Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Council Minutes

04 September 2003

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF MEETING

Thursday 4 September 2003

Present: Dr David Stevens, Mr Barney Devine, Mr Michael Wardlow, Ms Jane Leonard

Observer: Ms Karen Jardine

In Attendance: Mr Paul Jordan, Ms Alison Montgomery, Ms Roisin McGuire, Ms Jenny Shaw, Ms Eileen Deacon

Apologies: Ms Michaela Mackin, Ms Maura Muldoon, Ms Cecelia Clegg, Ms Libby Keys, Ms Karen Johnston

Apologies and Welcome

Mr Jordan welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Community Initiatives Committee.

Welcome and Overview of the Funding & Development Programme:

Presentation by Mr Jordan on the following points:

A brief history of the Council
The missions and aims of the Council.
The aims of the grant programmes in the Funding and Development Directorate.
The roles and responsibilities of the Committee.
Format and structure of committee meetings.

Schedule of the coming meetings which are as follows:

4 December 2003 1.00pm - 3.00pm Dungannon Office
26 February 2004 9.30am - 4.30pm Belfast Office
20 May 2004 1.00pm - 3.00pm Dungannon Office

Committee members introduced themselves.

Presentation by Ms Montgomery on the Core-Funding Programme

Discussion arose as to the geographical distribution of grant aid.

The idea was raised that there should be more publicising of the scheme and specific targeting of groups to encourage them to apply for core funding. It was noted that, due to the financial constraints of the programme, in order to engage new groups in the Core funding portfolio that grant aid to existing groups would have to be reduced or discontinued.

Mr Devine noted that funding of the Programme has been static at c£1.4m for 3 years and that perhaps there is a need to make challenges to the government for more funding.

It was noted that the Programme can only respond to applications received and that under-representation of some areas is due to lack of applications.

The following were suggested as means to address this:

Personal Contact: make potential applicants aware of funding and make contacts in these areas. Ask other organisations to signpost the Council towards groups who might be eligible for assistance

Can we actively target North Belfast or other areas?

Engage politicians to lobby for more funding.

A Presentation by Ms Shaw and Ms McGuire on the Community Relations and Cultural Diversity Grants Scheme was given providing a description of the grant aiding process.

Funding and Development Programme Update:

Live Issues Conference to be held on the 22 October 2003 at the Fitzwilliam Hotel.

Keynote speaker John Paul Lederach

Range of interactive workshops

Terms of Reference for Committee (paper CIC 04/09/03/01 refers):

Issues raised:

Mr Devine raised the issue of ethnic minorities/and disability presence on the committee.

Mr Wardlow raised the issue of other religious groupings beyond Catholic and Protestant.

Ms Leonard raised the point that it should be known that we are all individuals.

Mr Wardlow requested that the terms of reference for the committee should include being a staff member of an organisation as requiring a declaration of interest.

Terms of reference were agreed by all committee members.

Core Funding Officers Report (tabled paper refers):

Issues raised:

Evaluation

Mr Wardlow pointed out the need to develop people with skills to be evaluators in both the Community Relations and Community Development sectors.

Mr Devine advised of a conflict of interest in regard to Dooneen Community Association.

Discussion followed on the £31,000 budget for evaluation in this financial year.

Dr Stevens mentioned Dr Morrow's proposal for CRC to employ a designated Core-Funding Evaluation Officer. A potential issue with this approach is the idea of a “firewall” i.e. distance from group and objectivity.

Mr Wardlow said that it should be the case that Council can produce more learning for the amount of money invested in this process, and that there is a need to have diverse range of people involved in this process

The question was raised as to the need to investigate what works and what doesn't work within this budget.

Dr Morrow suggested that an in-house Development Officer would enable quality assessment as the current process provides an audit rather than an evaluation. It was discussed that there is a need to know what the support and development needs of groups are as well as what trends are emerging and to make it a learning focused process.

Mr Wardlow noted that with Council staff support there would be a Development Officer available to provide support from the very start to help with the evaluation process.

Dr Morrow proposed that CRU be approached about the creation of a Development Officer post for evaluations. Committee Agreed. It was noted that there is a need to investigate what actions are arising from evaluations.

