Grants Sub Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 26 September 2024, 7:00pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Grants Sub Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Thursday, 26th September 2024 at 7:00pm 

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Good evening, everybody.
Welcome to the meeting.
My name is Councillor Jeremy Ambash and I'm the chair of the grants subcommittee and scrutiny
committee.
Members of the committee, I will now call your names in alphabetical order.
Please switch on your microphone to confirm your attendance.
So Councillor Angela Graham, I think I've been...
She's running late.
She's running late, but we think she's expected.
Yes.
Yep, okay.
Councillor Dan Hamilton.
Good evening and good to see such strong balance representation on the committee.
Councillor Lindsay Hedges.
Good evening, thank you, Chair.
Councillor Lindsay Hedges of Ballinwood.
Councillor Norman Marshall.
We've got apologies from Councillor Marshall.
Councillor Jack Mayocas.
Councillor Joe Rigby.
I'm here, thank you.
Councillor Steve Worrall.
Here and balancing out from Battersea.
So we have a number of offices present who will introduce themselves as they address
the committee.
So declarations of interest, number one, are there any declarations of either pecuniary,
other registrable or non -registrable interests from committee members?

1 Declaration of Interests

No?
No?
Okay.
Thank you very much.

2 Minutes - 5th February 2024

Item 2, minutes of the 5th of February.
Does the committee agree the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 5th of February
can be signed as a correct record?
Yes.
Is that correct?
I agree the minutes, but do have a quick question if that's all right, because we agreed something
early on in the year.
Or do you want me to wait until you get to the...
No, no.
If you want to ask a question from the minutes, do council members...
It's more of a general one that I think I've asked for quite some time and I know Councillor Hamilton did when he was the
Spokesperson as well, but we asked for
What the monitoring that's being done for grants that have been awarded
Do you remember that we I think I spoke to you Councillor and bash about it
I just wondered because it's been it must have been a long time now and we you were going to collate some data with
with Councillor Akinola, I think.
I'm glad you mentioned it.
Yeah, sorry, just a quick reminder,
because I know that it was a long time ago
we talked about it, and you said you were gonna
do like an annual checkup or something
and then provide some data.
The first meeting of the year was gonna have the details,
and I've discussed this with officers.
We didn't have the first meeting of the year
because of the general election.
So if you go to page 197, you'll see Wandsworth grant fund outcome report from the grant subcommittee.
And I just was hoping we would just note that, but if you wanted to comment on it, officers
brought it to my attention when I hadn't read right through to the end of the papers.
But there is something.
And to be fair, I didn't actually receive any papers.
So yes, so just to let you note that.
But can we note that and can I suggest to any members of the committee if you want to
comment on that report, can you correspond directly with officers?
Councillor Hamilton.
Thank you, Chair.
Just to say I didn't receive my papers either.
I did manage to find them online and there was a printed copy in the members room.
But if it would be possible to please make sure they are sent out on time, that would
be great because it's far easier to review them in a paper form I think than on the screen.
And similarly, when you do view the individual grants online, it would be useful if there
could be one file that all of the applications are re -enrollable to click through all of
them individually as individual documents.
But I'm sure that could be done fairly easily.
Thank you.
I'm very sorry you haven't had the papers.
You're not the first two to have taken this up with me.
And I have had a word with Ms. Hickey, and she will have a word with the problem with
the poster room. She understood that they were being sent out last week, but there seems
to have been a failure. But she'll be following that up. But sorry that you haven't had them.

3 VCS Cost of Living Grant Fund, Round 1 (Paper No. 24-260)

That's the minutes. We're on to voluntary sector cost of living grants fund round one,
paper 24 2 6 0 and Harriet Steele will introduce this item I'm Harriet Steele
the voluntary sector partnership manager for the council and so this is the cost
of living grant fund and this is in two rounds for this year there's three
hundred and fifty thousand pounds available across the two rounds and we
we're looking at round one of this committee.
Round one, the focus was on community spaces
and food provision in order to get projects up and running
in time for the winter months and the colder weather.
Applicants could apply for between
two and a half thousand and 15 ,000 pounds.
We received 15 applications coming in
at just over 147 ,000 pounds,
and we are recommending six applications
for a total of £61 ,375. This is the third year of cost of living funding in various
forms. We had warm spaces funding initially and then cost of living funding. So officers
have been looking at the projects coming in to make sure that they are clearly supporting
people directly affected by the cost of living and trying to help move them from point of
crisis to a more sustainable position.
Thank you very much, Ms. Steele.
Any questions on Paper 24 -260?
Councillor Hedges.
Yes, thank you for doing that and all the hard work that you do.
Mine's more of a general comment because I noticed there's quite a few there that were
rejected.
Sorry, it's two questions, actually.
One, are we giving any of these organizations any help
to help them complete these applications?
Because I looked at some of them and thought,
they probably just haven't been advised
to provide the right information, that's all.
And then we're rejected.
But then my second point is,
because there are quite a lot more grant funds now,
have you increased in capacity in terms of headcount
and how are you managing to look at all of these
and just making sure that we're giving organizations
applications, the best chance at getting these particular applications.
Thank you.
Talking about the officer capacity to respond to the applications, are you?
How about we increase the capacity of what?
The head count of the team that look at the grant applications.
