Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement presented a report on an endowment for the social sector in Barking and Dagenham.

The report provided details on the Council’ transformation journey over the last few years, which had seen it develop a new approach to public service leadership, design and delivery.

The Cabinet Member highlighted the creation of Barking and Dagenham Giving (BD Giving) - the Borough’s new place-based giving scheme, a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at bringing new resources and approaches together in Barking and Dagenham and creating fairer solutions through addressing structural inequalities and imbalance.

The Cabinet were advised that in July 2020, following a one-year development period hosted by the Council, Barking and Dagenham Giving merged with Barking and Dagenham Renew to form an independent charity with the ambition of making the Borough’s growing economy work for everyone. This followed a decision by Barking and Dagenham Renew’s Board of Trustees, in agreement with Barking and Dagenham Giving’s Steering Group and the Council to formally integrate the Borough’s giving scheme within Renew’s charitable vehicle and appoint a new Board of Trustees whilst keeping the Council involved in an advising capacity.

The Cabinet Member then moved onto the endowment, which was part of a series of innovations initiated by the Council to strengthen the Borough’s voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and one that had the potential to increase its sustainability in the long term. Its main source of funding was the levy collected from new regeneration developments in the Borough, specifically the neighbourhood portion of the Community Infrastructure Levy.

As part of the establishment of the fund, the proposal suggested that provision should also be made to ensure that the process of making spending decisions - and the projects which were actually funded - empower communities as much as possible, arguing that how funds were allocated, can matter as much as what was funded.

The Cabinet were asked to consider the preferred vehicle for the endowment and were presented with four models for consideration which included keeping the endowment as a restricted fund managed by the Council, establishing the endowment as a separate charity, transferring the fund to Barking and Dagenham Giving, or transferring the fund to an existing community foundation.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the decision by Barking and Dagenham Renew’s Board of Trustees, in agreement with Barking and Dagenham Giving’s Steering Group, to formally integrate the Borough’s giving scheme within Renew’s charitable vehicle from July 2020 and appoint a new Board of Trustees;

(ii)  Note the official change of name of Barking and Dagenham Renew charity to Barking and Dagenham Giving;

(iii)  Agree to support Option C to link the endowment to the local giving model by establishing the fund under Barking and Dagenham Giving’s new charitable vehicle, with a specially appointed Board responsible for the strategic oversight of the fund, as well as the implementation of its investment, withdrawal and usage policies; and

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Director of Strategy and Participation, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, the Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement and in collaboration with the social sector, to agree the governance arrangements and Memorandum of Understanding for the Endowment Fund on behalf of the Council.