PR 1676 - 2 February 2010
View more news items
here
Dacorum Borough Council's support for local
community organisations has been valued at nearly £1.4m according
to a study presented to Cabinet Councillors last week.
The Council currently invests £716,910 per year
to local voluntary and community groups in grant aid alone. In
addition to this it provides rate relief, buildings and other
assets, and support from Council Officers to support voluntary
organisations and community facilities.
The way it spends this money is about to
undergo a radical rethink. Working with the community organisations
that it funds, the Council will be investigating moving toward a
commissioning approach that puts local needs at the heart of the
way important services are provided to the community. Community
organisations would be able to bid for the opportunity to provide
services that meet the local area's latest needs. This would ensure
that public money continues to be directed where it makes a real
difference to the local community.
The Council will be consulting and working with
funded organisations to shape the way the new arrangement will work
and to help them identify and maximise other sources of income
available. Together these funds and the Council's money can buy the
services and projects that add value and achieve results.
Councillors agreed that in the review of the
grant funding arrangements, scheduled for the financial year
2010/11, investments in the local area should be focussed on the
aims of the Sustainable Community Strategy. The Strategy identifies
local people's priorities for Dacorum and an action plan for
organisations in The Dacorum Partnership to make improvements to
the priority areas.
Councillor Brian Ayling, Portfolio holder for
Performance and Service Improvement said: "We make a considerable
investment of time and money in our voluntary sector and are lucky
in Dacorum to have such widespread community activity which makes a
difference to the lives of our residents.
"It is important that we invest in those
voluntary services such as money advice, homelessness shelters or
support for drug addiction so that it meets the needs of our
communities. Support in this way can save the public purse many
more thousands of pounds in treatments, benefits and other services
down the line.
"Working alongsidecommunity organisations with
a commissioning approach will allow for an open and adaptable way
of adding even more value to public funds and is the best way
forward for the Council and the Borough's local communities."