Councillor Anthony Hunt (Leader) (Executive Member for Strategic Leadership) was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Executive Member Decisions - Strategic Leadership. The meeting was scheduled to consider a report about the establishment of a process for advertising, assessing and approving Community Wellbeing Grants under the Small Grants Scheme. The meeting was scheduled to take place on Friday, 29 August 2025.

Community Grant Scheme

Councillor Anthony Hunt (Leader) (Executive Member for Strategic Leadership) was scheduled to consider a report about the Community Grant Scheme. The report recommended that Councillor Anthony Hunt (Leader) (Executive Member for Strategic Leadership) approves the establishment of a process for advertising, assessing and approving Community Wellbeing Grants under the Small Grants Scheme, and that he approves a trial of the process with an initial applicant, making any adjustments to the paperwork as a result.

The Small Grants Scheme is intended to encourage greater community involvement and ownership in meeting very specific wellbeing challenges in each of Torfaen's communities. As part of finalising the financial outturn position for the 2021/22 financial year, an allocation of £1.5 million was made to earmarked reserves, for the purpose of policy choice to advance key member priorities for communities. In April 2025 a decision was taken to allocate £565,000 of the reserve to key projects, including a £100,000 allocation to a Small Grants Scheme .

The report stated that for a Small Grant Scheme to operate, officers would recommend the following is put in place:

• A clear purpose for the funding
• A process for inviting and endorsing applications for the fund
• A process for assessing and approving applications

Public reports pack 29th-Aug-2025 10.00 Executive Member Decisions - Strategic Leadership.pdf

The purpose of this Community Wellbeing Fund is to help community assets develop activities that will strengthen resilience, in a well-targeted way, to address a specific wellbeing challenge that is most prominent in the local area. The maximum grant would be £15,000, and all applicants must be an established community group, charity or company.

The report stated that it is important that decision-makers can be assured that applicants understand the wellbeing challenges in their local area and can clearly articulate how their proposal strengthens the community's resilience to that wellbeing challenge. Proposals will also have to be able to demonstrate an impact in a particular place . For this reason, it is proposed that Members seek potential applicants rather than an open call being issued via the Council's social media. Applications would require the endorsement via email of at least one Ward Member before they would be eligible for consideration by the grants panel.

Applications will be considered by a grants panel including two senior officers within the Communities Directorate and a representative from Torfaen Voluntary Alliance. The Grants Panel will prepare a Category A decision report for the Executive Member for Communities for each application. Applications will be considered until the funds have been fully committed. Members will receive a quarterly update on approved applications and remaining funds.

The following table shows the allocation of the £565,000 Members Policy Choice reserve to key projects: