Minutes:
Councillor Crozier declared an interest in this matter in that an organisation of which he was the Director had been awarded grant-assistance under this scheme and he left the room while the matter was under discussion.
The Community Development Manager reminded the Committee that the Council was a major provider of funding to organisations which delivered advice and information services within Belfast and that this was arranged through the establishment of consortiums in the North, South, East, West and Centre of the City. During the previous three years, the Department for Social Development and the Council had provided additional funding to enable these consortiums to provide outreach advice services in areas of the City which had little or no such provision.
She indicated that the Department for Social Development would be prepared to provide in the current financial year the sum of £309,725 on the understanding that the Council would contribute the sum of £152,725 and to the supplementary funding being used to provide outreach advice services and to help prepare the groups and consortiums to meet the requirements of the Department’s planned Regional Advice and Information Strategy pilot scheme.
The Community Development Manager advised the Members that the staff in the Community Services Unit were examining whether the Council should become involved in the Department for Social Development’s proposed Regional Advice and Information Strategy pilot scheme, which was scheduled to commence in April, 2009.
She pointed out that an independent review of the advice services support provided by the Council had been completed recently. A report regarding the review would be considered by the Committee at its monthly meeting in August as an integral part of the broader review of the various grants which were issued by the Development Department.
During discussion in the matter, a Member pointed out that there was a disparity in the level of financial assistance provided by the Council for advice services across the City which did not reflect the fact that a considerable level of advice service was provided by organisations in areas which were not viewed as being deprived. The Director indicated that the report which would be presented to the next monthly meeting, together with the Department for Social Development’s pilot Regional Advice and Information Strategy, would enable the Committee to reconsider the level of funding which it provided currently across the City.
Following further discussion, the Committee agreed:
(i) to accept the offer of funding from the Department for Social Development in the sum of £309,725 and to authorise expenditure of £152,725 in order to provide supplementary funding to organisations providing advice services in Belfast;
(ii) that the Council should continue to administer the additional monies provided by the Department for Social Development;
(iii) that the experience gained in managing the funding provided in the current financial year be used to inform the Council’s bid for funding from the Department for Social Development’s proposed Regional Advice and Information Strategy pilot scheme in 2009; and
(iv) that the report to the Committee at its August meeting on the review of grant-aid provided by the Council include specific recommendations in respect of future funding by the Council of the advice and information sector in the City.