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Grants Determination (Cabinet) Sub-Committee
Wednesday, 14th October 2026 at 5:30pm

 

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An agenda has not been published for this meeting.

Good evening everyone, welcome to the grant determination subcommittee meeting.
Can members quickly introduce yourselves please?
My name is counsellor Talib. I'll be cheering the panel. Thank you
counsellor Kabir Ahmed
Counsellor
Thank you and officers
Chris Leslie, Director of Finance.
Jonathan Fox, Legal Services.
Simi Yasmin, Democratic Services.
Thank you. We also have someone in the audience, Councillor Abdul Manon, who is listening to us.
Anyway, any apologies, Simi?
Yes, Chair, we have received a lot of apologies.
Apologies for absence on behalf of cancer side Ahmed and I believe cancelation only meal will be substituting. Yeah
Councillor Shina lumi and something after the running a couple of minutes later
Any declarations of interest members officers anyone no DP eyes for me
None from me council among any deeper sorry camera Hussein any DPI
Thank you.
Okay, so can we agree the minutes?
Okay, minutes. We don't need a proposal and seconder, do we?
No.
Okay, that's fine. Thank you, minutes agreed.
Chair, can I ask if Councillor Spina
has any declarations of interest?
Can you introduce yourself and...
Reports for consideration.
4 .1 is the extension of Mayors Community Grants Programme and emergency funds.
So Afazul Haq, head of corporate strategy and communities, would you like to introduce
the report please?
Thank you chair.
Very briefly, this report sets out proposals to extend the Mayor's Committee Grants Programme and the Emergency Fund, which currently finishes in March 2027 to 30th of June 2027.
On the Mayor's Committee Grants Programme, we currently have 105 live projects. When we started the programme, we did have 110.
But due to closures of some organisation and other organisations not being able to deliver, we lost five projects.
We provide regular monitoring report to this committee in terms of progress of the Mayors
Community Grant Programme and how organisations are delivering.
We're asking for this extension to enable us to design a new programme.
And there's a report going to cabinet on 21st of October which sets out proposal for a new
Community Grants Programme.
And on paragraph 3 .4 we've set out some of the achievements of the last year of the current
programme and we're also asking the committee to agree the extension of the emergency grant
programme. So the emergency grant programme is there to support organisations who are facing
closure as a result of some unforeseen circumstances and that's open throughout the year for organisations
to apply. And just for noting, Chair, we do currently have a small grants programme. We're
So the current extension is the budget for this is available from our existing budget.
And so I therefore kind of put this report to the committee and happy to take any questions or comments, Chair.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you for your report.
Can you kindly elaborate a little bit more, why are you extending for...
What's the rationale behind you extending for another three months?
And why couldn't you plan it sooner?
Yes, I think there's two main reasons.
One is to just give the council sufficient time to design a new programme.
And due to the elections, we couldn't put these things in place.
So I think we just want to make sure that we're engaging the sector properly and that we really feel through this process
And part of the new programme. We're also looking at how can we support organisation?
So to enable us to get all of these things in place and a lot of these
Services that are being delivered through the grunts are important services for our residents
So we want to ensure this continuity and which is why we're asking
the committee for a three month extension to ensure there's continuity of that provision
and there could be a smooth handover when we have the new programme in place.
Thank you for that. So can you ensure us the next year you're not going to come again for another extension
or you're going to plan it sooner rather than requesting an extension?
The new programme will be for three years and nine months, until March 2031.
I think the lessons from this time will be incorporated to ensure that we do start the work before the election,
and post -election we are able to deliver by March 2031.
3 .3, reflecting the closure of three organisations and two projects that were unable to deliver
The budget for the programme is 2387. Can you just clarify that?
Sure. So any project that was closed, the funding for the grants programme comes from ENSIL.
So we only draw down what we actually spend. So if there is any under spend from project closures,
we will partly use for the extension but also any under spend throughout the community grants programme
and will be used for the new programme.
So we don't have a revenue budget for the grants programme,
we draw down from...
So it's gone back to the...
