Agenda item

A discussion with representatives from the Denbighshire Coastal Partnership and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC) on their role in promoting and supporting community, voluntary and third sector involvement in the county.

9:35am – 10:45am  

The Chair welcomed representatives from the Denbighshire Coastal Partnership (DCP), Rhyl Coastal Partnership (RCP) and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC) to the meeting to give an insight into their organisations and their roles in promoting and supporting community, voluntary and third sector involvement in the county.  Copies of presentation slides outlining the three organisations’ work and the groups which had benefitted from their work had been published as part of the committee papers.  The DCP and the RCP gave an overview of the work they do to manage and administer the community monies available from the RWE Innogy UK Ltd. Community Fund (the Rhyl Flats and North Hoyle Windfarms money), including publicity about the fund, the application and award process, the organisations which had benefited from the fund and the types of projects funded. 

In response to Members' questions representatives:-

· advised that they welcomed applications from all types of community projects etc. and that each application was considered and judged on their own merits against the set criteria;

· outlined the membership of the DCP and RCP and advised that, subject to checking the organisation's constitution and discussing the matter with the RCP membership, officials would formally write to the Council seeking it to appoint a County Councillor to serve on the RCP;

· advised that the RCP had awarded money to the Denbighshire Community Development Agency (CDA) to support it until it closed in March, 2015, and from April 2015 it had secured an agreement with the Wellington Centre on Wellington Road which had enabled the equipment previously located in the CDA in Bodfor Street to be housed and accessible for public use at the Wellington Centre.  Whilst residents were now becoming aware of the equipment's relocation the RCP were also in the process of publicising the new location;

· confirmed that the Foryd Centre had been approached with respect to housing the former CDA equipment etc. but this had not been successful, hence the reason they were now accommodated at the Wellington Centre.  The RCP expressed its gratitude to the Wellington Centre for their assistance.

The Chief Executive of the DVSC outlined his organisation's role.  He highlighted the broad spectrum of organisations which made up the third sector in the County, ranging from large public sector organisations such as housing associations to small local groups such as an independent after school clubs etc.  Their common denominator being that they were driven by the needs of the community they served.

Members were advised that:-

· up until the end of March 2015 DVSC had 50 members of staff (both part-time and full time) and as of the 1^st April, due to budget cuts, the staffing numbers had been reduced to 15 (or 7 full-time equivalent (fte)).  Of these 7 staff, 4 were funded for specific projects - one of whom was funded by BCUHB, this meant that 3 fte staff were left to deal with all other work, including administration and supporting community groups to source and apply for funding;

· another part-time officer had been partly funded by the Council for the purpose of social care funded projects.  Both this officer and the Health Board funded officer worked closely together;

· DVSC was currently in the process of advertising and recruiting for a development and governance officer who would specifically work with groups across the County to advise and support with grant applications.  These types of roles were viewed as 'return on investment' posts as the community funding drawn into the County by such officers far exceeded the salary and associated on-costs of the employees;

· due to financial cuts for 2015/16 DVSC was currently operating a £45K deficit budget for the current year.  This had been compounded further by the loss of the discretionary rate relief grant of circa £1K from the County Council;

· DVSC did not provide services directly to service-users i.e. supporting care-leavers. However, they did support organisations and agencies who delivered those services e.g. Action for Children;

The Director of Social Services advised that whilst the Council did not have the finances to provide designated officer posts to support the work of organisations such as DVSC, DCP and RCP, it was already providing support for organisations in the form of relevant data to support funding bids etc.  In addition, an approach had been made to the Council to see if it could release officer time to check completed applications prior to their submission. This request was under consideration.

Members were encouraged to highlight to community groups within their areas the existence and potential benefits of the new Gwynt y Môr windfarm fund, due to be launched officially in the summer.  This fund which would be managed and administered by Conwy Voluntary Services Council (CVSC), with the involvement of both Denbighshire and Flintshire Voluntary Services' Councils, would be worth in the region of £700K annually.  The application criteria was expected to be published in July, but maps illustrating the qualifying communities should be available within the next 2 months.  Certain organisations may wish to apply for money from this fund to employ a community funding co-ordinator or similar post.  Members suggested that similar posts could be funded as part of Town and Area Plans in certain areas.

The Chair thanked the voluntary sector's representatives for their attendance and for answering members' questions, stating that she hoped that the Council and third sector could work together effectively in future for the benefit of the county's resident.  It was:

RESOLVED – that Committee

(a)   receive the Denbighshire Coastal Partnership, Rhyl Coastal Partnership and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council presentations, and

(b)   invites them back to a future meeting to discuss partnership working between the Council, community, voluntary and third sector organisations across the County.