Decision details

Date of Decision:

6^th February 2023

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

Jo Brown, Assistant Chief Executive

Specific Delegation:

(If any)

To incur expenditure and to generate and collect income in line with Finance and Procurement Procedure Rules and within approved revenue and capital estimates.

The process followed is also in alignment with section 12 of the Finance and Procurement Procedure Rules, detailing grants to the Voluntary and Community Sector.

Brief Description of Decision:

To approve the provision of grants to the following social supermarkets for the purposes stated:

The Social Supermarket (Rotherham Minster) to support the employment costs of a Project Worker following expiry of other grant funding for the post. Other incidental costs can be supported.

Eastwood Pantry to contribute towards staffing costs with additional staffing hours required to cover the responsibilities of operating the pantry.

Charlie’s Pantry’s (Kimberworth Park) to contribute towards running costs and associated issues as follows:

60% on management costs covering staffing, volunteer training and support, development, and administration.

20% on food purchase; fresh and ambient

20% on overhead cost; utilities, maintenance, resources, and transport.

Sunnyside Supplies to enable them to contract for administrative support to carry out paperwork and accounts alongside developing systems and processes, freeing up volunteer time to focus more on referrals, and wrap around support.

Reasons for the Decision:

As part of the budget for 2021/2022, the Council resolved to allocate a revenue investment of £100k to take forward and develop further approaches to supporting people in crisis and tackling food poverty, building on learning from responses to the

COVID 19 emergency.

This involved two components of:

·  Extending the provision of non-food stock to be included with crisis food parcels.

·  Supporting activity in community organisations to evolve the “social supermarket” and similar models, sometimes referred to as “food pantries”.

Following non-food stock being funded from external sources, the delivery of the project has been focussed on the development of the social supermarket model. To this end, the Council employed a Food Sustainability Development Officer for one year from January 2022 and included in the Year Ahead Delivery Plan a target for there to be three social supermarkets operating in Rotherham by December 2022.

The next stage of support for the ongoing sustainability and development of the social supermarkets has been identified to use the remaining budget after expenditure to date to provide a one-off grant to each to cover the period to March 2026. This being three full financial years and the remainder of 2022/2023.

£63,220 of the budget remains to support this process.

The Council engaged with the four existing social supermarkets through a co-design process to identify the range of support that would be appropriate and meet the outcomes of sustainability and development.

In accordance with the Council’s Finance and Procurement Procedure Rules, applications have been invited through an advertisement on the Council’s website for grants of up to £15,000. The final amounts of awards to be determined by the number of grants awarded. Applications could either be from existing social supermarkets to cover proposals including contributions to staffing / volunteer and premisses costs along with the purchase of food stock, or for start-up support which required the need to include a business case demonstrating viability and supporting evidence in relation to premisses and staff / volunteers to operate the proposed development.

Four applications have been received, all from the existing social supermarkets. These applications have been considered by a panel made up of members from the Council and VAR. They have been assessed as meeting the criteria and on an equal distribution of available funding are recommend to be awarded a grant of £15,805 each.

The support will be provided in the form of a one-off grant paid in the current financial year, to cover the full term. The Council’s standard grant conditions for VCS organisations will apply.

Monitoring arrangements will apply to each organisation requiring quarterly reporting of the number of families and individuals supported along with equalities and postcode data. Provision will be made for repayment of grant, at an appropriate sum, should any of the organisations cease to deliver services for which the grant was provided. 

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

Alternatives have not been provided because details of the proposed support criteria have been produced through co-design with social supermarkets being engaged in accordance with the principles of the Rotherham Compact.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Executive Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

None.

Consultation has taken place with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion.

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

None

Reports or parts of reports considered

Budget report to Council 3^rd March 2021.