Category Archives: Grants

Vale Grants Scheme opens 20 Aug for new applications

Council to offer £175,000 in grants to local community

Vale of White Horse District Council will be offering two grant schemes starting next month with £175,000 available to support the local community. The Capital Grants scheme and New Homes Bonus community grant schemes are open for applications from 20 August to 15 October .

Workshops to give guidance on the grants and help people to apply for them will be offered 4-6pm: (need to write to the for the locations)

  • 8 August in Abingdon
  • 10 August in Faringdon
  • 15 August in Wantage.

The Council was highly successful with both schemes last year, with the Capital grants scheme awarding £94,544 to organisations and the New Homes Bonus scheme awarding £98,066.

You can book a place on an advice session by calling the district council on 01235 422644 or by emailing grants@southandvale.gov.uk.

Places are limited with two people per organisation allowed to attend a workshop.

For more information on both schemes, please visit www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/grants.

Children’s Centres Grant Scheme – 2017/18 

For full council on 15 Feb 2017 at 19:30.

Liberal Democrat motion to amend the budget: proposed by Cllr Judy Roberts, seconded by Cllr Emily Smith

This council recognises the valuable work carried out the Children’s Centres across the Vale and is deeply concerned about the impact on local families and our communities when the County Council ceases provision of universal children’s services on 1st March 2017. The children’s centres in Botley, Abingdon, Grove & The Hanneys, Faringdon, Southmoor and Wantage provide essential well-being services to children under 5 and their families.

This council also recognises the significant efforts of parents and community groups working to find alternative ways of providing universal services for our families and the financial challenges involved. Their hard work for a good cause underlines how they feel about the value of these services.

This council is in a position to help fund the set-up costs for these projects in the coming year, via our grants scheme. Therefore, the budget for 2017/18 will include a grant fund of £100,000 for groups to apply for and £3,000 to pay for officer time to administer these grants following the same procedure as the New Homes Bonus and Community Capital Funds.

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Background

The Head of Finance has confirmed that these costs are sustainable within the 2017/18 budget.

Vale’s Corporate Plan for 2016 – 2020 outlines council’s aims, which include:

• Supporting community groups and community events through our grant scheme.

• Assisting voluntary and community groups that provide important services to residents, to attract volunteers.

• Working with partners as part of the South and Vale Community Safety Partnership to deliver the annual plan aimed at reducing crime, tackling antisocial behaviour and supporting vulnerable people.

These Vale corporate objectives are met by the successful early intervention services that Children’s Centres provide.

We’ve heard the argument that children’s centres are county’s business, not district’s. Clearly county can’t afford the children’s centres any longer, so many centres are working to find their own ways of being viable and self-sustaining. It’s exactly the sort of not-for-profit organisation our grants schemes support. Once we have transformed our local government into a unitary authority, this sort of service provision will be very much in our remit. In the meantime, we are able to help, and we should.

Recent developments, please note:

• Members of Abingdon Town Council agreed unanimously to raise their precept in order to place £30,000 per year for three years into a reserve fund, to be paid out to South Abingdon Children’s Centre, subject to certain conditions being met.

• Cumnor Parish Council have donated £5000 to their local Children’s Centre.

• Wantage Town Council donated £10,000 per annum for three years to a newly formed group to manage local children’s centre services.

 

 

 

Children’s centres grants

For the 2017/18 budget, the Lib Dems have proposed a growth item to provide some help to the Vale’s Children’s Centres, which are at risk of losing most or all of their county council funding. Some centres are actively working toward self-management, where they will ensure their own long-term viability, and Lib Dems thought of a way Vale could help.

Here’s the proposal we’ve submitted for this budget:

Children’s Centre Grant Proposal

Proposal

To create a grant fund available to community groups whose aim is to keep their Children’s Centres viable so they can continue to provide open access children and family services formerly funded by Oxfordshire County Council.

Background

Children’s Centres provide a variety of advice and support for children under 5, their parents and carers. Chirldren’s Center services are available to families from pregnancy right through to when children go into reception class at primary school.