...and will be used for extension and the new programme.
Okay, thank you.
And my second question, 3 .4,
I mean I can see over 48 ,000 residents have been supported
through the cost of living programme
and 15 ,000 successfully.
So all this, are we dealing with any corporate cons?
We haven't, but it's a really good point.
It's something we can look to do.
But one of the things we do over the last few years
is establish a voluntary community sector award ceremony
to really celebrate some of that work.
But the point you raised, Chair, is really important in terms of telling our residents as well about some of the important work the Foreigners are doing for them.
So I'll take that back.
I think you need to take that back.
And there needs to be some kind of corporate plan around this.
Agree the recommendation?
Agree.
Okay, great.
Okay, Councillor Sonali Meer, do you want to introduce yourself and do you have any
declarations?
I was stuck in a meeting upstairs, so I'm really sorry for that.
So my name is Sonali Meer, I'm the cabinet lead for Job Skills Enterprise and Growth
and Councillor for St. Dunstan Ward.
Thank you.
Oh, I have nothing to declare.
Thank you.
Okay, 4 .2.
Robert, Mayor's Committee Grants Programme, Performance Report, January to March 26th.
Afazul, Robert.
Thank you, Chair. So this is a launching report for the Committee.
As I said earlier, on a quarterly basis we bring a performance report on the Mayor's Committee Grants.
This is for the period January and March.
Later on in the agenda we have a more updated agenda.
So there were four projects that were AMBA.
So I'll just give you a brief update on those four projects.
So one of them was the Council of Mosque Community Empowerment project.
So there's a really strong narrative from the organisation in terms of the deliverable.
I think where we've been struggling with this project is just around data and evidence.
And you will see in the next monitoring report that's still ongoing.
And so we have been working with them to enable them to really capture some of that data.
But we can see they have been delivering the work that we are funding them to deliver.
But it's just providing meaningful and more structured evidence of that work.
Next is SocietyLink Rainbow Links, which again was AMBA for January to March.
you will see in the April to June report which is next,
is now moved to a green.
It was mainly around them failing to provide us
with some of the information around outputs and outcome.
Similarly with Deaf Plus,
improving deaf and hard of hearing residents' English maths
and digital skills.
So the organisation again had some challenges
around staffing instability,
But again, they've addressed those issues.
So the latest April to June report is rated green.
And the final one was Townless Parent Centre.
So there's a number of factors affecting their performance.
One was during Ramadan and the annual report, which is why they were kind of rated amber for January to March.
But for the period April to June, again, they're on track.
Obviously throughout the report we have got lots of information about each scheme and seeing what organisations have delivered.
I'm not going to go into details of that but I'm happy to take any questions or comments.
Anyone? Any comments? Councillors? No?
In terms of the AMBAs, obviously the report was produced maybe a couple of weeks ago.
Is that the utmost latest situation of those organisations or has it changed?
The next report on the agenda is for April to June, free of the amber society links, deaf plus, timeless parents and for that period they were green.
I think it's only Councillor Mosk that is still amber of the latest report that we're providing.
I know it's amber, but is there anything to be concerned?
No, Chair. I think we're confident they are delivering.
It's just how they've been presenting our data and how they've been collecting the data is the bit that we are being concerned about.
and as I said, we have been working with them
to improve that data collection
so they can provide better information for us.
I think generally, we're nearly in the third year
of this programme.
We haven't had that concern with this particular project.
Okay, thank you.
Can we note this report?
Yep.
Yep.
Thank you, okay, the next one is
Mayors Community Grants Programme performance, April to June.
Robert, you are up as well, please.
Sorry, Chair.
So again, I'll just go straight on to Eniyamba
for this period.
We've got two Amba, and I've talked quite a lot
about Councillor Mosk and the work they're doing with them
to update their status.
The other one is Toinbiho.
And again, this was due to some staffing issue
the organisation had.
But we're hopeful because of the work we've done with them
and what they've done as an organisation
that it will come back to green for the next reporting
period, which is July to September.
So we should be getting the report in the next week or so
from the organisation for that period.
