Purpose

To provide detail of the proposed changes to the Council’s scheme of Service Support Grant (SSG) funding to the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS).

Decision

The Cabinet has agreed to the proposed recommendations for the SSG three-year funding scheme for 2026-29 in Appendix A (subject to the Council’s normal annual budget-setting processes) to include:

1) Timing of the review and timetable – undertaking the review now

2) Budget for the SSG - increase the annual budget from £167,400 to £300,000 (plus Housing grants), a total increase of £132,600.

3) Themes and notional allocations - maintain the current themes (with some amendments) and ring-fence a sum (of £30k) for a specific pilot/project to encourage PLACE-based and/or theme-based working

4) Grant term and performance monitoring - maintaining the status quo, with performance monitored at:

o six monthly intervals for those organisations in receipt of funding sums of £10,000 or greater per annum.

o twelve monthly intervals for organisations in receipt of funding sums less than £10,000 per annum unless specifically requested by the Committee Members.

5) Framework for assessing project proposals - retain the status quo

6) Name of the scheme - amend the name from ‘Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS)’ to ‘Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector’.