Grants Committee
Delegated Authority Approvals
Report by:
Ian Redding
Job title:
7 September 2007
Contact
Officer:
Ian Redding
Telephone:
020 7934 9802
Head of Overview & Scrutiny, Social
Policy & Grants Division
Policy & Grants Committee Support
Officer
Tracey Rice
Date:
Item no: 13
Tracey Rice
020 7934 9806
Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Summary
This report informs Members about approvals made under delegated
authority powers in respect of 2006/7 and 2007/8.
Recommendations
That Members:
1. Receive this report and note the grants made under delegated
powers as set out within the report and the attached appendices.
2. Agree to receive further reports on grant approvals under
delegated powers at each grant-making meeting.
3. Note that the final report detailing all delegated authority approvals
in respect of 2007/8 will be presented to the Grants Committee
AGM in July 2008.
London Councils Grants Committee, 7 September 2007
Item no: 13
Delegated Authority Approvals
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Background
1. Under London Councils Standing Order 22 the Grants Committee is permitted to delegate
decision-making powers to London Councils officers, as it considers appropriate to the
carrying out of its business.
2. At the Committee’s 13 July 2006 meeting Members agreed to retain broadly the same
range of delegated authority powers for the 2006/7 municipal year as had applied to
2005/6 but with the following notable additions:
Where expenditure not exceeding £30,000 is involved, and it is evident that it will enable
London Councils Business Plan and funding priorities to be addressed;
a. To extend the period of an existing grant that is time-expiring, where in evaluating
that grant it is evident that further and/or follow-up work is needed to enable the
benefits from the earlier work to be better realised, or enhanced benefits to be
achieved, etc.
b. To agree a new grant of significance to achieving London Councils priorities.
c. To agree expenditure on a proposal for a research project.
3. Including these changes, delegated powers are in respect of 5 distinct areas of funding:
a/ Small grants to currently funded organisations
b/ Other issues relating to currently funded organisations
c/ Grants for New Applications up to £30,000
d/ Delegated European Social Fund Joint-financing decision-making
e/ Specific Annual Funds
Details of each of these and how they operate are set out in Appendix 1.
Use of Delegated Powers to Date in respect of 2007/8
4. In respect of the provisions for small grants to currently funded organisations, a detailed
listing of awards since 1 April 2007 is provided in table 1 below. These are summarised
further in table 2, where it is identified that £72,796 remains of the original £100,000
allocated for 2007/8.
Table One
Purpose
Provision
(£)
Disability Access
Maternity Locum
Interim/Wind-down
Non-Recurrent
Total
100,000
Approvals
(£)
0
7,203.62
0
20,000
27,203.62
Balance
(£)
72,796.38
London Councils Grants Committee, 7 September 2007
Item no: 13
Delegated Authority Approvals
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Table Two
Sub-total
Amount
(£)
5,000.00
10,000.00
5,000.00
20,000.00
2,203.62
5,000.00
7,203.62
Overall-total
27,203.62
Del Auth Fund
Organisation
Grant Description
Non-Recurrent
Non-Recurrent
Non-Recurrent
Shape
Jacksons Lane
Evelyn Oldfield Unit
Relocation costs
Storm Damage costs
Consultation meetings
Sub-total
Maternity Locum
Maternity Locum
New Horizon Youth Centre
Maryward Legal Centre
5. Grant variations approved during 2007/8 are listed in table 3 below: these have no
additional cost to the Committee.
Table Three
Organisation
London Play
London Play
Purpose
To use under-spend from London Play’s home
zone Sutton contribution and create a home zone
in another borough.
To use under-spend from London Play’s home
Zone project in Hillingdon and create new home
zone projects in London.
6. In respect of grants for new applications, 2 grants have been approved for 2007/8 under
the extended purposes set out in paragraph 2 above. Table 4 summarises the decisions
taken in respect of powers to award grants of up to £30,000 for 20067/8.
Table Four
Amount
£30,000
£13,000
7.
Purpose
To retain a disabled consultant to facilitate the
creation of a new second tier organisation for the
disability sector in London.
To contribute to ongoing research projects to
identify key barriers to entering and maintaining
employment for lone parents in London though the
use of focus groups and qualitative research.
In respect of other specific delegated authority powers,

