Council wants fairer system of allocating grants in Derbyshire

Coun Carol Hart at the opening of a new Citizens’ Advice Bureau in Derbyshire.

This follows a decision by Derbyshire County Council to undertake a full review of the grants it gives to a range of organisations, in a bid to ensure value for money.

The council says the idea behind the review is “to develop a new, fairer and more consistent method of allocating funding that falls into line with the council’s ambitions and priorities”.

Many of the groups concerned offer a valuable service, offering information, support, guidance, training and funding advice on a huge variety of subjects. But they rely on council grants to keep them going.

A meeting of the county council’s Cabinet is to be asked to agree to start a 12-week consultation period from Friday, January 24 on future funding arrangements.

Coun Carol Hart, Cabinet member for health and communities, said: “We have already been talking to organisations to find out what they need from us to carry out their work in a sustainable way.

“Based on their feedback, we have come up with some ideas, and we’d now like to hear from as many people as possible on what they think of our proposals.”

The county council dishes out more than £3 million a year to local voluntary and charity groups carrying out work for Derbyshire residents.

The new proposals could see grants given out over four years, instead of one. They could be distributed along borough and district boundary lines, while key performance indicators could also be introduced.

Coun Hart added: “As an enterprising council, one of our key priorities is to create empowered and self-sufficient local communities.

“Supporting the voluntary and community sector to grow and thrive is central to achieving this.

“The way we fund organisations has developed organically over time, and this has led to a fragmented approach.

“By developing a new funding framework, the voluntary and community sector will have a better idea of what we expect from our funding.

“The sector is also asking us to look at providing funding over the longer term to give it stability.”