Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report that provided an update on the new Area Based Grant (ABG) and funding arrangements and implications for the HSP.

It was noted that the new ABG merged a number of existing funding streams to create a general grant that would be used to contribute to the achievement of local priorities. There was an expectation that the ABG would improve the way that jointly agreed priorities were achieved.

The pooling of existing funding streams under the ABG meant that a deficit of approximately £1M would be created. In order to address this each of the Thematic Boards would be asked to assess the projects within their responsibility. After the first six months of the new financial year and the PMG would then determine the final list of projects that would continue to receive funding. Performance would be assessed using a new Performance Monitoring Framework, which was being created in order to provide a consistent means of measuring performance across the Partnership.

In order to facilitate discussion, each Thematic Board would participate in a workshop during March, which would focus on the new national duties placed on the Partnership under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act and embedding the new Performance Monitoring Framework.

In response to a query as to why the allocation under the ABG was larger in the second year, the Board was advised that as NRF ceased completely for some Authorities in 2008/09, some transitional funding had been provided, which all Authorities were contributing too. From 2009/10 onwards, this transitional funding would be removed and therefore funding for contributing Authorities would increase to normal levels.

There was agreement that issues around the NRF and the new WNF and allocations for the second year of funding would need to be presented to the Board in more detail at the appropriate time.

In response to concerns that some groups, which currently received NRF were already making employees redundant due to uncertainty over future funding, the Board was advised that these groups had recently been reminded, via letter, that funding would cease in April 2008. After the initial six month period, performance would be reviewed by the PMG and decisions would be made as to which projects would continue to receive funding, based on performance.

(Tracey Baldwin arrived at 7.10pm)

It was noted that there was a focus on reducing Worklessness within the WNF and Job Centre Plus highlighted the need for this to be reflected in the allocations made under the ABG, as funding previously received via the Deprived Area Fund, may be lost.

The Chair suggested that it would be helpful if Job Centre Plus were to appoint a representative to the HSP Performance Management Group (PMG) and noted that ABG funding was intended to address local priorities. As such it was for the Partnership to determine how the funding was allocated on the basis of local need.

The Council’s Chief Executive underlined the importance of negotiation in partnership working and noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51