There are a core set of services they must provide:

  • Child and family health services, ranging from child health clinics to breastfeeding support
  • Some  centres offer high quality childcare and early learning – those that don’t can help advise on local childcare options
  • Advice on parenting, local childcare options and access to specialist services for families like speech therapy, healthy eating advice or help with managing money
  • Help for you to find work, training or volunteering opportunities, using links to local Jobcentre Plus offices and training providers

Some centres may also offer a dentist, dietician or physiotherapist, or help people visit the stop smoking clinic, get faster access to expert advice, support and short-term breaks if a  child has learning difficulties or disabilities, talk to Citizens’ Advice, take parenting classes and ‘improve your English if it is not your first language’.

Most of these centres were funded through government initiatives such as Sure Start; over the past few years these grants have been discontinued.

From April 2017, Oxfordshire County Council is reorganising these services by replacing 44 Children’s Centres and 7 Early Intervention Hubs with 8 intervention hubs in the most socially disadvantaged areas of the county.  The County Council has made available a £1.2million Transition Fund as one-off start-up help for Community Groups interested in taking on these services. The money is subject to a bidding process and groups are expected to prepare a business plan, demonstrating financial sustainability within a short period.

There are 9 Children’s Centres in the Vale district:

  • Elms Road, North Hinksey
  • North Abingdon
  • Northeast Abingdon
  • South Abingdon
  • Faringdon
  • Grove & the Hanneys
  • Southmoor
  • Wantage
  • Wootton

Eight of the nine centres have some form of community group that recognises the well-documented benefits of these early help resources, knows how highly valued they are by the families who use them, and is working to retain these services for future generations in their area. (Northeast Abingdon does not have such a group currently.)

The Vale’s Corporate Plan for 2016 – 2020 outlines council’s aims including:

  • Supporting community groups and community events through our grant scheme.
  • Assisting voluntary and community groups that provide important services to residents, to attract volunteers.
  • Working with partners as part of the South and Vale Community Safety Partnership to deliver the annual plan aimed at reducing crime, tackling antisocial behaviour and supporting vulnerable people.

All these objectives are met by the successful early help services that Children’s Centres provide.

The Need for Funding

Examples of the sort of applications this grant would be able to fund are:

  • £5,000 capital that is required to be able to register with Companies House. This is necessary if they wish to become a charity which would enable them to apply for Gift Aid and other grant funding
  • Revenue costs for staff. Within the Vale’s grants programme, most of the funding available is for capital costs. There are hardly any grants available for revenue costs. The current staff in the Children Centres are highly qualified with specialised skills for working with Early Years children and struggling families; many may well become unemployed. This fund would enable the community groups to offer future employment without losing valued staff to the employment market.
  • The government Childcare funding for 2-year olds from low income households doesn’t cover all the costs of providing that childcare because of the expense of qualified staff needed and the required ratio of staff to children. These grants could bridge that gap so that the community groups could still offer this service to low income households and also offer paid childcare places to enable them to become financially sustainable.

Funding Process

  • These grants would be administered using the same IT systems and similar processes used for the New Homes Bonus and Community Capital grants.
  • There would be a cost associated with staff resource to evaluate the grants and prepare reports for either the Joint Area Committees or Cabinet. These costs could be minimised if only one or two dates were offered as application deadlines to encourage the eight community groups to apply at the same time. The grant department estimate these costs at £3,000 to operate the system which would cover one round only and include the following:
  1. Approval of a grant policy by the council
  2. Create a new online grant scheme
  3. Invite applications from children’s centres
  4. Advise applicants about how to apply
  5. Evaluate applications and prepare reports
  6. Decision process (cabinet or area committee)
  7. Prepare grant agreements
  8. Organise grant payments
  9. Grant monitoring
  • A grant pot of £100,000, for the various community groups to apply to for funds would equate to approximately £12,500 each. This fund would operate alongside OCC’s Transition Fund to help these community groups become viable in the short-term and giving them the opportunity to sustain these services in the long-term.

