Agenda and minutes

There were none.

Deputy Revd Stephen Haines declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in respect of the application from the Terrence Higgins Trust (Item 5b, Annex 3) by virtue of being acquainted with the organisation’s Deputy Chief Executive.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 27 September 2012 (copy attached).

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 27 September 2012 were approved.

To receive a progress report of the Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee received the regular progress report of the Chief Grants Officer which highlighted the various activities that were on-going or had recently concluded.

          RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

To consider the Chief Grants Officer’s reports on grant recommendations, as follows (copies attached):-

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer, introducing the grants programmes and stating that a total of sixty-three applications would be dealt with at the meeting, of which two were strategic initiatives, twenty-seven were recommended for grants and twenty-six recommended for rejection, with five having been withdrawn. Three grants were also noted as having been approved under delegated authority.

          RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer recommending grants to organisations.

During consideration of the applications before the Committee, the following comments were made by Members of the Committee and relevant officers:

·         In response to a Member’s suggestion at Annex 2 (Chocolate Films Limited), the Grants Officer undertook to discuss with the applicant the possibility of having copies of the films produced placed in to the London Metropolitan Archives.

·         With reference to a Member’s query at Annex 7 (Clod Ensemble), the Grants Officer clarified that the two previous applications for funding made by the organisation had been rejected as they were for projects which had fallen outside the scope of the Trust’s funding guidelines.

·         At Annex 8 (CLIC Sargent), a Member queried the large cost of generating funds listed by the organisation. The Grants Officer advised that he had raised this issue with the applicant, who had explained that the organisation had previously been using old-fashioned fund raising methods such as charity dinners which were costly to organise, but that they were transitioning away from this and to more modern fundraising techniques. In addition, some of the high expenditure was associated with the running of charity shops which, whilst they had substantial overheads, also raised significant monies. The Officer had accordingly been satisfied with the position in this instance.

·         In respect of Annex 11 (London Air Ambulance), the Chairman asked if the possibility of having the City of London logo painted on to the Air Ambulance could be explored, in recognition of the support given to the charity by the Corporation in various ways. The Grants Officer undertook to look in to the possibility, but commented that he was aware the helicopter had only recently been re-painted and so there could be a prohibitively high cost associated

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer recommending twenty-six grant applications in the Working with Londoners programme be rejected for the reasons identified in the schedule attached to the report.

In response to Members’ queries surrounding rejected applications, the Chief Grants Officer clarified that there was currently a one year period which had to pass before organisations could submit a new or revised application, and this was made clear at the beginning of the application process. Whilst a change to this could be explored should Members wish, it was cautioned that there could be substantial resource and workload implications in the event of any shortening of the period.

Following a Member’s comments about the Trust’s position in not being the single largest funder of an organisation, the Chief Grants Officer gave assurances that the wording of this position would be discussed as part of the forthcoming quinquennial review with a view to addressing the issue satisfactorily.

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

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer detailing five applications that had been withdrawn.

          RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer advising Members of three grants, totalling £46,400, which had been approved under delegated authority since the last meeting of the Committee as follows:

·      QPR in the Community Trust - £18,000 over three years (£6,300; £5,700; £6000) towards salary costs of the Business Development Manager and Administrator (4 hours per week each), a Multi Sports Coach (1 hour per week) and on-costs of the Extra Time project.

·      Disabled Parents Network (DPN) - £23,400 over two years (£11,600 and £11,800) towards the costs of a Face-to-Face Support Officer (9 hours per week) plus on costs on condition that the balance of funding is raised from other sources.

·      Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations - £5,000 towards the EngagedX pilot on the condition that the balance of funding is raised from other sources.

          RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer relative to two visits that had been undertaken.

          RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Grants Officer seeking approval to increase the 2012/13 allocation for Strategic Initiatives by £500,000, to be taken from the remaining grants budget of £6,415,445.

It was advised that this was in anticipation of strategic proposals currently being prepared for consideration by the Committee, the total of which would exceed the current allocation for the year. Given that there would one fewer Grants Committee meeting taking place in the 2012/13 financial year, there would consequently be capacity to increase the allocation without detriment to the grant awards scheme.

Reference was made to the list of Strategic Initiative approvals to date, with it noted that the wording suggested that £65,000 had been given to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal fund itself, when the grant had in fact been to fund the organisational element of the Appeal. It was subsequently asked that the wording be amended to clarify the position.

RESOLVED: That £500,000 from the grants budget for 2012-13 be allocated to the budget for strategic initiatives to cover the additional costs of initiatives in development.

Report of the Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee received a report of the Chief Grants Officer providing an analysis of the 1,575 applications that had been dealt with under the Working with Londoners programmes between their launch date in July 2008 and 31st March 2012.

Members noted the positive correlation between the distribution of the Trust’s funding and the need associated with various boroughs        , and were reassured by the Chief Grants Officer that publicity drives and roadshows were undertaken in those boroughs where there existed a limited third-sector presence so as to try and encourage applications.

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

Publicity of the Trust’s Activities

          A Member suggested that a review of the arrangements surrounding the media coverage of the Trust’s work be undertaken, commenting that more should be done to publicise and capitalise on the enormous volume of good work done. Members echoed the Member’s point, venturing that a more comprehensive approach was required to media engagement. The suggestion was made that Officers submit to each meeting a short list of press coverage achieved along with an analysis of the various readerships, plus a forward programme list of events and so forth to help track progress made and publicity achieved. The need for greater engagement with trade magazines and local press was also stressed, with a proactive approach of crucial importance.

The Chief Grants Officer reassured Members that a strategy was in place which could be presented to the next meeting, adding that lots of work was being done, referencing the employment of an external agency to promote the Growing Localities programme and the positive results achieved, but noted that the appetite for positive stories in the media was not always as high as could be hoped for, so there were of course limitations to what could be done on occasion.

The Senior Media Officer gave assurances that the Public Relations Office was committed to securing the best quality and quantity of media coverage for the City Bridge Trust Committee and was working hard to proactively communicate the Trust’s ‘good news’ stories both internally and externally. He provided a short summary of coverage of the Trust’s work achieved within the past week, referencing stories on BBC London radio and in the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard, and City AM newspapers. Of course, there were always improvements that could be made and the Officer was thankful to Members for their

There were no urgent items.

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 as follows:-

Item No

12 - 13

RESOLVED: - That under Section 100 A (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 as follows:-

Item No                                                                       Exempt Paragraphs

12 - 13                                                                                       3                   

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2012 (copy attached).

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2012 were approved. 

Joint report of the Chamberlain and Chief Grants Officer (copy attached).

The Committee received a joint report of the Chamberlain and Chief Grants Officer setting out the findings of an internal audit review undertaken investigating the effectiveness and appropriateness of pre-grant due diligence and grant monitoring procedures used by the City Bridge Trust.

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.