Okay.
That's what I thought you were asking.
Steve.
So, on the first point, we have all the information about the grants online.
and we ran a couple of meet the funder workshops,
so they're online meetings where officers will take people
through the application step by step,
and often there's time at the end
to go into specific questions
that the applicants put forward.
We also offer to have separate conversations with them
to look at aspects of their application
to help support and tailor them
towards the grant funds that we have available,
and the contact details of the offices are available online
to contact any time with any further questions.
So there was a whole sort of package of support
around the grant fund that we put in place
to try and help people provide the best applications
they could for the fund.
And I'm all right in saying from previous committees
where the committees said this might be a good application
if they were given a bit more help.
There are some organizations you've reached out to
to help them reapply.
Yes, yes, that's correct.
Do you want to ask Councillor Hedges' second question,
which was that headcount in terms of...
Sorry, just to say one more thing.
Just because I was really disappointed
to see how many good organisations were rejected.
Can you say something about the officer headcount responding?
Yeah, so in terms of the officer headcount,
we haven't increased the headcount.
We're able to at this time manage the volume of applications within the current capacity.
We do work closely with Democratic services when we look at the planning committees and
factor in the timings needed by officers to look through and assess the applications fully.
So that is all factored in at the start of the year.
So I think it's a fair question because we have been extremely busy with the extra
grants that we've had through cost of living last year this year.
So I think the team's worked extremely well.
As Harriet says, we haven't had an increase of staff.
We've had cost of living funded posts just to support the team with some of this work.
But, you know, we work in partnership, as we said, with Dem Services, and we've got
a couple of other offices in the council that come in and help and support when we've got
higher volumes.
But it is something that we are mindful of.
Are there any other questions on 24260 paper introducing the cost of living, round one?
No?
So I suggest that we go through the recommendations.
If we've got agreements one way or the other, we move to it quickly,
because we've got quite a lot of applications.
But there may be a few that we want to particularly focus on.
So the recommended one is number one, Age UK, Wandsworth.
Yes, Councilor Worrell.
Just a clarification, the project says that it will benefit 20 older residents each week.
I'm just wondering what is the total amount of residents that they think would be supported by this?
Because it can be rid that it would be the same 20 people each week probably that's not the case
But it'd be useful if you could just get clarification back from this to that the what they think the total would be
Miss Steele
Yes, thank you cancer and officers haven't been able to clarify with age UK the number of people overall that will be supported
But from the application, the assumption that we've made is that it will be different people,
and that is based on the fact in the application they talk about opening up the sessions to
everyone in the borough over 60.
They talk about being widely advertised and their publicity campaign around that, and
they've also got two sessions that will be held outside of the normal sessions in the
Gwyneth Morka Center, and they give the example of the Hindu Society Center.
So and from that the assumption is there will be a variety of older people that will be attending and more than just 20 people
Do you think you could follow that up because I know you haven't been able to talk to them today and then let Councillor
Worrall know that was my assumption when I read the paper that there are 20 places but
We met many more than 20 people but
Would be helpful to that be clarifying is the committee agreed with that we take the recommendation to
Number two, agree, okay.
So number two, balanced salvation,
armies is not recommended.
Agree?
And then blind aid is not recommended is number three.
And actually a number of these didn't focus particularly
on the cost of living, though they might be good projects,
but Councillor Hamilton.
Thank you, Chair.
That's precisely the point I was going to make.
Looking through, I think it's the several sport for health,
state art, blind aid.
I mean, these are good projects, I think
could have been passed elsewhere.
But I just think maybe there's something failing there
in terms of the way that the fund is
being communicated externally.
I know that things have been done in terms of making sure
there have been sort of workshops people to come along
to.
And you can probably say it until you're blue in the face,
you're always going to receive some applications that
don't meet the right criteria, but I don't know if we just need to be a little bit more
explicit, a little bit harsher almost in terms of the cons on this to make sure that you're
not receiving lots of these applications and there are several of them tonight which I
think could have fallen into another bucket.
Mr. Murdoch, do you want to respond to that?
Sure, thank you.
So, Chris Murdoch, the Senior Grants Development Officer.
So in undertaking these Meet the Funds events, it was one of the things we really stressed
And what we explained was our experience last year in assessing the grants, quite a lot
of the applications were quite vague.
And one of the things in putting this fund together and talking to cabinet members, we
really wanted to focus on those affected by cost of living.
So it was one thing we really stressed.
So we can say to people, and we can say it repeatedly, but it's trying to get that message
across and how people bring that back to us.
But it was a point that we were quite explicit, and I think harsh was we were not quite that
level, but we made it really explicit.
It was one of the things that we really wanted to focus on.
And certainly talking to people about their experience locally, I think in many places
it was there, but they just weren't expressing it when they came back in the application.
We agreed not to recommend number three.
Okay.
Number four, similarly not recommended.
Agreed.
Number five, Doddington and Rollo not recommended.
The roof garden, again, sounded a good roof garden project but it wasn't so focused on
cost of living.
But still, Councillor Warrell.
Yeah, just to clarify on the application form that the ward is actually Bessie Park and not Shasta in Queenstown
Jim Ward boundaries may be caught up with that. Thanks councillor war
Good, so we've agreed to not recommend five six estate arts
CRC not recommended
agreed
7, Catherine Lowe's settlement is recommended.
