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Cabinet Member for Finance Decision Meeting
Tuesday, 28th July 2026 at 10:00am

 
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  1. Officer
  2. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  3. Officer
  4. Tyler Jardine, Officer
  5. Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer
  6. Councillor Patrick Coleman
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  1. Officer
  2. Councillor Patrick Coleman
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  1. Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer
  2. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  3. Officer
  4. Councillor Patrick Coleman
  5. Officer
  6. Councillor Patrick Coleman
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  1. Officer
  2. Councillor Patrick Coleman
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1 Cabinet Member Introductions

Good morning. Welcome to this meeting. This is a Cabinet Member for Finance decision meeting
and my name is Patrick Coleman.
I am cabinet member for finance.
I have offices present.
Joseph Walker, head of economic development and communities.
I should ask you to introduce yourself so the camera can pick you up.
Officer - 0:00:41
Good morning, I'm Joseph Walker, head of economic development and communities.
Thank you.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:00:48
A little bit. Always pause before you answer so the camera comes round to you.
Officer - 0:01:02
Good morning, I'm Claire Jopling. I'm the Community Wellbeing Manager.
Tyler Jardine, Officer - 0:01:14
Good morning.
Tyler Jardine, Democratic Services Support for this meeting.
Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer - 0:01:23
Good morning.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:01:41
Our officers present who have just introduced themselves, Joseph Walker, Head of Economic
Development and Communities, Julie Gibson, Democratic Services Officer, Tyler Jardine,
Trainee Democratic Services Officer and Claire Joplin, Community Wellbeing Manager.
This meeting is being streamed live to the Council's website and all of the meeting papers
are also available to view on the Council's website.
We must all, including me, please ensure that microphones are only switched on when speaking.
Please also ensure that all mobile phones and electronics are to be switched off or put on to silent mode.
Today's meeting is to consider and agree the following.
To note the activity enabled by the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
• To agree to the proposed distribution for the 2026 allocation of funds.
• To delegate authority to the Head of Economic Development and Communities in consultation
with the Cabinet Member.
• To agree the distribution of smaller grants to enable the community co -ordination theme.
And, fourthly, to delegate authority to the Head of Economic Development and Communities
in consultation with the Section 151 Officer to finalise grant terms.

2 Declarations of Interests

Now, are there any declarations of interest?
There are none.