Cllr Judy Roberts

Cllr Emily Smith

 

 

New Homes Bonus Grants

IMG_1962Vale use an algorithm in determining New Homes Bonus Grants amounts.

One criteria is what percentage of the news homes in the larger area belong to the smaller area.

Here’s the current chart (Jan 2016).

If your organisation has roots in North Hinksey Parish, I urge you to consider how a Vale Grant might help you!

Get a Vale Grant in 2016

At our first meeting of 2016, the Vale’s area committee that includes Botley and Sunningwell gave away over £55,000 to good causes. If you need a capital, revenue or festival grant, check with Vale to see what’s available.

Vale can offer over £1,000 for improvements to your village halls, community shops, play areas, sports clubs and skate parks or to buy new or replacement equipment. You can apply for up to 50 per cent of the project cost.

Vale will open for grant applications this year:

  • between 14 March 2016 and 6 May 2016
  • between 6 June 2016 and 29 July 2016
  • between 5 September 2016 and 4 November 2016

For more info: http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/services-and-advice/community-advice-and-support/grants

 

Grants Applications – 2016 windows

From Vale News in Nov 2015.

You’ve probably started thinking about projects you could do next year and the budgets you’ll need. We can offer over £1,000 for improvements to your village halls, community shops, play areas, sports clubs and skate parks or to buy new or replacement equipment. You can apply for up to 50 per cent of the project cost.

We’ll open for applications this month from 16 November until 15 January 2016.  If this is too soon for any projects you have in mind here’s when we’re planning to open next year:

  • between 14 March 2016 and 6 May 2016
  • between 6 June 2016 and 29 July 2016
  • between 5 September 2016 and 4 November 2016

For more information, visit the grants webpage or give our Grants team a call on 01235 540525.

 

Grants for Communities

Vale Grants for Communities

There are a number of grants available from the Vale for community groups and Parish Councils. Below is an outline of what each grant is and what it can be used to pay for. There is a Grants Officer who can help groups decide which fund is most suited to the project you need to fund and can support you through the application process. Some of the application forms are points based and it is important to comply with all of the criteria to stand the best chance of your application being successful. All District Councillors sit on the Area Committees that make the final decisions on some of the funds, so do get in touch with Debby or Emily for information and support with your application.

Grant title Who/what it can fund Deadlines
Festival and Events Grant Up to £1,000 per application (£15,000 available each year) Events run by community groups and charities. Applications are open through the year. Groups need to apply at least 4 weeks before the event is due to take place.
Capital Community Grant Up to £5,000 per application. Match funding of 50% or more must be secured (minimum of £100,000 available each year) Community groups or Parish/Town councils. Must show benefit to communities and demonstrate local need. Previously used for furniture, equipment, IT, building improvements, etc. Two rounds per year, the next one expected in September. Money must be spent one year from award date.
New Homes Bonus £100,000 is available each year subject to Council’s Budget. No limit for individual applications. Community groups or Parish/Town councils that have seen housing growth. Revenue or capital to support the integration of new homes into existing communities. Rolling applications but not open until September

 Other financial support available from other parts of the Vale District Council:

  • Disability Facilities Grant (to fund adaptations for individuals, usually on their own homes)
  • Home Improvement Loans (for elderly people in private housing to pay for renovations on an equity loan basis. The money is recovered by the Vale when the house is sold)
  • Fuel Poverty Grants (available for individuals via the Energy Officer in Corporate Strategy)
  • LEADER funding (£1.5m is available for private businesses. Aims to boost enterprise and the rural economy.)

Information about all of the funding and grants available from the Vale is available at: http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/services-and-advice/community-advice-and-support

Other organisations that could help your group find funding

  • Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action provide community groups with details of other funds available in Oxfordshire and support to apply for these ocva.org.uk
  • Oxfordshire Rural Community Council provide advice and capacity building for a wide range of groups and initiatives that support rural areas orcc.org.uk