Yeah, Councillor Hedges.
More general question on KLS, because KLS comes up an awful lot, and I know I've asked
this question before, but how do you have like a spreadsheet that tracks everything
where you can see how many times you've awarded an organisation a grant or whether they're
receiving anything, any other money from the council?
I'm just concerned that we're giving an awful lot of money to Careless.
It comes up virtually every grants meeting and I know there's other monies going to them
as well.
So do you have a spreadsheet and can you share that with us so that we can have a look at
the analytics please?
In terms of the grants which we manage, yes, we do have that.
But obviously what we don't know necessarily is other funding across the council when we
be commissioned and other things.
We don't necessarily know that.
We do try to find out where we can.
And often this is one of the questions in the application form so we get an idea and
we do talk to officers.
But we don't, there's one thing we do discuss between us that we don't have that full picture
necessarily.
So it's one of the issues that we're aware of.
Yes.
Ms. Steele?
Yeah, just to say that that is an issue that we're aware of, as Ms. Bruce says.
We do, within our grants directorate, have that ability to cross -check.
And we also do, as part of the assessment process, liaise with other teams that do fund.
So that's sort of built into the assessment process.
Part of the wider work that we are looking at is doing a piece around mapping across
the council.
But we're just in the early stages of that at the moment.
But I agree that it would be helpful to understand
that full piece of funding across the whole council.
Yeah, thank you very much for that.
And would it be possible for you to share
the work in future when you do it?
And also just to say, I'm really concerned about this
because we have a lot more grant funds now than we did
when we first started a few years ago.
We just had the Wandsworth Grant Fund.
Now I think there's like four or five.
So, for us to do our, you know, to properly scrutinize it would be helpful to see who's
getting what and when and which grant fund.
And also the extra layer on top that you mentioned about other monies from the council as well.
It would be good to see that bird's eye view of what's going on.
Thank you.
I see no reason why you can't share the information with Councillor Hedges in relation to this
Grants Committee and KLS.
It's a whole other piece of work,
getting information across the council.
So, but if you want to have that information about KLS
and any other members of the committee.
Sorry, just to be clear, it's not just KLS.
I'd like to see every organization.
And by the way, I really do support what KLS does.
I think it's a really great organization.
It's just one that pops up,
but there's a lot of others as well.
It's just because we got to that one.
Councillor Hedges, you originally asked if you could see the KLS information.
If you're asking for every other organisation, I think that's a whole different bag of tricks.
Ms Boer -Gawley, would you like...
That will be spreadsheets and spreadsheets, but Ms Boer -Gawley, would you like to comment?
Yeah, so just to say obviously we acknowledged earlier there's quite a lot of work that officers
do in terms of assessing the applications. I think the last round there was around 52.
So I would suggest, I know you mentioned Careless earlier, I was going to say that maybe online
with what they submit, they'll have a list of all the various grants and income that
they've had, like most charities do.
So that might be helpful just to go online and have a look at that.
What we would certainly do with these grants, as Harriet has said, is look across as much
as we can, but especially the grants that we manage, we would look across to see what's
there.
I'm not sure it would be very practical and quite resource intensive for my officers to
start tracking all the organisations.
I think they've got a criteria around due diligence and they ask the questions according
to this grant.
But I think if you've got specific organisations, I think maybe they might have the information
online that might help.
Sorry, I can't be more helpful than that.
Councillor Warrell first and then Councillor Miyakas.
As a relative, as a complete newbie to this committee, this is a, I guess, bit more of
an existential question, but isn't the fact of having individual funds that have their
own criteria, doesn't that mean that each application should be judged on, this is a
question, not a challenge.
That doesn't mean they should be based on that criteria.
So if you were to take a particular interest in organizations that had applied to several
funds or elsewhere that might influence a decision, but really the decision should only
be based on the criteria for that fund.
I don't know.
Can I just say one thing very quickly?
My point is there's a lot of, it's just more of a due diligence and to be aware, you know,
from a bird's eye view what's going out the door because there's so many grant funds now
and there's so many applications.
I'm trying to be helpful in response, but you made a point that we haven't had any extra
offices to deal with the extra work we've been doing.
Now you're asking for lots more information.
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking for.
Yeah, but every organization that comes to this committee, are you wanting information
over the last year about that, or what are you asking?
I think most of those grant funds have only just come about now, like this year.
I don't know exactly what you're asking for.
Is it how many, how many, sorry, are you asking for how many funds they have applied for and been successful
in addition to how much money they have received from other sources of funding from the council?
For every organization?
Yes.
I think Ms. Workbally said that would be a tremendous amount of work that is not possible within the resources available.
Absolutely. In terms of due diligence, it's proportionate. We conduct grants as well.
I think we've heard from the sector broadly through the wider work we've done with the VCS,
where they've been quite loud and clear around being proportionate around that.
So with small grants, it's the amount and level
of information that we ask for them.
So we are trying to have a clear balance
around having a very smooth, swift,
proportionate proposed process for them to apply,
especially for the small groups.
And then obviously the monitoring, et cetera.
So it's not so overburdest and a lot of these grants
are with, as you know, volunteer organizations
and volunteers.