European Social Fund co-financing. Attached at Appendix 2 are the decisions
taken in respect of 2007/8, all of which are for one year only at a cost of
£5,007,223 gross (£2,753,973 net of ESF grant). These grants relate to the
original 2005/7 programme, extended into 2007/8 due to delays at national level in
getting the 2008/13 programme operational.

decisions relating to the Supporting People Development Fund were agreed at the
Grants Committee’s meeting on 13 November 2006. Decisions in Table 5 below:
London Councils Grants Committee, 7 September 2007
Item no: 13
Table Five
Organisation
Carr- Gomm
The Connection at St Martin’s
The Depaul Trust
Homeless Action in Barnet
New Horizon Youth Centre
Total
2006/7 amount
approved
10,948
15,000
13,995
15,000
15,000
69,943
Delegated Authority Approvals
Page 4 of 6
2007/8 amount
approved
10,948
15,000
13,995
15,000
15,000
69,943
Further Reporting
9.
The Director will continue to report to each Committee on all grants made under
delegated authority, and how these affect the Committee’s available resources.
London Councils Grants Committee, 7 September 2007
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Delegated Authority Approvals
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Appendix 1
Grant-making Powers Delegated to Director, Social Policy and Grants
a/ Small grants to currently funded organisations
The headings under which such grants are currently approved are:
 Interim and/or wind-down grants, for up to three months at existing funding levels
 Maternity locum cover
 Disability access
 Urgent non-recurrent purposes (for example, removal costs, increased rent levels)
for which an overall provision of £100,000 has initially been set aside for each financial
year, subject to a limit of £10,000 in any one instance (previously £5,000).
b/ Other issues relating to currently funded organisations




Appeals
Grant variations
Management consultancies – small grants (up to £7,500)
Inflation allowances.
c/ Grants for New Applications up to £30,000
Now utilised for the purposes outlined in paragraph 2 above.
d/ Delegated European Social Fund Joint-financing decision-making
London Councils and Greater London Enterprise (GLE) jointly manage the London
Councils ESF Co-financing programme. Organisations apply via a competitive bidding
round; London Councils and GLE hold seminars to disseminate information about the
bidding round and how to apply, in partnership with London Voluntary Sector Training
Consortium (LVSTC).
Each application is checked to ensure the activities, and the organisation, are eligible for
funding. Two scorers (one London Councils, one GLE) assess each application
separately and then agree a final score between them. All bids are ranked in score order.
An internal London Councils/GLE assessment panel (typically comprising Director of
Social Policy and Grants (London Councils), Head of Renewal and Culture Team (London
Councils), Head of Overview and Scrutiny Team (London Councils), ESF Co-financing
Programme Manager (GLE), European Team Manager (GLE)) meets to review the top
scoring projects and
 How they fit within the strategic framework of the London Councils co-financing
plan;
 To ensure that funded projects will provide good value for money; and
 The outcomes that London Councils and ESF are looking to fund.
The panel also ensures that there is a good spread of projects geographically across
London and across the different targets groups of London Councils ESF Co-financing
programme. The panel also checks that the scoring process was fair and transparent.
It is at this stage that the Director uses delegated authority powers to agree which
projects to fund. The recommendations of the internal panel are scrutinised by an
external assessment panel, made up of
London Councils Grants Committee, 7 September 2007
Item no: 13
Delegated Authority Approvals
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
Representatives from second tier and other organisations working with the
programme’s target groups,
 Government Office for London, and
 LVSTC.
The final list of projects awarded funding is reported back to the Grants Committee for
information.
The costs of grants under this power are met from the provision of £2,000,000 (net) per
annum in the Committee’s grants budget.
e/ Specific Annual Funds
In addition to these, the Grants Committee will from time to time delegate responsibility
for final decisions to the Director, particularly where bids have been invited against
specific, and typically ring-fenced, funds. The most regularly occurring examples of this
are the Outer London Cultural Development Fund and the Supporting People
Development Fund for which there are annual bidding rounds.
Similarly to “3c” above, decisions taken under these powers are communicated to Grants
Committee Elected Officers who, if they have any concerns about the proposals, can call
for those items to be taken to full Committee.