The Hackney Council Skills, Economy and Growth Scrutiny Commission met on 10 November 2025 to discuss the Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy, its grants programme, and the commission's work programme for the coming year. Representatives from Hackney Playbus and Connecting all Communities were scheduled to attend the meeting to share their experiences of working with the council. The meeting was scheduled to be held at Hackney Town Hall.

Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy and Grants Programme

A presentation and written report were prepared for discussion about Hackney Council's long-term vision for the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS), feedback from the VCS sector that informed the new VCS Strategy, and the new Community and Partnership Service grants programme.

The report pack included a presentation entitled SEG Nov 25 VCS Strategy Refresh and Grants Programme Redesign, and a briefing note from Hackney CVS (HCVS). Claire Lindsay from Hackney Playbus and Shukri Adan from Connecting all Communities were also scheduled to attend.

The presentation noted that the VCS strategy was refreshed, not started from scratch, and that engagement in autumn 2024 confirmed what was still relevant from the previous strategy. It also incorporated learning from co-production with the sector during the pandemic, and learning from engagement with communities on equalities, as reflected in the new Equalities Plan and frameworks. Equalities and anti-racism were scheduled to be at the centre of the refreshed strategy, and an extensive Equalities Impact Assessment was undertaken.

The presentation included feedback from the VCS, including:

• The council needs to facilitate collaboration and capacity building.
• The council should recognise the impact of racist systems.
• The council should enable representation of marginalised people to authorities.
• The council should advocate for those with lived experience of statutory service failures.
• The council should convene local grassroots services and listen to unheard voices.
• The council should support capacity building, especially around finance and potential sharing of back office functions.

The presentation also noted that the needs for property are varied, and that an inventory of all council space available, not just Community Halls, would be useful. It suggested that Spacebank¹ could help convene spaces and facilitate conversations between organisations. The presentation stated that more support was needed for volunteers, with emphasis on enabling amplification of the service users' voice. It also stated that long term funding is better for everyone, and that an expression of interest stage would be useful for some grants which need a more detailed application.

The presentation stated that the refreshed strategy retains the themes of the 2019 strategy:

• The Way We Work
• Infrastructure for the VCS
• Property
• Volunteering and Social Action
• Grants and Investment

The presentation stated that the council took a strategic approach to engagement to ensure that they could confidently redesign a programme that reflects the long term aims of the VCS Strategy. It also stated that having tested that the strategy remains relevant ensured that the council could confidently understand the priorities for future investment and collaboration, enabling them to develop a clear set of principles to guide the redesign of the grants programme.

The presentation outlined the following principles for grants redesign:

• Be strengths based and build on community assets
• Be trauma informed
• Be anti-racist
• Be community led and/or place based
• Enable collaboration and co-production
• Enable innovation and creativity
• Be transparent and accountable
• Be flexible and responsive
• Be sustainable and long term

The presentation outlined the following overview of changes to the grants programme:

• Move to core grants for Advice, Community Infrastructure and Lunch Clubs
• 5 years for Advice and Community Infrastructure maybe 2 years for Lunch clubs pending Public Health review of Social Connection
• Removal of Heritage and Amenity grants as little or no evidence that these were addressing inequalities in any substantial way.
• Removal of Foodbank grant as the council works with a whole range of food providers, but funding to continue network coordinator role after Foodbank lost funding
• Inclusion of funding for peer support for small, grassroots Black and Global Majority organisations
• Reduction to project based grants which are short term and lower value
• Small fund to enable collaboration and coproduction with very small, grassroots organisations particularly Black and Global Majority organisations
• Continued funding for VCS Infrastructure

The presentation stated that the council is committed to identifying opportunities to pool its own grant investment and align other sources of funding such as commissioned activity to ensure resources go further and are more impactful. It also stated that the council needs to challenge its reliance on procurement when working with the VCS.

The presentation stated that the council needs to move away from an assumption that controlling short term outcomes through procured activity will lead to the change they want to see, and that reducing complex issues into more manageable 'outcomes' or KPIs is problematic when trying to tackle inequalities and racism.

The presentation stated that empowering ethnically diverse led VCS organisations/groups is a key way that the council can address structural racism; addressing imbalances of power and prioritisation and support developing and sustaining community action at a local level.

The Hackney CVS briefing note stated that the consultation on the new VCS Strategy represented a positive and inclusive approach to partnership working, but that continued collaboration is needed to maintain transparency and trust, particularly in the context of reduced grant funding. It also stated that smaller organisations continue to face challenges in sustainability, and that further targeted support is needed to protect the diversity and reach of the sector, and that local infrastructure organisations are critical to achieving the objectives of the strategy.

The briefing note outlined Hackney CVS's role in supporting the VCS in Hackney, including:

• Co-productive partnerships and governance
• Strengthening & Capacity Building
• Inclusive and Equitable Access
• Financial Resilience & Innovation
• Insight, Impact & Learning
• Visibility, Advocacy & Influence

Skills, Economy and Growth Scrutiny Commission Work Programme 2025/26

The commission was scheduled to discuss its work programme for 2025/26. The report pack included a document outlining the proposed work programme.

The proposed work programme included the following items:

• Finance and Corporate Properties response to the Corporate Peer Challenge
• Fleet Assets
• Review and Update from Cabinet Members - Achievements of the Administration 2022-2026
• Parking Services - Automation of Appeals notice process
• VCS Strategy and Grants Programme Update
• Transport Strategy
• Business Support
• Green Skills and Green Skills Hub
• Night time Economy Strategy Update

Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes from the meeting held on 7 July 2025 were included in the report pack.