So I think the due diligence that we conduct
for these grants I think is proportionate
to the grants that we've got.
We do look and check to see for example if there are other grants that they've applied for
But my offices will specifically apply the criteria especially with cost of living obviously there's been a shift
We do apply the criteria for that particular round
As we do, but I think anything broader than that as I've said it would just be so much more work for us to do
Councilor Igbistra trying to get in yeah, yeah, I mean this was no I used to be on this committee
I see. Welcome back.
Thank you.
In opposition.
Me too.
And it was the same then,
the work is to look at each one.
I think just looking at Catherine Lowe Settlement,
because they do have a property,
they are bound to put more things on
and therefore have more scope to ask for grants
than a place that is renting property.
Do you know what I mean?
And they're so well known in the community.
They are a, you know, it's very popular and they do some wonderful
and they're so efficient with the money that they do get.
I think we need to move on.
But I'm quite happy to have a further discussion outside the committee
if that would be helpful.
Are we agreeing recommendation item 7, Catherine Lowe's settlement?
Yep.
Item 8, Living Truth, CIC is recommended.
Agreement?
Yep.
Item 9 is Mother and Child Welfare Organization, which is not recommended.
It's one that I think there might be further discussion because it's quite an interesting
project and there isn't a lot coming from Tooting, but I think it's not presented as
a cost of living project as well.
So if there's any way we can reach out to them.
Okay.
Good.
And item 10 is recommended, PCC of St. Michael's and
St. Stephen's Church, a new community hub on the Accroydon.
Yep, agreed?
Racket's Cube number 11 is
recommended up to 15k, agreed?
Sport for health is not recommended.
Number 12, agreed.
13, SW15 Women's Network.
Although it says in the report that it's not focused on the cost of living as much as it should be,
there is an aspect that is moved in that direction
with the engagement of CAB as part of the welfare benefits and advice.
So I think there is something in that that is very important
and that there's an overlap between domestic abuse and cost of living
in terms of women going through that and needing benefits.
So I just wonder if the committee have a view on this,
but I thought we might consider it.
So, Warrell.
I'd like to support your suggestion to relook at this.
I think part of the problem with this
is the way it's actually written.
I think it's written in such a way
that it leads you down one particular way.
But what you can see is that the work that is being done is about linking in with the
CAB.
And we know that members of this community often come from low -income backgrounds as
well.
So in this one, I would actually suggest, because of that overlap and the way it's actually
written, that we reconsider this and grant the award.
Councillor Hedges?
No, you were the first.
Completely agree with you.
Really support this cause.
It's amazing.
And I agree with Councillor Worrall.
I think it's just been worded incorrectly and again, I think it is quite confusing for some organizations because so many different
Pots of like grant pot grants pots and I think you know, this is just an oversight clearly
This is great work and happy to support it
Mr. Hamilton, no just general point as well. I fully support looking at this again
I'm also pleased to see the applications from the Aladia community who I know also suffer significant discrimination
Inside the broader Muslim community as well. So I think it's a very good project
I think it meets the requirement that we do have.
Are we agreeing that we recommend item 13, SW15, women's network?
I think we might have a discussion with people leading the network about
how other aspects of the cost of living might be included in their program.
Okay, thank you.
Item 14, Artie Crafty Crescent Club.
Agreed that we don't recommend here.
15 is recommended, Wandsworth Carers Centre.
Yes, agreed.
So we've dealt with all the cost of living.
Just wanted to establish from the introduction report, there was a little bit of headroom on the finance.
The fact that we've agreed one extra project, is that going to cause any problem with the finance?
No, it's not going to.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Good. I think Bruce Murdoch's going to introduce 24261, the Wandsworth Grant Fund, round 27.
And I think Ms Steele is going to add an addendum.
Thank you very much, Chair.
So this is the Wants and Grant Fund, round 28.
So this is the second round of this financial year.
So we had 20 eligible applications requesting £177 ,031.
pounds and after assessment officers are recommending a total of 76 ,856 to eight organizations.
So if I can just draw attention to a few paragraphs on the main committee report, we maybe just
need a little bit more explanation.
If we draw your attention to paragraph 10, sorry, if we go up to paragraph 13, what's
happening is, as members will be aware, that the borough won the London Borough of Culture
award from the mayor. And so what we've done in looking at the War and the Grant Fund is
that part of the budget is to do with arts and culture. So we've taken into consideration

4 Wandsworth Grant Fund, Round 27 (Paper No. 24-261)

the recommendations in the previous round, round 26, and this round, that if all that's
agreed, then there'll be a total of £37 ,000 and 40 left to contribute to ongoing arts
and cultures projects, ongoing, and we'll manage that through the London Borough of
Culture funding stream. And that was one of the things that was actually agreed at the
Finance Committee of last.
So, we move to paragraph 17.
So although that money is going out, some members have been with the committee for a
while.
You may remember that the council has an endowment fund which is lodged, which was managed by
the London Community Foundation.
And each year, towards the end of the year, we're able to bring the investment income
to the council.
And because the two funds are very, very similar in terms of aims and objectives, we were allowed
to add that onto the WANDA grant fund at the last round.
And it's usually around about £25 ,000.
So although we might be moving some money to the London Borough of Culture, we're not
too worried because we know we've got that money to come towards it for the final round
in February when you meet next.
