Decision details

The External Grant Funding Review Working Party report followed a review completed by members of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel. The review started in June 2024 and considered how the Council could support efforts to increase external grant funding coming into the district, through local community voluntary organisations work activities.

The review led to a number of recommendations to Cabinet from the working party. These and recommendations are detailed in the working review report which is attached as Annex 1 to this covering report. A summary of findings and recommendations detailed in the body of this covering report. This report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel on 19 November 2024

The Scrutiny Report made a total of 17 recommendations to Cabinet. Cabinet considered the recommendations and the senior management comments made in response to each recommendation, as set out in the Cabinet report.

Cabinet agreed the recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Panel as recommended by officers as detailed in section 5 of the Cabinet report.

In general the findings and recommendations of the scrutiny review are welcomed. The findings recognise some of the positive examples of how the council currently works with the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector and identifies some helpful recommendations focused on improving the working relationships between the council and the VCSE sector and possible support for the sector to grow its capacity to access funding.

The cabinet considered the option to accept or reject each of the recommendations in the report.

Subject to fully assessing the financial implications of each recommendation, the Cabinet considered the report to be positive. Of the 17 recommendations 11 were accepted and 6 required some additional work to assess their implications.