Committee agreed that the evaluation contract with Belinda Loftus for the Nerve Centre should be upheld.

CEO's CR Forum:

Dr Morrow discussed the meetings and welcomed everyone to attend.

North Belfast:

It was noted that slippage is potentially a major problem in this area and that there is a need for a work strategy to be developed. Mr Wardlow felt that Council needs to take risks with funding in areas like North Belfast. Ms Leonard suggested engaging groups in the museum's “Conflict” project. It was agreed to approach noted organisations to identify what is happening and what they intend to do, and perhaps attach a timetable for work to begin e.g. reconsider position on providing grant aid after one year.

Mr Jordan asked about reducing grant aid to groups who are not meeting spend requirements. Mr Devine noted the need for CRC to be vigorous in terms of checking financial accountability and control of funded groups. Ms Leonard suggested that it might be written into the contract that if the funding wasn't used that CRC have the right to re-allocate it to another group in the respective area.

Slippage

Discussion took place as to the feasibility/desirability of one or more 6 month project(s) which could be funded through any underspend arising in the programme.

Resources could be reallocated towards expenditure on staff development, training courses or community relations training, strategic planning and team building. Groups should be invited to bid early in the financial year for activities they might undertake should additional resources become available, these could then be prioritised.CRC should identify what (additional) impact it wants through this funding and the need to evaluate against a set of results.

Recommendations:

Committee agreed that for the financial year 2003/2004, bids for additional funding should be invited with a submission deadline before the December meeting. Dr Morrow and Ms Montgomery to agree on a range of themes under which bids might be accepted: 2 Thematic, 2 Organisation, 2 Practice and groups to be invited to submit a business case for additional funding.

Mr Wardlow suggested that this process should parallel the structure of the CR/CD grants scheme. This was agreed.

Proposal: Assessment (Scoring Process) For Core Funding Applications (Paper CIC 04/09/03/02 refers)

Discussion followed presentation of this paper. The following issues were raised:

There are major problems with the “science” of scoring.

Dr Stevens suggested and eligibility threshold and a matrix based on programme criteria

Dr Morrow raised his concerns about measuring cost per beneficiary

Dr Morrow suggested committee provide guidance on what questions to ask to carry out a quality assessment against criteria

Dr Stevens pointed out the changing funding environment and the need to be able to demonstrate clearly why groups were declined

It was suggested that there be an officer level scoring process with the following outcomes:

Application does not meet criteria

Application meets some criteria but not all, or not well (threshold mechanism)

Applications passes “threshold” but is not a priority work area for the programme

Applications passes “threshold and is a priority work area for the programme

There is a need for committee to identify the programme's priorities for the funding period.

It was agreed that Ms Montgomery would develop a draft structure for discussion at the next meeting.

Proposal: Training and Development Fund (Paper CIC04/09/03/03 refers)

The Committee agreed to the following three-strand approach to training and development as outlined in the paper.

It was however noted that there is a need to develop a support strategy. Mr Wardlow put forward the idea of empowering Directors. Dr Stevens highlighted the need for training on financial control and personnel issues.

Proposal: Research Awards (Paper CIC04/09/03/04 refers)

A number of observations were raised by Committee:

Ms Leonard wished to know if all awards resulted in production of a resource. Mr Jordan advised that some went onto publication.

Dr Morrow mentioned the European Programme research strand and the possibility of platforms and outlets for articles from both the European Fund and the Funding and Development Programme's research awards scheme – for example publication on the CRC website

It was noted that resources should not overlap with, for example, University Resources.

It was also noted that research contracts should require seminars, reports and papers regarding the project.

It was proposed that four research projects be announced each year, that these are heard verbally and published ensuring at least two public audiences and publication on the website.

Possible research topics identified were:

Social trust of Northern Ireland
Public enquires
Dealing with the past
Poverty: what does money help?
Divide between Europe

It was also suggested that a volume of essays could be published as a good resource by CRC. Dr Morrow suggested a journal of all C.R.C. research or use of the website

Ms Leonard suggested that research reports which had never been published could perhaps find another outlet for example “Due North”

Paper was approved and it was agreed that Ray Mullen, Mr Wardlow, Ms Mackin, Mr Jordan and Ms Libby Smit would be on the Committee team.