We're just working with the London Community Foundation to get that figure finalised, but
we'll know that fairly soon.
Lastly, if we move to the next paragraph, paragraph 18,
which is the table of the tracking
of the previous rounds, your members
will note in rounds 21 and 22, which
projects are about a year long, and actually
the projects were finished.
One of the things we're noting is
that we've got projects, five of each on track.
we know that those projects are actually finished.
We're not engaging with all these groups.
The problem is that although we know
that the projects are finished,
we actually haven't provided a final report for us.
Sometimes that's because a lot of these organizations
are very, very small, and sometimes people,
staff who have been engaged with have actually left,
and there's a bit of a hiatus.
And I think the same with rounds 23 and 24.
So what we're hoping, undertaking some work to push people to try and get that number down so we'll actually significantly catch up with ourselves.
We have made quite a lot of progress in previous rounds where there was a backlog, so we're making a bit of a push so that we can update and make sure we get those reports,
which will help us into our annual reporting towards the end of this year and report back to members next year as well.
So we know that some projects are a bit late, but we'll push that.
And you've mentioned, so I was going to pick up the appendix, which the Chair mentioned
the other one, but please do have a read of that in your own time.
If you get any questions, do come back and officers will try to answer that as much as
possible.
Ms. Steele, did you want to add anything to Mr. Murdoch's...
No, I don't think there's anything more to add unless there's any questions on things
in due course.
Any questions on Paper 261?
Am I right there's a little bit of headroom in terms of our indicative budget for tonight?
Yes, so we have an indicative, the way we do the indicative budget is we just take the
full budget for the year, we take off the funding which is designated for the ones with
that fringe and the ones with a soft capacity grant.
So it gives me a budget of just slightly under £300 ,000 for the year.
We just split that between the three rounds.
So the Indictive Budget just gives us a guide throughout the year of where we are.
So we know that in the previous round we were under that available budget.
Again we're probably a bit under for this round as well.
I'm always worried about when we get into the last round, how much money do we have?
And it's where as last year, some members might remember, we were very, very tight and
actually that's where the ones with community funds actually was helpful.
But actually where we are at the moment, even with the London Board of Culture coming in
board, I'm fairly comfortable with where we are.
Thank you, Mr. Murdoch.
Great.
Let's go to the first application, number one, Bellarmine Tooting Community Association
BACTA, the Community Awards 2025.
Yeah, Councillor Mayorkas.
Yeah, I'm very familiar with their work, including prior to being a councillor, and I understand
the officer recommendations, but I just wondered whether we could perhaps award a small percentage
of what they asked for, maybe just to cover their new hire, and then they can raise additional
money through ticketing or other things on the line.
Councillor Rigby?
Yeah, I mean, this has obviously been running for years, and I'm wondering if there's any
Background on why they've needed to ask this particular year
It might be to do the cost of living but I'd agree with councillor my office about venue higher. Yeah
Good
Mr. Murdock, there is a little bit of background. Do you want to have a little bit about back to
Yes, so from what we understand
They back to fact a new committee this year
falling off about government on the officers who
who supported over recent years and they retired.
The last grant we provided, in the notes,
and the last grant that this committee provided
was in September 2016, where again they asked for 5 ,000 pounds
and the committee at that time agrees a grant of 1 ,500 pounds
for the committee.
And they did note that maybe because it was an ongoing project,
year on year, this fund is really not appropriate for that.
So there was some understanding of the value of the project at the time,
that members decided to award a smaller grant.
So there's some precedent there if members were so wished to follow that up.
So are we in agreement with the recommendation with 1500 for the new hire?
But we won't make a habit of doing this.
They need to get their ongoing funding for future years.
Okay, thank you very much committee
Number two
Baseless fabric theater limited is recommended
Agreed yeah free Bertie collective
Translation yeah. Yeah councilor Rigby
Yeah, I think I'd need to know what the difference is between this one being recommended and this one not and then there's a couple further
On it's basically the same type of thing. It's it's art in public
Reason was for this not getting it
Mr. Murdoch, would you like to respond and I think for for the Bertie collective
It was it was only the part that was unclear we we could see that
they were going to work with free to be organization
over the early months in terms of the development.
But when we looked at the budget,
the vast majority of the budget was actually
to do the performance during the WAF period.
So there's a bit of a disconnect between the budget
and actually the description of what they were going to do.
and it wasn't clear how involved the young people that they were going to work with in the early stages were then going to be involved in WAF.
So I think something like £970 of the budget was to do with the workshop with the young people, but the vast majority, all the rest of it was to do with WAF.
And overall, the arts team, for what they were doing, they felt that the activity was quite expensive as well, per head.
So the arts team felt that it was probably more appropriate for them later to do some
bit more development of the work and to reapply to one of the WAF grants which will come up
later on in the year.
We agreed with that, not to recommend three, but there will be further discussion with
the arts team about the WAF fringe.
Okay.
For Kerry Gardens Community Growing Project, yes, Councillor Warrell.
Thank you.
Whilst I'm in agreement with the decision here, I think Kerry Gardens, this is the second
time they've actually applied to us for grants.
I think this is, Kerry Gardens is one of those that actually we need to be a lot more proactive
in going to them rather than expecting them to come to us.
