Issue - meetings

The Board received a report presenting the Local Area Agreement (LAA) 2007/08 End of Year Statement of Grant Usage.

It was noted that although the previous LAA had been superseded by the new style LAA, there was still an expectation that the requirements of the old LAA were fulfilled.

As the accountable body for the Partnership, the Council was required to produce an End of Year Statement of Grant Usage for the LAA. This outlined spend across the mandatory ring fenced pooled funding streams within the LAA grant for the previous financial year.

The Board was advised that the Performance Management Group (PMG) had agreed that the Chair of the Partnership should be delegated authority to approve the final report prior to submission to GOL and the HSP was asked to endorse this decision.

It was noted that approximately thirty per cent of the funding available had been allocated to Third Sector projects. However, this was not reflected in the allocations made across the Thematic Boards and it was queried how this would be addressed.

The Board was advised that the Performance Monitoring Framework attached to the new LAA meant that a new and more qualitative approach was being taken to projects and the delivery of outcomes. As part of this the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) was being carried out that would assess where the skills to deliver this lay.

It was noted that the Community and Voluntary Sector was keen to assist in identifying mechanisms to ensure that it was best placed to participate in the delivery of outcomes.

There was agreement that work was required to build the capacity of the Voluntary and Community Sector around the delivery of targets and the Chair requested that a report be brought to the PMG in relation to this, with a view to a more detailed report being considered at a future meeting of the HSP.

It was suggested that a sharp focus upon areas where targets were not being met was required and that the Partnership should consider what action was needed to take in order to address these areas. There was agreement that the PMG should receive a report setting out how the format of performance reports could be revised to address this point.

The Board discussed the review of projects receiving Area Based Grant (ABG) funding. It was noted that the HSP had previously been agreed that 2008/09 would be treated as a transitional year with a review of projects taking place in September after an initial six month period. Since this had been agreed the Commissioning Review Group had met and put together criteria for the review.

It was noted that recommendations would be made to the PMG once the review had taken place as to which projects should continue to receive funding.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. To endorse the decision of the PMG that the Chair of the Partnership should be delegated authority to approve the final report prior to submission to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85