Apart from those two, I think all the other projects
are green.
And again, there's some amazing kind of delivery
across a number of areas that members can see.
One of the things I think the committee asked us last time
is to be able to visit some of these projects.
And I've just sent Tom a list of some of their projects
that we can do an announcement.
So once we've checked your diary, we will invite all the members of this committee so members can come and see some of these projects and what they're delivering.
and I'm sure a lot of the groups will also really appreciate that.
Just to let the committee know, myself and the Deputy Mayor
went and met some of our advice colleagues this week
and they were really grateful for the Deputy Mayor to go and visit.
So here some of the work they're doing by actually also some of the challenges
they face as an organisation and how we can better work with them.
So I know I've spoken to some of the councils of the community
that you're really keen.
So that's something we will arrange over the next few months and be a really good opportunity to come and actually go and see the organisation
But more importantly meet some of our residents who are benefiting from some of these projects
Thank you, I'm just looking at the Toimbo Hall one
so the reason it was because of the shortage of
staff transition within the project team and
Then it says it might go back green July
So obviously we're in October now and it's nearly my birthday.
I just wanted to know, is the problem still there?
The officer has been working with the project,
but the actual return for July to September is actually due today.
This is the deadline for the returns committee because we need to give them ten working days to actually pull together the actual return for the previous quarter.
So this is where we will see if it is green but it is not sort of immediate.
I'll read the report and that's it. The officer will read the report, see if we've got the evidence, see if we've got the updates,
and if there is any issues we'll go back again to the groups.
And then so there's a couple of weeks of the officers going through the returns identifying issues, going back to the projects,
and then we put together the report for July to September to go to the next committee.
But we continue working with the groups and so if there's changes leading up to the committee,
we are able to update the reports. So this is the latest.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Councillor Chaudry.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Officers.
I know, after a while, I've had a conversation about members going out and meeting some of
these organisations.
In addition to taking members from the committee, I think because it's themed in a way where
we've got lead members for education, sports, and then tackling poverty, which is Deputy
I think taking the relevant cabinet member to those visits will be useful as well.
I think the second point I wanted to make was, now let's just say to the Community Safety
Organisation, then obviously taking the lead member for Community Safety would be helpful.
So I think the second point is, as part of these reports, what would be helpful is just
to understand the previous RAG rating.
So I know we've seen two papers together, which is really good, but to see the previous
a quarter's a rag, to see a sort of progression between different periods would be quite useful.
So even if it is for a particular year, I know it's a three year cycle, that would be
quite helpful.
So I know we've seen movements in three of them, and I know a new one has come up, but
to see that in some form would be quite helpful I think for future reports.
Thank you, I think we'll look into it, I think we can provide that.
Thank you, Chair. So this programme has a total budget of around 12 million pound. Out of
that 10 million has been allocated. So active purpose -bound programming is very important.
I'm sure you are doing that. So have you got any forecast or have you identified any project
that has got substantial amount of under spent? And if they cannot deliver within the time
Do we have a mechanism to re -allocate this money where the money is needed?
Thank you Councillor. So the budget for this programme is 3 .5 million annually.
It's a three and a half years programme. As I said earlier on, we initially funded 110 projects.
five of the projects closed down, some due to organisations closing down, one organisation couldn't deliver, so we withdrew the funding.
I think what we try to do is on a quarterly basis bring a report to the committee. If there are significant concerns with any particular project,
then we will ask the committee that we're proposing to close down this project. There hasn't been that instance where projects haven't been...
As we reported in these two reports, there will be some quarters where projects have been amber.
There hasn't been an ongoing issue with any projects that we felt they needed to close,
apart from that one, which just didn't kick off right from the beginning.
So, as I said, because it's a three and a half years programme,
there isn't a process where we could reallocate this money to anyone else.
Councillor Ahmed.
Thank you, Chair.
I just wanted to understand.
So I'm just going through some of these projects.
So one of them is about supporting young people
with educational attainment, that's the project.
And I can appreciate that it's very well attended.
