[22
OCT 98] COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL NEWS
Funding Bombshell For City Voluntary GroupsCoventry
City Council's Economic Regeneration Policy Team today agreed a plan to cut funding for a
over a dozen voluntary sector projects in the city.
The cuts of almost half a million pounds will
certainly mean the closure of at least some of the 10 groups involved.
 The decision to make the cuts came after a Members Review Group made
up of Cllr Nick Nolan, Cllr Mrs Collins and Cllr Tony Skipper carried out a six month
appraisal of City Development Directorate's funding to the voluntary sector. The review
was prompted after a new Five Year Policies, Priorities and Resources (PPR) programme
approved in February this year highlighted the need for large scale 'resource switching'
to allow the Council to meets its targets under the Coventry Community Plan.
In particular the review concluded that City Development
Directorate's support for the voluntary sector must be redirected toward time-limited
contracts that focus on "achieving the tangible targets and outputs for jobs set out
in the Coventry Community Plan".
Cllr Nick Nolan, Chair of the Economic Regeneration Policy
Team, reaffirmed that the council's commitment to the voluntary sector will continue but
stated:
"We have been supporting some of these projects for 16
years. They do good work in social welfare but now we want to focus on jobs."
The money saved from the funding cuts will be redirected to
a number of initiatives:
- COVWISE (as part of the New Deal)
- Enterprise Link
- Construction Employment Unit
- Community Organisations Help Desk
To soften the blow the voluntary groups losing their
funding will be invited, along with others, to bid for almost £250,000 pounds worth of
contracts that will be designed to make an impact on the targets set out in the jobs
section of the Coventry Community Plan.
COVENTRY COMMUNITY PLAN
Priority 1: Create more jobs for Coventry
people
We will develop a wide range of jobs to
meet the current and future needs of local people and businesses.
We will improve the skills of the City's
labour force by:
- Working towards a high level of educational
achievement;
- Advancing the skills of local people through
training;
- Expanding modern apprenticeships;
- Ensuring the success of the Welfare to Work
Programme.
We will tackle barriers to employment by:
- Dealing with all types of discrimination;
- Providing affordable childcare and other
facilities;
- Campaigning for unemployment data to include
ethnic origin.
The organisations that face the funding axe are
shell-shocked. They are finding it difficult to understand the rational of the decision.
The jobs section of the Coventry Community Plan clearly mentions the need for training and
the need to deal with discrimination. Many of the groups argue - as can be seen in the
table below - that they offer training and tackle discrimination.
THE GROUPS AFFECTED BY THE CUTS
| ORGANISATION |
BROAD AIM |
CITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORATE
GRANT 1997/98 |
| CITEE (Foot in the Door) |
Helps long term unemployed back into work or
further training |
£20,000
(core funding) |
| Coventry Unemployed Workers Project (CUWP) |
Carries out research and produces publications
and information. Works with trade unions and school leavers. Also involved in policy
development and running courses |
£60,842
(core funding) |
Disability Employment & Training
Project
(based at CUWP) |
Provides advice and training and acts as a
pathway to work for people with disabilities |
£23,000
(core funding) |
| Coventry Women's Business Development
Agency |
Helps women with training, support and advice
on business start-ups and development |
£57,035
(core funding) |
| Coventry Women's Business Development
Agency - Training |
Provides training for women |
£15,000 |
| Coventry & Warwickshire
Co-operative Development Agency |
Provides business start-up advice and support,
assistance for businesses |
£51,845
(core funding) |
| Coventry Job Change |
Aimed at older (35+) unemployed to improve
their job prospects |
£49,411
(core funding) |
| Coventry Job Change Training Workshop |
Offers courses including woodwork and
journalism |
£22,000
(core funding) |
| Women & Work Programme |
Provides education and training courses for
women. Based at Coventry University |
£19,834
(to lever ESF funding) |
| Wood End & Henley Green Employment
Development Project |
"First Stop" offering training and
IT advice, job search and personal development skills. Special programmes for young
unemployed. |
£63,000
(core funding) |
| Foleshill Women's Training
(FWT) |
Provides training, development skills,
confidence building and business start up for mainly Asian women |
£31,000
(core funding) |
Nav Yug Asian Women's Project
(to be replaced by Asian Women's Employment Initiative run by FWT) |
Provides training opportunities for Asian
women |
£22,000
(core funding) |
| Osaba Womens Centre |
Provides training, childcare, routes to work
for mainly Afro-Caribbean women |
£24,780
(core funding)
plus "core" grant funding from Social Services - £20,680 |
| Osaba Training |
|
£9,400 |
The groups affected don't intend to take the decision lying
down. They have already fired off a hand delivered letter to Richard Pareham of Peugeot.
He is chair of the Jobs Programme Development Group (PDG), the body charged with
overseeing the Jobs section of the Coventry Community Plan. The Jobs PDG reports to the
City Forum that oversees the implementation of the whole Coventry Community Plan
Further action is expected from the groups under threat
shortly.
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