Derbyshire council considers stopping grants for community and voluntary groups

Derbyshire County Council is considering ceasing discretionary funding – which currently stands at over £1m – for 50 community and voluntary groups as part of wider saving plans to balance a previously estimated overall budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024-25 financial year.

The Conservative-led council’s Cabinet will consider two reports proposing the launch of public consultations into possible plans to cease Adult Social Care Grants for 30 community and voluntary groups and to stop Corporate Services and Transformation Grants for a further 20 groups in a bid to save money.

Cllr Natalie Hoy, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, said the council has always prided itself on being well-managed but like all other councils across the country it is facing increasing financial pressures outside its control.

She added: “Many of these organisations have been receiving grants for up to 20 years as a matter of course. Since then, Derbyshire’s population has changed and people’s aspirations, needs and preferences for support have also changed which is why it’s important to consider consulting to get their views to ensure we’re providing services they want and need to achieve better outcomes.

“Our current financial challenges also mean it is absolutely essential that the limited funding available is spent wisely. To do this, budgets must be targeted and distributed fairly to ensure public money goes to the right places and to those who need it most.

“Adult Social Care and Public Health remain committed to ensuring a range of preventative services are widely available across the county to support people, including those with eligible care needs.”

The Cabinet will consider the proposals at a meeting on April 29 to launch the consultations on the future of grant funding to voluntary and community groups which could see the end of two types of discretionary grant funding handouts in March 2025.

These include Adult Social Care Discretionary Grant Funding, and Corporate Services and Transformation Discretionary Grant Funding.

Derbyshire County Council says it has been funding voluntary organisations with annual grants for several years but it stated that it has been experiencing financial pressures from higher than anticipated inflation, with higher prices for fuel, energy and materials, with a need to meet the national pay award and an unprecedented increase in demand for adults and children’s social care services.

The authority stated that it must consider how it prioritises spending on services it is required to provide by law against those which it has no legal obligation to deliver.

Stopping Adult Social Care Grants would affect 30 community and voluntary groups which currently receive annual grants totalling just over £722,000 to support work including advocacy, training, befriending and social activities.

A further 20 groups, that currently receive just over £333,000, would be affected by the proposal to stop Corporate Services and Transformation Grants which help with infrastructure support, with groups supporting black and minority ethnic communities and with specialist advice.

And Derbyshire County Council stated that seven organisations would in fact be affected by both sets of proposals under Adult Social Care, and Corporate Services and Transformation, if they are finalised after any consultations.

The council’s Adult Care and its Health and Communities departments will be expected to operate with a coordinated approach to avoid duplication if the consultations get the go-ahead, according to the council, after the authority has considered two reports into the Adult Social Care Grants and the Corporate Services and Transformation Grants.

Following a previous consultation in 2022, all groups receiving funding were told grants would cease and the authority would commission services where required instead but due to budget pressures the commissioning did not get underway, according to the council, and the authority says it must now prioritise statutory services.

The council stated that there are also many more other organisations which deliver preventative support across the county that do not receive any funding from the authority.

Cllr Carol Hart, Cabinet Member for Health and Communities, said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that we are making the best use of our finite resources to support people fairly across the whole of the county and that we are protecting services for those people who need us most.

“Like many other councils across the country we are facing significant budget pressures that are beyond our control which means we must consider how we use the resources we have available to ensure we can continue to deliver services we have to by law.

“However, I’d like to reassure people that these are proposals only, and if Cabinet agrees to consult, no decisions would be taken until we’d had the chance to hear everyone’s views and take them into account.”

During the meeting on April 29, the Cabinet will also consider agreeing to an interim grant of £78,462 for the Bolsover Woodland Enterprise up to March 2025 to support its work for people with learning disabilities which will bring its funding timetable in line with the other grant recipients.

The council has already agreed to consider finalising a number of wider saving proposals to meet its budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024-25 financial year after it has blamed its financial plight on external economic influences.