I know the committee and the residence association is going through a lot of change at the moment
and projects like this would be really good for them.
But it's also they're the sort that actually do need a little bit of a nudge, a little
bit of a push internally just to help them with an application.
So whilst I agree with this, my other recommendation would be is that we take a more proactive
We're starts and actually going to them and working with them around this particular one. I
Think that's
Very sensible and what struck me when I look through all the papers is the environment
And the green agenda
Although it's really important doesn't seem to be coming forward with
applications
so
I agree with what Councillor Warrell said, but we're agreeing not to recommend at this stage.
Okay.
Elias Corner, Elias Network, not recommended.
Agreed.
Forest School, number six of Trinity St Mary's Primary, not recommended.
Agreed?
KLS, Arch Room doors and windows not recommended.
Is there anywhere else that can go to this disability from the wheelchair access?
Is there anyone access for all?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mr. Marder?
We've had a couple of applications and discussions with a number of organisations like this.
I think we had one with World Happy as well recently.
It's interesting that in the funding world nowadays, actually, it's one of those things
which doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
It seems to be one of those things that people think it's been dealt with a long time ago.
So it is one of the, it's not an obvious thing in the grant world at the moment.
However, there are, as I think KLS are picking up,
there are, even within London,
some funders who still do capital building projects.
There's not as many as there used to be,
but they are still there.
And I know that they're taking,
this is just one project of many of which KLS
are doing and up doing the building.
And it's about identifying the right people
at the right time to do things.
But it is a struggle nowadays to find,
particular fund is for this. It's quite a difficult one these days.
Certainly, my current knowledge, there's not somewhere obvious. I have had a look around
both for World Happy and others who have came to me. However, there might be, whether there's
opportunities within a new ENSO fund, that's something that they could talk to officers
about know that something like that could be possible and I know the end
so it's changed but no there are things like that that may be able to pop up but
it's about I know that TLS are in discussions with with other funders to
do capital building work so that something might come up with something
there yeah okay council borrow I am aware that the city of London guilds
actually do have funding available for disability related projects it's
finding the right guild of carpenters or whatever it might be, but there is money there for
some capital work around disability access.
So it might be useful for them to look in that particular direction.
Could you pass on your suggestion of NCL and City of London?
That would be helpful.
This is just to say thank you, because I know in the past we've asked can you put previous
grants on the application form, and you have done it, and it's quite clear from this KLS
one that we can see. So just a positive thank you from me.
I think the previous grants are on all that one's worth, but not on the cost of living
ones. Okay. That's agreed. And so we're now on number
8 recommended in full fast forward roslyn park fc
any comments in agreement yeah okay
rotary club of batacy christmas day rotary yeah okay council rigby you got there first
Yeah, I'm really surprised they're asking.
I mean, this used to be such a high donor event.
I think Elson John was funding it at one point, so what's happened?
Yeah, yeah.
Is it a bit less high profile with celeb?
No?
You don't know?
OK.
Yeah, Councillor Warren, you wanted to come in now.
I'm going to ask the committee to relook at this one.
I think that whilst I recognize in the paper that we shouldn't be supporting refund applications
and stuff that's been done in the past, I think this is one where we can, through making
contribution to this, actually engage with them to plan around sustainability, to plan
around their monitoring and evaluation processes, with the recognition that we also are clear
to them that they can't come back to us.
But I think this is one.
Considering the circumstances of what's being asked, and this is a way sometimes we need
to think of how we can use the ground funds to actually help organizations develop and
move forward.
And this is one maybe we should, I'd like the committee to rethink.
Yeah, yeah.
Councillor Hamilton.
Thank you.
No disagreement with that.
But just be good to know, you mentioned the headroom.
Could you possibly remind us how much headroom was left in the budget?
just in if there is a spirit of being generous this evening which we haven't
been in the last couple of years just to know how much we've got to play with
what if we went to the budget if I remember so if we take the indicative
budget is as 90 96 thousand and we're recommending things was 76 I'm around
for that and that's just in this range I know in the previous round we're about
under as well so I'm okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So he's saying the full amount.
Yeah, is that what you were suggesting, Councillor Warrell?
Yeah, this year for the last time, yeah, the full amount, yeah, okay, yes.
Yeah, Councillor Warrell's proposed, who seconded that?
Yeah, Councillor Rigby, thank you, that's been agreed.
So we're on to number 10, CEN unity CIC, which is recommended for care to carers.
Agreed?
Okay.
Share community recommended inclusive health and wellness.
Agreed?
Yeah.
Yep, yep, thank you.
Smallwood Primary School PTA,
the school language unit Spanish club not recommended.
Yeah.
Thank you, Chair.
Actually, in all honesty, I think this is a good project.
I think it's a relatively modest grant that's been requested.
I think actually, I appreciate there could be some work to tighten the application up a little bit,
which I'm sure officers could help with.
But in terms of actually the benefit that this could have in the community,
I think it's pretty wide ranging.
The applicant talks about 45 children that would benefit from this,
in terms of the application.
The grant request is 2 ,850.
I think if we are to look at what we use the grant fund for,
which is to leave potentially a lasting legacy,
to do something good from an educational perspective,
is something which improves language skills and maybe inspires some of the children that
take part to pursue Spanish language in the future.
