Devon County Council

Introduction

Devon County Council has decided that each of its 62 councillors will have at their disposal an annual budget of £15,000 in financial year 2011/12.  The budgets will enable Councillors to respond to local needs in their divisions and support projects or activities for the benefit of the communities which they represent.

The Community Strategy Officers team is responsible for overseeing the administration of the scheme and will provide whatever support is necessary to enable members to make the best use of their funds.

Principles governing the use of Locality Budgets

The intention is that County Committees seek to 'add value' to beneficial local activity and to support work which furthers the County Council's strategic objectives. Members are encouraged to be proactive in considering the kinds of activity which would most benefit their areas rather than waiting to be lobbied by active local groups.

Locality Budgets Operating Principles

The use of locality budgets will vary from one area to another, in part reflecting the diverse nature of the communities that make up the County. Certain principles have been agreed by the Council to guide the use of locality budgets and to ensure financial probity, value for money and accountability. These are set out below.

• The project or activity not being able to be easily funded from another source (the principle of "investor of last resort").
• Consistency with the council's current policies.
• Evidence of value for money (perhaps measured in part by match-funding leverage secured).
• Appropriate levels of auditing and accounting are in place
• The extent to which the investment encourages or triggers partnership working
• Enabling a wide range of organisations to be able to apply for funds

There is an onus on elected members to seek out organisations which may be in need of support and to ensure, as far as possible, that information about the budget is widely available in their local areas. At each County Committee meeting a report is made about members’ spending in the previous quarter thereby ensuring the information is in the public domain.

There are two main areas of expenditure which have been supported by members since the scheme began.

Small local projects

Parish councils and community planning groups (parish or town plans) often identify projects which are well supported by local people but which need some funding in order to progress. In many instances a County Councillor has been able to provide enough funding to match fund a lottery or other funding application, thus making a big difference to their communities.  There is also a very large number of local voluntary and community organisations in Devon, ranging from village halls, sports groups, youth groups and social and cultural groups of all kinds. These are frequently in need of small amounts of funding for equipment, for special events or for building repairs and again Councillors have been able to help with this.

Larger projects

Where Councillors or local communities have identified a particular need for something which is part of the County Council’s mainstream business but for which there is no budget available, Councillors have been able to step in with the necessary funding. Examples include traffic management or speed reduction initiatives, vehicles for the Devon Youth Service and purchase of additional youth work sessional hours on a temporary basis. Equipment for schools has also featured, as has support for local libraries.  On occasions County Committee members have combined their budgets in order to support more expensive projects which benefit more than one division, or indeed, a whole District area.

Amounts to be disbursed

Whilst members are free to use their budgets as they see fit within the rules, there is an administrative cost to every payment.  Therefore, it is recommended that members do not allocate less than £100 to any one project. The only maximum is the amount of money available in the current year’s budget including anything that has been brought forward from the previous year.  No commitment should be made which spans more than one financial year.

Process – the form

The process for accessing locality budgets has been made as simple as possible. A form has been devised for the purpose which is attached to this paper and is readily available by email.  The form has 3 parts. Part A should be completed by the authorised representative of the group requesting the funding. We are encouraging groups to provide bank details so that an electronic transfer may be made which is more secure and cheaper to administer. The person completing the form may email it to the Councillor, which will be accepted in place of an actual signature on the form.

The councillor then completes Part B and sends it in to the Community Strategy Team admin office or directly to the relevant Locality Development Officer ,the Community Strategy team admin office, ideally by email, who.. Staff then ensures that the application complies with the council’s rules.

If a County Committee meeting is pending, the application is on the agenda for the meeting for approval. Otherwise, the application is sent to the Committee chair for his/her approval between meetings. It is likely that this last part of the process will change, but we will keep members updated.

Monitoring

We have taken a ‘light touch’ approach to monitoring, but there is an expectation that the Councillor should ensure that the funding is spent for the purposes stated on the form.  We will also send a short monitoring form Part D to the recipient at a suitable date after the payment has been made to secure feedback about the benefits achieved and confirmation that the whole payment has been used for the agreed purpose.   

Publicity

Following every County Committee meeting, the Council’s press office will issue a list of grants which have been made and bring this to the attention of local media. Local groups and Councillors are of course free to seek their own publicity.

Prohibitions

The County Council Administration which brought the locality budget scheme into being specified a number of situations for which locality budgets must not be used: These are:

1. Reinstating a cut in service or activity arising from an earlier policy decision of the County Council or other public body (see modification detailed below for the scope of this current prohibition)
2. As ongoing yearly commitments, unless specifically agreed by the Executive in advance
3. Funding to benefit individuals or privately owned businesses.

Prohibition 1 above has been modified by the current Administration to read as follows:

1. Reinstating a cut in service or activity arising from an earlier policy decision of the County Council or other public body, excepting where any one-off funding is required to mitigate the immediate impact of any service reduction where a creative alternative solution has been found, that in other respects meets the operating principles, provided also that there is no commitment upon the Council or Member to provide ongoing support (see examples a - c  below*)

*a. Reduction in subsidies have caused a bus service to be withdrawn, Members may wish tofund a local community transport association or fare car scheme to develop their database of contacts and advertise their services in the area that has been affected by a reduction in bus services.  

b.  A voluntary organisation has had a cut in funding and wants to re-locate to share premises with another voluntary organisation to reduce overheads. The local Member might contribute to the cost of re-location (removals and minor works).

c. The local Member grants funding via their locality budget to support the training and development costs associated with training volunteer youth workers supporting the removal of sessional youth worker support from a parish’s youth club.

The Community Strategy Team can provide support and guidance on ensuring that the principles of this scheme are met.

Related information:

Investing In Devon Funding (Airport money) – 2011-2012