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Council Minutes
September 2005
22nd September 2005
Core Funding Committee – Victims and Survivors Groups
Minutes of Meeting: Thursday 22 September 2005
Attendees: John Cousins (CHAIR), Jim Campbell, Chris O' Halloran, Maureen Hetherington, John Clarke.
Apologies: Caroline Wilson, Sheila-Jayne Malley
In Attendance: Dr Duncan Morrow, Jacqueline Irwin, Michaela Mackin, Joan Clements, Brian Mullan, Carol Taylor,
1. Minutes from Last meeting
Minutes from last minute were agreed with no amendments or additions.
2. Matters Arising
Strategy for Victims – Ms Mackin informed members that once John Clarke arrived he would provide a brief update on the timescale of the strategy.
Mr Mullan gave an update on tabled special requests from Core Funded groups at the last meeting. These were in respect of additional administration costs, rent, salary costs, etc. Decisions were required from committee members through email and the detail of those decisions are as follows:
- MAST – Admin Support – Committee rejected this request
- FACT – Admin Support – Committee rejected this request
- HAVEN – Admin Support – Committee rejected this request
- Ashton Centre – Admin Support – Committee rejected this request
- Shankill Stress and Trauma Group – Admin Support – Committee rejected this request
- Shankill Stress and Trauma Group – Additional Funding – Committee agreed to support this request
- MAST – Additional Support towards Rent – Committee rejected this request
- NOVA – Re-profiling of Salaries – Committee rejected this request
- Wave – Re-profiling of Salaries – Committee rejected this request
- Wave – Moving of CRC Core Funding to Victims Core Funding - Committee agreed to support this request
3. Officers Reports
Ms Clements updated the committee on her work over the past month, bringing attention to extra time spent with the groups during support meetings which has proved to be beneficial. She highlighted the need to look at the structure and role of management committees in particular in the near future.
Mr Mullan informed the committee that some groups have started to work in partnership with other groups and much exciting work was happening in this regard. The committee commended the networking and partnering work going on throughout the victims sector.
Ms Taylor informed the committee that there has been a high increase in applications since this time last year. Groups have been encouraged to plan their programmes on a 6-monthly basis and have been applying for support on this basis.
Ms Mackin informed committee that staff are in the early stages of organising an information seminar for groups which will be taking place in December in Dungannon. Groups and committee will be informed of the time, place and content of the seminar in the near future.
John Clarke entered the meeting at 1.40pm and provided an overview of the strategy to date.
4. Paper – Report on Year 2 Underspend/In Contract Savings Options
Mr Mullan informed the committee that underspends for year 2 was £100,000. This was due mainly to vacancies in funded posts rather than a funded group's inability to spend the money allocated to them. Mr Mullan outlined two proposals. Committee agreed that the money would be reallocated following the method outlined in option one and once this was exhausted staff should then proceed to method outlined in option two.
Action: BM and JC to carry out reallocation of underspends for core funded groups following Option 1.
5. Discussion Item – Campaigning/ Lobbying from Victims/Survivors
Groups
Dr Morrow raised the question about the politicisation of certain groups, i.e. contents on websites, newsletters and other publicity materials and asked the committee if there should be points of intervention made by the Council.
Members discussed the issue that the Council should not be funding work of groups that is or has the potential to be damaging to the work with victims and the victims sector.
Ms Irwin informed members that the Council has to adhere to the terms relating to its charitable status.
Mr Cousins suggested that there should be a procedure drawn up to ensure that the work the groups are doing must promote the charitable status of CRC, since the work of the Council should not be brought into disrepute.
The committee agreed that CRC should not be associated with publications that are potentially damaging to the work of the victims sector or victims in general. It was noted that a disclaimer notice is included on all publications funded through the Council.
Committee also discussed the view that legal advice should be sought on this issue.
Action: Ms Mackin to raise issues with CRC's management team for further discussion and action considering other Council funding programmes may be affected.
6. Small Grant Applications
Ashton Centre CFCVS22/0905/06
Grant approved subject to the conditions set out in the letter of offer.
Ballymurphy Women's Centre CFCVS22/09/05/07
Grant approved with subject to additional conditions regarding catchment area for participants.
WAVE Omagh CFCVS22/09/05/08
Grant approved with several amendments:
- Facilitator's fee reduce to £250
- The committee discussed the capped rate CRC funded for residentials and suggested that there should be a standardised rate made for any exceptions to the norm. In general: 1 overnight accommodation could be capped to £80 and for 2 overnight stays it could be capped to £120.
WAVE Omagh CFCVS22/09/05/09
Grant approved.
WAVE Derry CFCVS22/09/05/10
Grant approved.
Ms Clements tabled two additional grant recommendations for WAVE Ballymoney and WAVE Armagh. Both were approved by committee.
7. Any Other Business
Ms Mackin informed the committee that staff are encouraging groups to plan their work on a six month basis and as a result a great deal of demand has been presented to the Development Grant Scheme for amounts that would require full committee approval. CRC make a commitment to groups' applications being processed within 8-12 weeks, it may prove difficult to reach these targets due to the fact that committee meetings are organised on a quarterly basis. Ms Mackin put forward the proposal requesting committee agreement to members being issued with emailed grant recommendations to ensure grant processing times are met. She indicated that it would be at least one grant recommendation per week in order to help assist groups in moving their work forward.
Members were in agreement with this proposal with the condition that they had information on any of the other members queries etc. Ms Mackin assured members that any feedback received would be passed onto other members with a closing date for conclusion of discussion of issues. The proposal was agreed.
8. Date of next meeting: 8 December 2005 – CRC's Belfast Office
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