I think it's a good project.
So it's one actually that I think is one that the committee should give some consideration
to.
It's modest, but it's potentially quite impactful.
Just the officers want to comment on your not recommending this and then others can.
Yeah, can do.
So the discussions I have is with people in children's services who know this age group
well and know the working skills.
So one of the things we picked up with this particular skill is that they do have a little
bit of Spanish lesson in curriculum time.
And it seemed to be that the identification of the need for the project, so the question
is why is the school having this particular language, wasn't really clear other than they
did a little bit during the classroom time anyway and they had someone, I think it was
a parent who could speak Spanish, and sort of linking that with the school that it is
in terms of a language school, so for children who have got particular language issues, there
wasn't a connection to that. So that was one of the questions. And I think one of the questions
that the committee's always raised, particularly with school projects, is is it just benefiting
those children who go to the school or is it broader community use? And that was one
of the things that was only about children who are at the school. So there was an issue
there. And I think, as Councillor Hamilton says, about 45, what they seem to be doing
is there's 15 children each term who could stay on each term or move on to something
else. So in terms of the numbers who might benefit is somewhere between 15
and 45. So that could be quite variable and so the question then was
in terms of yes they're going to do some language, some culture and things
like that for this particular issue. How much would a child benefit if they're
only there for a single term? So that's a question about how much benefit
would this be for a child of this age given that they're at the
So there's lots of questions around about it that the officers and children's services who work with
No, we're not no they felt that they couldn't recommend to the committee. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Madam
Councillor may okay, you know who?
Councillor Rigby, did you have a hand up? No, sorry. I've had this gone down
But sorry there's been a recommendation that we
that we do agree this what what the committee is in our hands yeah kind of
like Hamilton did you want to say funny first I did it rather moving to to
recommend what I would instead suggest I've just sort of remove remove that at
this stage if they can bring something back which does address the point about
the wider community it would be good to see that yeah in the future yeah if only
because I think okay of language teaching in this country is atrocious
Anything we can do to improve it the best.
Yeah, that's really helpful.
And also I think an adequate time frame per charge.
Yeah, yeah.
Good.
I'm glad to see your promotion of Spanish.
Councillor Hamilton.
Great.
Spectacle Media CIC,
Part of it video archive places near Battersea, recommended.
Agreed?
So older people's badminton, older people and LGBTQ plus community is not recommended.
Sports for Health number 14.
My understanding of this is it's been going on two or three years.
Yes, it's a continuation of something.
Okay, not recommended.
St Mary's Church, Putney Solar Panel not recommended.
Yes, Councillor Hedges.
So what I'm advising is that we can rethink this one because St. Mary's Church in Thamesfield
is an important community hub.
It's not just a church.
So getting a sustainable and cost effective source of power will help them continue to
host community events and they don't charge for things like hosting safer neighbourhood
meetings and other communities.
So if we can rethink that one, that would be really great.
Please.
Comments from officers on?
Yeah, so we've had a number of projects like this before
for churches and other community spaces.
So one of the things we do with the WANDA grant fund
is we, because of the nature of the fund,
we would like to get projects started fairly quickly
within sort of three months of making an award.
One of the issues with this teleprogram,
and I say we've had this with other solar panel projects before, is where applicants
haven't got proper planning permission. This is a listed building as well and they do state
and own applications, they don't have planning permission, they haven't done the structural
survey for the building and we had this issue before with one of the churches who we provided
a grant for then. When they did the structural survey, the weight of the solar panels were
heavy for the roof they wanted to do. So one of the things that, I think
what we're saying is at this stage we wouldn't recommend it but once those
plan permission is granted and they've actually done the structural
survey and they've got quite a lot of other funding in place as well so they
could activate the project within the three months of the fund,
then I think we'd be much more supportive in recommending it.
it's not at this time we feel.
Did presume you give all that feedback
to the applicant, to the church?
Yeah, we will do, yes.
And are there any other awards out there?
I think I remember saying something
from the mayor's office about solar panel funding.
Yeah, there are sort of things like London Energy,
there's a number of grants around
that some of the specialists or people like Crew Energy can actually give advice to people.
But certainly they are looking for funding. I just think at this time making this application,
it was just a bit early, a bit too early for them, but it could be one that, as I said,
if they've got those permissions in place, particularly the planning permission and the
structural survey which is really important because it's the weight and type of solar panels
that they're using on the building which makes a big difference and often
although they do have an architect on the team but it's making sure that the
the solar panel company has done the survey themselves so they are sure
actually the weight of that roof can take the weight of the panels themselves
which is really important.
Councillor Rigby was trying to get in.
I've got one.
I would say...
You'll be waiting patiently.
Yeah, the Church of England is one of the richest institutions in the country.
it has it generates a billion pound a year in revenue from its assets so I'm
not quite sure why they're coming here for that. We in the last year we have
agreed in another church where it would have made a big difference to the
community activities because of the cost of energy so
they're going to the Church of England first
before they come to the community.
I mean, so we know, and this is, again,
this is one of the other things,
they have to get permission from the diocese as well,
which is, and that can take quite,
we know that that can take quite a long time to do it.
And certainly talking to the different churches,
which we've been talking to over the years,
there's a number of funds, both in Church of England
and the Church's Trust Fund and others,
which they make application to.