Do we measure that output or what are the metrics we use or is it just about attendance?
So as part of the grant applications, one of the things organisations set up is the KPIs and outcomes that they will deliver.
So what we monitor is those KPIs and outcomes that we've agreed with them as part of every project will have a contract that will include KPIs that is both outputs and outcomes
that they're seeking to deliver part of this.
So that's what we will monitor.
There's a target against those outputs and outcomes.
Sorry, so if it's a project that's supposed to deliver educational attainment,
how would we assess if it's delivered better attainment?
Is there a particular project you're looking at, Councillor?
So just to bring to attention Horn Afrique, Black Room, Cubit town, Island Garden, Lansbury
and Poplar, they're the wards they cover.
And it says short description, E14 BAME Children and Young People Educational Attainment Project
will support children and young people from disadvantaged households for timely intervention
in access to extracurricular activities and after school provisions.
So how would we assess that, for example?
I mean, I get the KPIs that they may request for it, but how do we measure?
It would be mainly for the KPIs that they've kind of set out as part of their projects,
which will kind of include some of the outcomes.
So a lot of the projects will kind of have a baseline where young people start with,
and as part of their project to show at the year end that actually they might have started on just an example,
Grade D, but being involved in this project they've moved to Grade C.
So a lot of projects will have those kind of baseline that they start with, with young people or whatever projects they're doing
and one of the ways they'll monitor those and report to us is actually, we started on X and as a result of being involved in this project,
they've moved to Y. And that could be similar in terms of health and wellbeing.
People might at the beginning say, I don't feel very healthy at the end of the project.
They might say, as a result of being part of this project, I feel more healthy, I'm taking part in more exercise, eating healthy.
A lot of the KPIs from groups will be those sorts.
One of the things we have tried to do, particularly learning from this programme itself,
is providing much more clear steer in terms of the outcomes we are looking for
in groups to deliver in the future.
So the outcome measures, we are also providing example KPIs.
So your point I absolutely know is that actually we are not just asking groups
to set the KPIs, we are giving some example KPIs that we think are useful
for each of those, so that kind of point around each of those themes.
So we are providing better support, better guidance to groups going forward.
So when we do the next programme,
there will be much more aligned to the Council's priorities,
some of the measures we're using to see the impact as well.
Thank you. Councillor Cambrun, say?
No.
Councillor Chanali?
Chaudhuri?
Okay.
I just wanted to ask, we want some assurance of Council of mosques, when that would be in green and all the information should be provided.
Sure, so as Robert said, we were just expecting the latest report for the period June to September today or tomorrow.
So I'm happy to write to the committee to give an update on the latest position, as well as what we've done with them.
If that's okay?
Anyone else? Yes, go ahead please.
The projects where they're giving advice and support for advice, or if someone comes and does this application,
instead of just counting how many numbers of people have attended, is there any other kind of measures that we can, or we are doing to kind of cheque these people actually got their advice that they seek for?
Because for example, the civil centre is showing green, showing that it's giving the advice and crisis support.
But in terms of the outcomes, are we just measuring how many people are just attending or are we actually seeing if this is what people came into, I don't know, what advice they seeked.
Thank you Councillor. I think a lot of the advice, particularly that theme one projects, they do have some outcome measures.
So the consortium, as we reported in the report, they also show the number of deaths written off.
I think particularly we get a lot of that, how many people they manage to support to access benefit and what the value of those benefits is.
I'm happy to look at Stifford's outcomes and provide you with your note,
if that's okay with some of the outcome measures that might not be in this report.
I had one in terms of equality's implications.
I know we're using the same template for all of the papers, but can that be more expanded?
I mean, you don't need to say anything now, but can we go and see how we can kind of expand that more,
and kind of align it with our Council's strategic deliveries and so on.
Just make it look more healthy, please.
Thank you.
We'll look at that.
Okay.
Note this paper, please.
One meeting.
Can we note it?
Thank you.
Okay.
Any other business?
No.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all our officers.
Thank you to our members.
Thank you, Simi.
Thank you.
Thank you.