3 Officer Overview of the Report

As soon as I turn my phone off, we'll come to the officer overview of the report.
So Joseph Walker, over to you first.
Officer - 0:03:31
Thank you, Councillor Coleman.
And yes, so the paper today, you've outlined the recommendations.
So if I might start with a little bit of background to sort of set the context to explain where
those recommendations come from and the purpose.
So the Crisis and Resilience Fund is a central government funding pot that is delegated to
the County Council to support families and households across the county, principally
around meeting challenges to their household budgets, to food budgets and to the cost of
utilities.
It has a background in what was called
the Household Support Fund,
which came out post COVID and was maintained
by central government for the years since
to cover the cost of living crisis.
So within Gloucestershire,
it's managed at the discretion of the County Council.
In the years since its inception,
Household Support Fund are now crisis and resilience.
The County Council has made an allocation
to each one of the districts and borough councils to support activity within their localities.
So this recommendation whilst or rather this decision whilst it's new because the crisis and
resilience fund is a new mechanism it follows in a sort of established pattern and set up to manage
the household support fund and there are technical distinctions between the two funds. There are
further funding pots rolled into crisis and resilience.
And a big change is, as the name suggests,
there is much more of an expectation
within crisis and resilience
in trying to get upstream of crisis
and to support households with building their resilience
and to try and support them before they get to that need
to reach out for emergency funding.
And that really is where the allocation
to the district council comes in.
So our ambition with this funding in line with the government programme is to use this
funding to support local partners who support residents around the district in advance of
absolute crisis to build their household resilience to support in terms of their financial well -being
and really to try and avoid a sticking -person mentality
and move upstream and support people.
So then moving to the recommendations then,
I think we've covered up one
in terms of the background to this.
Moving then to the distribution,
what we propose is a programme
of a few slightly different activities.
So on the papers today, there is a recommendation
to support a number of local charity organisations
directly with funding to support their activities
in the district.
Alongside that, we're looking to retain a £40 ,000 sum
which we're actively working to allocate
to a number of smaller organisations around the district.
We're working to a timetable with this.
This is this current year's funding,
so we're keen to get up and running.
And clearly we're one quarter in.
So we wanted to bring the key decisions and get the money flowing to those big partners to make sure we get
continuation of provision in the district
and then finally there's a request for delegating authority and
to the head of economic development and communities which is myself in consultation with the cabinet member to make a decision on those smaller grants and
to delegate authority to
work with the Section 151 Officer, who's our Chief Finance Officer, to make sure we finalise
terms moving forward. So that's the overview then. If I can move to the specifics of what
we're recommending and then we can hopefully, if there are any questions, we can take those
and then move forward. So specifically then we're looking for agreement to award £20 ,000
to the North Cotswolds Food Bank towards £25 ,000 to the South Cotswolds Food Bank. And for
both of these, the purpose of the provision is to support advice being provided within
those food bank settings. So to complement that emergency food provision that food banks
are renowned for this funding is to support advice embedded into those centres provided
through citizens advice to ensure households accessing emergency food also get support
and advice to try and reassess their financial circumstances so that they're not left in
that position moving forward. The other two direct awards we're looking for are £16 ,000
towards Cotswold Friends and 18 ,000 towards the Chern neighbourhood hub here in Sire ancestor.
And then finally a grant to P3 for 21 ,000 pounds again for that support in advance of
crisis.
The purpose of those grants is set out in the Annex B where there is a brief description
of each grant in turn and a profile of both funding and the outputs we're
expecting from that activity. As I mentioned earlier we're also looking to
support smaller grants so on the table at annex A there is an allocation of
£40 ,000 towards smaller grants which we're hoping will support
organisations working more at settlement level across the district. We're actively
pursuing conversations with partners on that at the moment. There is also a sum of money
set aside to support the convening work of the Cotswold Food Network, which has proved
itself a very valuable approach to working in partnership to address issues around food
provision and financial inclusion in the district. And finally, a sum to support the administration
of this work. So I think that's my summary, my overview, but happy to answer any questions.

4 Confirmation of Comments

Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:10:07
Thank you very much. That's the officer overview of the report. It then says confirmation of
comments. I'm not quite certain what that means. I'll look for some guidance here.
Nickie Mackenzie-Daste, Officer - 0:10:23
That's if you've got any comments to make about what's just been explained,
comments that you'd like to make about any of the people who will be
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:10:34
receiving grants, etc. Thank you very much, Nicky. I guess it's so clear this is a
new method of allocating money compared with what was a government
initiative run centrally as I understand it, but am I right in thinking that this
overall allocation of 170 ,450 represents something of a reduction with a
Officer - 0:11:06
comparable spend last year? Thank you. Yes, yes it does slightly. In round seven of
HSS which was last year's round we received just a shade over two hundred
thousand pounds whereas the total sum this year as a district allocation is a
hundred and seventy thousand so it is a reduction and what I would add is it is
a different grant scheme and there are also countywide commissions and so forth
which will support services delivering in the district so whilst there is a
difficult to say categorically that we would see a sort of diminution of provision in the
district as a consequence of that. There is funding being awarded directly to partners
working locally by the Gloucestershire County Council, including Citizens Advice Bureau
and others. So this is part of a complex and rich picture of provision rather than, essentially
this is a window solely on the part within the purview of Cotswold District
Council rather than the whole picture.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:12:20
Thank you very much. I see there is an admin cost which is considerably less
than 10 % which seems very efficient. We also, slightly unusually I think, are
already a few months into the financial year for which this money funding applies, have
there been any difficulties experienced by the organisations we'll be supporting in what
to them must look like a bit of a delay in a funding decision, or have you been able
to reassure them from, say, quite early on in April or May that there is a process that
that we are to some extent confirming today
that certain funding will be agreed and available.
Officer - 0:13:16
And yes, and well -spotted, we are one quarter in,
and certainly that could have come at a challenge to partners.
We were fortunate with HSS7
that we were able to allocate sufficient funding
to tied partners over that period.
So we have been able to provide a degree of continuation of existing activity from last financial year.
But clearly time is of the essence to give partners a degree of certainty for the remainder of this year.
So, yeah, I'm confident on that front.
The delay is in part because this is a new scheme being rolled out nationally.
So had to be confirmed by central government through to the County Council who then had to agree
allocations both for their direct provision and the
delegations to the district and borough councils
We then had to put an outline delivery plan to the County Council for their approval
to accept that the direction of travel for the Cotswold programme was appropriate for
for the 170 ,000 pounds to then move to this final stage of hopefully sign off by the District Council.
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:14:35
Thank you very much.
I'm familiar with some of these organisations, but not thankfully
involved in them to the extent that I need to declare any particular interest.
What I think I can say with confidence is that these are
extremely valued. They're valued highly by not just the users and the people who
may benefit directly but by our residents as a whole. And fundraising
which brings all of these organisations, certainly the Food Banks, the Churn and
the Cotswolds Friends, they all successfully fundraise and have a very
positive public image.
Yes, I think this next comment I'd make is that
I'm very grateful that the work's been done to ensure
that the money has been available at the right time
and that we've got proper control of it.
We have the data here if we need it
and the number of individuals supported
and whether there have been crisis interventions,
if so, how many.
and other relevant data.
So it's clear to me that this will be an appropriate
and prudent use of public funds.
It seems to me that we, yes, looking at my list of the order
of things, I should invite public contributions
or representations, but we have no members
of the public present.
And therefore, we don't have to do that.
I'm on section six asking questions,
and I'm pretty close to the end of that.

