Borough community engagement funding 2010/11

Report: 4
Date: 29 April 2010
By: Chief Executive

Summary

This report updates the position with respect to the community engagement funding allocations to the borough based community and police engagement groups and seeks member approval for the final 2010/11 allocations and for the use of the remaining community engagement budget.

A. Recommendations

That Members

1. approve the final 2010/11 funding allocations to the community police engagement groups and to LCP2 (see appendix 1)
2. agree the broad parameters and a budget of £140 000.00 to deliver a programme of additional engagement activities.

B. Supporting information

1. Members received a detailed report on the 2010/11 funding assessment process at the committee meeting held on 22 February 2010. That report identified the initial allocations to the community police engagement groups (CPEGs), which were approved but also identified a number of outstanding queries to be resolved prior to agreement of the full allocations. This report discusses those queries, identifies those that have been resolved and seeks approval for the full final allocations to each CPEG and to the London Communities’ Policing Partnerships (LCP2). This report also identifies the funds available within the core budget for additional community engagement activities and discusses the areas in which that budget might be put to use.

2. At the February meeting of the Community Engagement & Citizen Focus committee members approved initial funding allocations totalling £1.3m and referred £282 000.00 of proposed expenditure for further examination.

3. Of the £282 000.00, £187 000.00 related to budgeted sums for staffing costs, office space and meeting/event administration that exceeded the trigger level. Further discussions with the relevant groups and examination of the associated job descriptions, revealed that higher staffing costs mostly equated to posts requiring higher level skills beyond basic administration to include more skilled tasks, such as fundraising and financial management and progressing specific activities within the group work plan.

4. In relation to office costs, those that exceeded the trigger levels generally related to inner London CPEGs with full time staff. On further examination none of these groups had particularly lavish accommodation and in one case the group has sub-let some of its office space to off-set some of the associated costs.

5. Variations in the costs associated with meeting/event administration were attributable to a range of factors. For example, in some cases CPEGs with lower costs have been able to secure hire-free meeting rooms usually from the local authority, but also from other voluntary sector organisations. Conversely, those CPEGs with higher meeting/event costs will be conducting more than the basic four public meetings/events per year to include a range of different engagement events, such as attending town shows to raise awareness of the group and to gather public opinion on policing priorities.

6. The remaining £95 000.00 related to identified surpluses, which in most cases were due to slippage in the 2009/10 work programme. There were some exceptions, with Camden and Lambeth, for example, having historically maintained a surplus as insurance against any potential claims against them should they cease to exist for any reason.

7. On the basis of the findings discussed in the preceding paragraphs members are asked to approve the final allocations detailed in appendix 1.

8. The greater scrutiny of the 2010/11 funding bids has enabled officers to identify areas for development and exploration such as, the potential need for project management training for CPEGs to ensure they can effectively deliver their work programmes on time and the need to explore the potential for groups to achieve better value for money by sharing office space or by agreeing shared printing contracts with suppliers, for example. It has also enabled officers to recycle surplus funding to support the development of new community engagement activities.

9. It is well documented that delivering effective community engagement is a complex process and that no one approach can meet the needs of all communities. Officers are well aware that while the CPEG model meets the needs of some communities, it does not meet the needs of all. Communities of identity (as opposed to place), such as disability, sexual orientation and age (i.e. young people) are not always well represented within the existing CPEG structures. The Authority’s centralised engagement activities, particularly those related to scrutiny, have tended to target specific groups, including young people and the disabled, but again there are some groups with whom the Authority is required to consult that have traditionally been under-represented in all of the Authority’s engagement activities, such as the business community. The police authority inspection has further highlighted these matters, as has the stakeholder consultation conducted as part of the community engagement strategy review.

10. In order to address these issues and in support of the community engagement commitment 2010-13, it is proposed that £140 000.00 is used to develop additional targeted activities. These activities will include the provision of (i) a new fund open to all CPEGs to deliver additional engagement activities specifically targeting under-represented groups and delivering through cross-borough projects (£50 000.00), (ii) development of engagement activities utilising new technologies (£20 000.00), (iii) a fund to support the Authority’s involvement in the range of partner activities that are conducted at borough level, such as conducting policing plan surveys at town shows and community safety road shows (£32 000.00) and (iv) a fund to facilitate the delivery of the community engagement commitment, including specific engagement activities focussing on emerging issues as they arise, such as the civil liberties debate, and the dissemination of good practice (£23 000.00) – leaving a contingency of £15 000.00.

C. Race and equality impact

1. An equality impact assessment (EIA) has been conducted, which identified two specific issues (i) the need to ensure CPEGs are more representative of the increasingly diverse population of London and (ii) the need to ensure equality of access to CPEG structures and these issues have been addressed in a number of ways. In addition, the police authority inspection has identified the continued need to target under-represented groups in all our engagement activities and not just through CPEGs.

2. These issues will be addressed through (i) continued work to identify and develop activities to target under-represented groups in borough CPEGs, (ii) the provision of appropriate equality and diversity training and guidance to CPEGs and (iii) through the provision of additional funds to ensure meetings and other CPEG activities are fully accessible.

D. Financial implications

1. The total budget for borough level community engagement and for the London-wide group is £1.7 million and a further sum will be provided from within the central equalities and engagement budget to meet access needs. This has initially been set at £5 000.00, but may exceed that amount.

2. The final allocations total £1.56 million, which leaves approximately £140 000.00 within the budget to be allocated to additional community engagement activities as discussed above in paragraph 9. To ensure continuity of service limited funds have been released to all groups and to LCP2 in April 2010 pending agreement of the final allocations. Once these have been agreed, the remaining funds will be released to all groups between October and December 2010 on the basis of satisfactory monitoring reviews.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Natasha Plummer, Engagement & Partnerships Manager, MPA

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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