Issue - meetings

The item was introduced by Charles Barlow, who reminded members the Social Impact Fund had been established in 2021 using money from the Covid Outbreak Management Fund and specifically targeted at geographical areas that had had higher rates of Covid. Funding was given to 16 revenue projects and five capital projects. The report gave updates on all of one of these schemes, as there had been unforeseen delays to one of the projects.

Councillor Tromans said the report was excellent and he was pleased to see the positive impact the Social Impact Fund had had. He highlighted one example which helped people who then did not need to use additional services that may have further cost implications for the Council or other public bodies. Councillor Tromans proposed that the Committee should see a future report on how the outcomes for projects that received money from the Social Impact Fund had demonstrated benefits for other service providers. This was seconded by the Chair and agreed by members.

Councillor Sinclair said it would be helpful if feedback from each of the projects could be more uniform, and outline more clearly what each group had done and what they had achieved, and what the money had been spent on. The Chair agreed this was a sensible suggestion for officers to consider, although he added this may require a member of Council staff to coordinate. Rob Powell pointed out that resource constraints and demands on the Community Partnerships team would have to be considered before committing to additional monitoring and evaluation.

Members welcomed and noted the contents of the report.