6 Cabinet Member Questions

I think the next question I've got is whether we know what will happen following local government
reorganisation.
So if I have it right, perhaps this is the question, in 12 months time, which will be
2027, this council will be almost into its last six months, not far short.
So we should be making a similar decision in a year's time,
perhaps a little earlier in the financial year or even before the end of this financial year.
Do we know what process will be in place for the new unitary or is it too early to tell?
Officer - 0:17:08
No, thank you for that question.
I think there is a slightly provisional answer to this
question rather than one with absolute certainty.
The county council as the local managing authority for the CRF
funding, the Crisis and Resilience Fund, is holding
a number of briefings in August to alert partners to their
plans for for next year. They're looking to move CRF towards multi -year
agreements that they're looking to put out under what they call their share
process which is an emerging sort of contractual process the County Council is
using for a range of different community focused activity. So as part of that as I
it there may still be an allocation to sort of provide physical cover at a
district level but there will also be commissions around and around sort of
thematic support across Gloucestershire and that is likely to give us as I say
multi -year agreements so if we have things signed off early next year late
this year those should tide us through those sort of more challenging LGR years
where activity and decisions are going to be quite challenged
because of organisational change.
So I think the direction of travel is positive in terms
of moving forward from what historically has been a year
on year emergency funding stream to something
that will be managed more systematically,
more strategically, I think.
because yeah so it is going to be a period of change and we don't have the
categorical answers in terms of what the Commission's and process is at the
Councillor Patrick Coleman - 0:19:11
moment but there's a positive direction of travel. Thank you. Thank you very much.

7 Decision

I think we can come to the decision moment and my decision is to accept the
recommendations, as shown, with a slight addition to paragraph 4, but I'll read them all out.
And so that is that I resolve that, one, to note the activity enabled by the Crisis and
Resilience Fund, two, to agree to the proposed distribution for the 2026 allocation, three,
delegate authority to the Head of Economic Development and Communities in
consultation with the cabinet member to agree the distribution of smaller grants
to enable the community coordination theme and four delegate authority to the
Head of Economic Development and Communities in consultation with the
section 151 officer to finalise grant terms including the Cotswold Food Network.
The reason for my decision is that the information and the analysis that's been supplied and
the reasons for making this decision have been clearly set out.
They're in keeping with the council's aims and objectives.
The figures are appropriate.
The sums are reasonable and proportionate.
the most importantly that the result of this expenditure will clearly be to the
benefit of individuals and communities across our district. I think I'm sure
that I share most people in Cotswolds have a very high opinion of these
organisations and frequently appreciate the work they do. So this is certainly
value for money in my view and I hope that when the decision notice is
recorded you can summarise that so it isn't just what I've rambled on to some
degree. And now I close the meeting.