A to Z Index:

SAC Report No. 1

Levering Extra Funding Investigation (March 2003)

Summary

The purpose of this report is to set out the process, conclusions and recommendations of the first investigation by the Scrutiny and Audit Committee, "Levering Extra Funding". The report has the unanimous agreement of the Scrutiny and Audit Committee.

The report has been prepared after three formal Committee meetings and four informal sessions where members of the Committee heard evidence from 30 witnesses. The final conclusions and recommendations were drawn up by Committee members at a workshop in December 2002. In conducting its business, the Committee set out to operate in an open and friendly manner in accordance with a set of agreed principles.

The report has five main sections. The national context sets out the important developments in the major funding programmes. This is followed by section including some limited benchmarking information. The three remaining sections deal with the different roles that the Committee believes the Council should undertake in levering extra funding ie as deliverer and employer, as enabler and as partner. Each of these three sections sets out the key issues and evidence for that role followed by the Committee's conclusions about the best way forward for fulfilling that role.

On the basis of the evidence which the Committee received, it believes that the current external funding activity within the Council has a number of important strengths:

  • It is policy driven and Services pursue grant funding to support the achievement of council strategies, objectives and priorities
  • There is considerable commitment within Services to seeking grant funding because employees believe that it is essential to maintain the current level of Council service delivery. The Council would be unable to meet the many needs of communities if it did not pursue grant funding
  • There is a wealth of knowledge and expertise within Services in developing projects which meet the needs of the local community and satisfy funding agencies' criteria

However there is also evidence that funding applicants within Services are working in isolation, with a lack of co-ordination and information sharing both within and across services. Grant funding is also sometimes seen as a peripheral activity and its importance is not always recognised by managers.

One suggestion for improving performance was the establishment of a specialist central funding unit, but the Committee does not support this idea because it does not think that it would deliver the desired improvements. It believes that responsibility for developing funding applications should remain with Services where officers have the experience and knowledge to develop projects which are aligned with Council and Service strategies and priorities. Instead the Committee recommends various measures for improving the Council's capacity for and co-ordination of applying for grant funds and managing grant aided projects. Most importantly these include the establishment of a cross service working group to support the networking of officers involved in applying for external funding and to share information on funding opportunities and best practice in applying for external funds.

Awareness should also be raised of the contribution made by external funding to the delivery of council services and policies. For those employees involved in making grant applications, there should be recognition of their role in their job description (and on a more day to day basis by managers). It should no longer be considered as an additional or peripheral activity.

The Committee heard from officers about the pressures on staff time which limited the Council's capacity to pursue grant funding. To make the best use of its resources, it was suggested that the Council should develop its role as a facilitator of projects rather than a straight deliverer of projects. The Area and Rural Partnerships, the Councils for Voluntary Services (CVS) and Enterprise North East Trust (ENET) all provide support to local community organisations seeking grant funding. The Committee was impressed with the enthusiasm which these agencies brought to this work.

The Committee therefore recommends that the Council should develop its role as an enabler of grant applications by community and voluntary organisations. The Council will need to adopt a strategic approach to this role and a range of measures is proposed. This development should help to lever in increased grant funding for Aberdeenshire and its communities but also involve a more cost-effective use of limited council resources.

On the basis of discussions with community partner representatives and funding agency representatives, the Committee is convinced that community planning has the potential to increase access to grant funding through partnership. By bringing together local public sector and community partners to devise joint strategies and priorities, community planning should help partners to devise a co-ordinated approach to:

  • Influencing funding agencies
  • Developing partnership projects
  • Preparing joint funding applications
  • Supporting local communities in accessing grant funding


The Committee identifies a number of key issues which the Council and its partners should address as part of the community planning agenda.

Part of the remit of the investigation was to find out if the current arrangements for levering in extra funding were cost effective. At one level it is possible to measure outputs ie the rate of success rate in submitting applications and the amount of external income achieved. However these are rather crude measures and do not reflect the contribution which a project makes to achieving Council priorities and meeting community needs. If it is difficult to identify meaningful output measures, it is impossible to measure inputs. The main input is, of course, staff time. Within Services there is significant staff commitment to pursuing grant funding. In some instances levering in extra funding is a major component of an officer's job but in other areas it forms an intermittent or minor aspect of their work. It is impossible to quantify this in a meaningful way. It is important, however, that services monitor and assess the contribution of their externally funded projects in achieving their service objectives.

If the Committee's recommendations are implemented the situation regarding the measuring of performance will become even more complex. A substantial number of measures involve assisting organisations and activities which are external to the Council. Any attempt to measure the contribution of the Council to third party applications for funding will be difficult. Perhaps what we need to focus on as a measure of the Council's performance is the quality of the contribution. This can be done by seeking feedback from community and voluntary sector organisations and our community planning partners on their views of any changes in the Council's performance in levering extra funding for Aberdeenshire and its communities.

The Committee recognises that there are financial and staffing implications arising from its conclusions and recommendations. However it is convinced that the vast majority of its proposals involve a realignment of resources rather than a significant increase in resources. By improving internal networking and co-ordination, the Council's capacity for and co-ordination of applying for grant funds and managing grant aided projects should be increased ie existing resources will be used more efficiently. The proposals relating to the development of the Council's role as an enabler of grant applications by community and voluntary organisations are also intended to increase the efficiency of the use of existing resources. They should also improve links with the community and voluntary sectors at a time when they have a growing involvement in service delivery. Community planning is now a formal statutory duty for the Council. It therefore seems entirely appropriate to exploit its potential to optimise access to grant funding through partnership working.

Full Report