Decision details

Our compelling vision to address the challenge of Doncaster’s inactivity levels has been recognised by Sport England as one of 12 national Local Delivery Pilot sites in 2017. This has provided Doncaster with the opportunity to gain support and resources.

Our most recent investment proposal to Sport England was approved by Cabinet on the 23.09.19. It described the 6 six key proposals of our Get Doncaster Moving Investment Plan that we would utilise the funding for:-
• Active Communities
• Future Parks Doncaster
• Doncaster Evaluation
• Systems Network & Leadership
• Maximising the Impact of Major Sports Events
• Marketing & Communications

This Officer Decision record is in relation to the work that we want to develop in relation to Active Communities.

Since the investment award, we have worked hard to listen to and understand our communities through a number of discovery, dream and design phases; led by our work with the Behavioural Science Consortium and the Well Doncaster asset-based community development approach.
We are now in a position to respond to the insight, which has told us that individuals and groups of people in communities are part of the solution to help people to ‘get out and about more’. We now need to provide adequate and accessible resources in a way that communities require, in order to change the lives of real people.

The Active Communities Grants will fund ideas from local people, groups and organisations that create the right conditions for people to ‘get out and about more’ and be active where they live.

Applications can be made up to £500, there is no minimum amount and are open to constituted or unconstituted groups.

Individuals or groups who are un-constituted and do not have a bank account will be advised to contact the Well Officer that is based in their locality, in the first instance. The Well Officer will discuss the idea with the applicant, and support them to explore opportunities to either:
1. Connect with an existing constituted group or organisation, who is eligible to act as the accountable body and apply on their behalf
2. Support the groups to become constituted, with a bank account
If option 1 or 2 above are not possible, the applicant will complete an application form specifically designed for un-constituted groups. If successful, Doncaster Council will manage bookings and/or payments on behalf of the applicant. This will be managed between the Well Doncaster and Get Doncaster Moving administration teams.

The decisions and recommendations about resource allocation will reflect the community-led approach, while considering the scale of investment, frequency of decision making, staff capacity and geographical boundaries.
Four locality panels will be established (local people and Doncaster Council Officers), with responsibility for the four locality boundaries. The panels will convene electronically (via email), on a monthly basis and their role will be to;
? assess Active Communities Grant applications from individuals, groups and organisations based within the respective locality boundary, as detailed in the map;
? provide recommendations of those applications to be funded, to the Sport England Strategic Lead for Doncaster (in line with National Lottery funding requirements)

The panels sit within the Get Doncaster Moving and DGT Governance structures, as detailed in the diagram below:
Following consultation with the respective Cabinet Members for Public Health, Communities and Adult Social Care, it has been agreed that all Elected Members will be sent the applications from their Ward each month. Elected Members will be invited each month to score and comment on the applications from their ward, within the same timescales and terms as the Locality Panel. The Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure and Culture will have oversight and comment alongside the Sport England Strategic Lead at the final sign-off stage.

Records of who is has accessed the grant, amount of investment and a summary of what each grant aims to achieve will be maintained by the Get Doncaster Moving Project Support Officer. Individuals, groups and organisations are able to access the grant on more than one occasion; however, the grant must be used in a different way for each application. Every application will be assessed against the pre-application criteria and Active Communities Grant Database to ensure that this is the case.

Records will be reviewed at regular intervals by the LDP Delivery Group (including Sport England) to ensure that the integrity of the programme is maintained and outcomes of the grant are being met.
Within six months of grant award, recipients of grants will be supported to complete a short questionnaire to monitor the impact of the grant, and these will be analyses by our Evaluation partner, CFE Research.

To allocate £150,000 to an Active Communities Grants Scheme, where individuals, groups and organisations are able to apply for up to £500. The scheme will start on 16/12/19, and will be open until the investment has been allocated (scheduled 31/3/21). Four locality panels will assess applications and provide recommendations to Sport England and the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure and Culture who will make a formal decision.

This Officer Decision Record is following the approval by Cabinet on the 23.09.19 to receive £1.8m from Sport England to maximise opportunities from the Local Delivery Pilot and delegate to Director of Public Health in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer and the relevant portfolio holder to ensure spend is in accordance with the bid and to undertake the accountable body role.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED
1. Administer smaller or larger sized grants
Recent learning from a number of seed funding initiatives in other LDP areas and across Doncaster has shown that up to £500 will have the most impact with the target audiences we are aiming to work with. It also enables the total grants budget to be maximised across more places and people in the borough. We will learn from the first 6 months of delivery and make any necessary changes to the grant amount if required.

2. Do not deliver a grants process
This would contradict the decision made in early 23rd January 2018 to accept entry into Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilot and ensure we maximise opportunities presented by the programme through providing council wide support.

Doncaster Council would not be able to access any future significant funding via the Local Delivery Pilot and therefore reduce the amount of resources that Doncaster has to addressing inactivity.