.

APPROVED - £102,400 over three years (£33,900; £34,000; £34,500) for salary costs of a full-time Home Advocacy Worker and related running and volunteer costs for a project working with isolated people aged 75 plus.

APPROVED - £120,000 over three years (£39,000; £40,000; £41,000) towards the part-time salary (0.6 full-time equivalent) and associated running costs of a Friends of Dementia Project Lead, to strengthen the links between care home residents with dementia and their local community, on condition that satisfactory quarterly management accounts during year one are provided.

APPROVED - £119,800 over three years (£38,700; £39,900; £41,200) for the salary of a full-time Case Worker - Older Carers and associated running costs.

APPROVED - £136,200 over 3 years (£44,750; £45,050; £46,400) for the salary of a part-time (28 hours per week) Carers Wellbeing Coordinator and towards related overheads and associated project costs.

APPROVED - £86,300 (£15,850, £33,150, £31,300) towards a part time Project Manager (22 hours per week) and Administrator (15 hours per week) and activity costs to work with those aged 15 and over.

APPROVED - £155,400 (3 x £51,800) towards the wages of two 0.6 full-time equivalent Caseworkers, running costs and overheads of providing legal advice on housing and welfare rights.

Members noted the increase in applications from Law Centres, and it was agreed that an update on the context and wider picture, including the Trust’s links with the network of City Law Firms, should be provided at a future meeting.

APPROVED - £75,000 over three years (3 x £25,000) for the salary of a part-time (21 hours per week) Coordinator and related costs of providing support services, including money management guidance, to vulnerable families with young children in Barnet.

APPROVED - £125,800 over three years (£42,100, £41,500, £42,200) for the salary of a full-time Welfare Benefits Caseworker and Volunteer Supervisor (all one post), together with associated project running costs.

APPROVED - £165,300 over three years (£54,200; £55,100; £56,000) for the salary and on­cost of a part-time Housing Caseworker (2.5 days per week) a Welfare Rights Worker (2 days per week), and a Project co-ordinator (1 day per week); plus associated running costs.

APPROVED - £117,000 over three years (£39,000 per annum) towards the costs of a 4 days per week Project Co-ordinator, 1 day per week Advice Worker, and associated running costs.

APPROVED - £142,800 over three years (£46,500; £47,400; £48,900) towards the 0.8 Outreach Project Worker's salary, 0.2 of the Chief Executive's salary and project costs.

APPROVED - £90,000 (2 x £45,000) for a further two years' contribution to the salaries and operational costs of the TrusteeWorks service for London.

APPROVED - £123,170 (£38,750,£45,550, £38,870) over 3 years towards the costs of a part time (3 days per week) Project Field Worker and on-costs for a volunteer management support programme for 60 Doorstep Sport organisations across London.

APPROVED - £85,200 over three years (£27,200; £28,200; £29,800) towards the salary of a part-time (21 hours per week) Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Development Manager and project running costs.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer, which recommended that twenty two grant applications be rejected for the reasons identified in the schedule attached to the report. Members queried rejections owing to grant applications from charities being submitted before three years had elapsed since their last grant, and officers undertook to add an additional warning before applications were commenced on the online portal. 

RESOLVED – That twenty two 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 eighteen expenditure items, totalling £312,625, 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 fourteen applications which had been withdrawn or had lapsed.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer reviewing the appropriateness of the current eligibility threshold on the total costs of redevelopments in relation capital grants. The current policy stated that up to £100,000 can be awarded for works which are part of a redevelopment or refurbishment of an existing building (not stand-alone or new build), and that the total cost of such redevelopments must not exceed £10m.

RESOLVED – That the current threshold of £10m for the total cost of building developments eligible to be considered for a capital grant should remain at £10m and that it be reviewed again as part of the next Quinquennial Review.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer on the outcome of the research commissioned by the Trust into the future of infrastructure support for London’s voluntary section, and noted the proposed next steps. The report recognised that civil society support provision in London was currently uneven, and proposed a ‘hub and spoke’ model with a London Hub providing support at the pan-London level. Members noted that the structure of the London Hub could be a formally constituted organisation or a virtual network of different organisations delivering different functions, with the ‘spokes’ connecting the central hub and local communities varying according to local conditions.

Members noted that LVSC and GLV will each convene network meetings of their constituents (local councils for voluntary service and volunteer centres respectively); Heart of the City will bring together businesses and business brokerage services; and London Funders will convene a meeting of independent funders, in order to discuss the report’s findings and agree how to move forward, and a meeting will also be sought with the new Mayor of London to discuss the GLA’s engagement with the review and its recommendations. Members noted that the transition from the current position to the new model would not be easy and would be a gradual process.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer about two visits that had taken place. The Chairman encouraged Members to attend visits wherever possible, and Members requested that monthly and quarterly emails advertising upcoming visits be continued.

RESOLVED – That the report be received.

The Committee noted a report of the Chief Grants Officer regarding the key meetings and events attended by Members and officers since the last meeting.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

There were no questions.

There was no other business.

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.

Item No.                                              Exempt Paragraphs

17 - 19                                                             3

20                                                                    -

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2016.

RESOLVED – That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2016 be agreed as an accurate record.

Members received an update on the UK Consortium LGBT.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer outlining the pipeline for strategic grants.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

There were no questions.

There was one item of business.