And often the response from the main church of England would say, and church commissioners
is, we've got lots of properties, so although it appears to be quite rich, actually it's
quite difficult for the individual churches to get money from the core funding, I'm
afraid.
So each individual church and the PCC, they're basically sort of like fundraisers all over
the place.
I think this is £54 ,000, I think, something like that for the whole project.
So they're looking all over the place.
Councillor Rigby, go on.
Yes.
So the Church of England should be looking to make sure that all of its buildings are
environmentally ready and put in solar panels on all of their properties.
I think it's their properties.
Yeah, we do look at reserves, but we're looking at I'm looking at the reserves of the individual
church now and rather than the rather than the main body.
Interesting debate about the church church.
I think we're not agreeing at this stage for a number of slightly different reasons around the table.
Good, thank you, that's number 15.
Number 16, baked bean company London Calling is not recommended.
Agreed?
Number 17 is not recommended.
The good gym, creating a greener, cleaner Wandsworth.
I thought it was quite an interesting application and there aren't many applications about the environment of we said
But I don't know if any any advice could be given
to them that
Council Rigby yeah, yeah, I mean you see this on Instagram the whole time for them
You know they do some great stuff, but it's supposed to be just a voluntary thing
Having pain for an area activator, it's a bit odd.
Partly it's good for the environment,
but partly it's good for health and wellbeing
in this project, so that's what I kind of thought
was interesting.
Yeah, and it could be run on a voluntary basis,
couldn't it?
Like heart run.
Do you want to comment on that?
They're asking for staffing, aren't they?
Just to pick up Councillor Rigby's point, certainly there's...
What they aim to do, I think this is about trying to get something started.
Although this seems to...
And that's where we get a bit confused,
because we know that Good Jim has been operating in the borough for quite some years,
because we gave them a grant many years ago to get started.
So for us to come back and have a paid activator
to re -energize this, the question is why.
But the longer term plan in the second year of this
would be to train up some volunteers
to run it on a voluntary basis.
So it is a bit surprising.
And I've looked on their website of Good Jim
and Wants doesn't seem to be there,
so whether the numbers have gone down recently,
I don't know.
But I think in terms of our advice to them, in terms of both the people who are encouraging
to run, we would say, well, actually, are you targeting people who are maybe not currently
active in that way to try to encourage them to run?
So that would help the council in terms of targeting those people, which is part of the
physical activity plan.
And also in terms of the environmental projects,
which they were suggesting,
if that was a bit more targeted,
and exactly what were they going to do and where,
so there was a bit more planning ahead,
and a bit more focused, then that would help us as well.
So are they, would they be doing those projects
in particular places that need it,
particularly in some of the public areas?
So I think if the, my advice to them was
if they could come back with a much more focused
and targeted project,
because it's about five kilometers from Wontal town,
that's quite a vague area,
then something a bit more focused would help.
But certainly they've grown from many,
for about seven or eight years ago,
now have grown quite big,
but the intention is to run it on a voluntary basis.
Did you want to come back, Councillor Rieck?
No, okay.
Okay.
We're agreeing not to recommend at this stage.
Santa and Sven is recommended part funding.
Agreed?
Yep.
Yeah, although I just was a bit confused about this so it says the ward is latch mayor but it's in Balaam and it's Tower Hamlet
Yeah, are we agreeing item 18 yeah, okay
Sorry, so we're onto the item 19. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to counsel Rigby? Did you want actually just
Yeah
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
And the, yeah, I mean is this ballum thing or a latchmare?
Yeah, yeah.
Do you want to?
Number 19.
Yes, so I'm, so yes, it's run by an organization
which formed called Tower Hamlets Youth Sports Foundation
which actually work all across London now.
The Tower Hamlets Youth Sports Foundation is Tower Hamlets equivalent of ENABLE.
Switch to the stuff, so it's a social enterprise, but they'll actually now work all across London
and have this big project called Platform Cricket, introducing cricket to young people
all across London. They have previously just about early Covid I think, we provided them some funding
for a hub in Battersea and they did some program with young people in Battersea schools and
and they use Bath's part for their summer activities.
And they're quite successful there,
so of the young people they work.
So they work with young people in schools,
and then they attract them to just have an after -school
things, a weekend -type project, what they call their hub.
And they had about, I think about 40 % come to the hub.
So what they're doing now is they're trying to move down
to the Ballam area and work with a series of schools
down there and we know from all the projects they've done across and actually
they're very successful and certainly moving down to Balaam and all the
schools that they're working with, they're fairly confident because
I've done a little bit of work with some of the schools already that actually
they'll track quite a lot of young people and introduce them to cricket
which is quite difficult to get into.
So the Prime Ward is Balaam?
Yes, the Prime Ward is Balaam, yes.
Okay, we're agreed.
Thank you very much.
And number 20, Wandsworth bereavement service to deal with the backlog of assessments is
recommended.
Yes, we're agreed.
Good.
We've got through all the applications.
You've got the follow up from last year to read through and comment on.
I think we've come to the end of the meeting, yeah?
Could I thank the members of the committee?
I think someone wanted to get through by quarter past, so we're ahead of time.
Could I thank the officers very much for the reports, yeah.
Thank you.
Okay, we're done.
Thank you.