Derbyshire council is set to consider stopping over £1m of funding for community and voluntary groups

A Derbyshire County Councillor says the local authority will continue to work with its ‘partners’ to support voluntary and community organisations despite considering plans to possibly end over £1m of funding for 50 groups.

The cash-strapped Conservative-controlled council has been considering comments from meetings or drop-in sessions with 1,374 written responses as part of a public consultation into the proposed withdrawal of Discretionary Grant Funding relating to two types of handout for voluntary and community groups which currently receive over £1m from the council.

And before the council’s Cabinet meets on November 14 to consider the plans they will be exploring measures to reduce the impact of stopping grants by continuing to support groups that help the council meet its legal duties around equality and partnership-working with £50,000 of funding.

Cllr Carol Hart, Cabinet Member for Health and Communities, said: “We recognise the valuable role of community and voluntary organisations across Derbyshire which is why we’re proposing to set aside some money to support continued engagement to ensure we deliver the council’s strategy and partnership and equality objectives.

“We would also consider how we could lessen the impact if grants came to an end and pledge to work with our partners towards a longer-term sustainable future for funding to voluntary and community organisations across Derbyshire.”

Depending on the outcome of the Cabinet meeting, the two types of handout including Adult Social Care Discretionary Grant Funding, and Corporate Services and Transformation Discretionary Grant Funding may be stopped by March 2025, next year.

Stopping the Adult Social Care grants would affect 30 community and voluntary groups which currently receive annual grants totalling just over £722,000 to support work including advocacy, training, befriending and social activities.

The council provides Discretionary Grant Funding to eleven voluntary sector organisations for befriending support and it provides a discretionary grant to seven voluntary sector organisations to support social inclusion activity.

Some of these organisations include Mencap, Borrowbrook Homelink, Age UK, The African Caribbean Community Association and well-being charity The Bureau.

The council has also supported luncheon clubs and the Bolsover Woodlands Enterprise, self-advocacy organisation Our Vision, and Our Future for people with learning disabilities, and it has funded ten voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations.

In addition, if the Corporate Services and Transformation Grants are stopped a further 20 groups that receive just over £333,000, would be affected.

These include voluntary and community groups where funding supports the black, minority and ethnic sector, and has helped with training and guidance and specialist advice for groups including Derbyshire Law Centre and Citizens Advice Mid Mercia.

Derbyshire County Council has stated that out of the total 50 organisations, seven would be affected by both sets of proposals under Adult Social Care, and Corporate Services and Transformation, if they are finalised.

Cllr Natalie Hoy, the county council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Care, said: “We’ve always prided ourselves on being a well-managed council but like all other councils across the country we’re facing increasing financial pressures that are outside our control.

“Many of these organisations have been receiving grants for up to 20 years as a matter of course. Since then, Derbyshire’s population has changed and people’s aspirations, needs and preferences for support have also altered.

“It is vitally important that we ensure we are supporting people fairly across the whole of Derbyshire and we have to ensure that our finite resources are targeted at services we are required to deliver by law to those people who need us most.”

The council has stressed that it has chosen to fund voluntary organisations with annual grants for up to 20 years but it claims that over this time it has experienced growing financial pressures beyond its control.

It has recently been addressing saving proposals to manage a budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024/25 financial year after blaming reduced Government funding, the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, higher than anticipated inflation, higher prices for fuel, energy and materials, rising costs, meeting the cost of the national pay award and the growing demand for adults’ and children’s social care services.

A council report stated that subsequently the council must consider whether it can afford to keep awarding discretionary grants it has no legal obligation to deliver alongside prioritising spending on services it has to provide by law.

And a council officer told a recent Scrutiny meeting the council does not have a specific statutory duty to offer grant funding to these relevant organisations.

He added the main concerns expressed in the consultation and under consideration were the potential impact on elderly people in rural areas and the impact on mental health and well-being, costs and the sustainable future of organisations without the funding.

The officer also explained that it is not the case that these grants provide 100per cent of the income for the recipient organisations and there are alternative forms of funding available for these groups.

All the groups receiving funding had previously been told in 2022 the grants would cease and the council would commission services where required but due to budget pressures this commissioning did not get underway and the council has since stated it is having to prioritise its statutory services which must be fulfilled upon by law over other areas.

The Cabinet will consider approving the council report’s recommendation to end Adult Social Care Discretionary Grant funding and Corporate Services and Transformation Discretionary Grant funding in March 2025.