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Reviewing area based grant use in Oldham

Why review area based grant use?

Oldham Partnership has produced a prospectus which sets out the clear priorities around which we will focus resources and activity as a partnership. These priorities are: towards a university town, great places to live and healthy lives. Accordingly, a review of area based grant funded activities is now required to ensure that activity is clearly delivering against this agenda.

Having clear priorities is critical moving forwards because, as you may have read in the press, the next few years are set to be extremely demanding on public sector finances. Oldham Council and the borough’s other public sector organisations are facing the need to make tough spending cuts.

Area based grant (ABG) may be no exception. We don’t yet know how much ABG funding we will receive after this financial year. It may be a reduced amount, or the fund may not exist at all in future. Therefore, we are preparing for a worst case scenario as early as we can so we can be fair and open with everyone who might be affected.

That’s why we are now looking closely at all of the commissioned activities that we currently fund through ABG to decide whether or not we can continue them.

How the review will work

An Oldham Partnership challenge panel will look at each of our current commissioned activities. The panel will

look at the impact the commissioned activity is having
weigh up the cost of the activity and the benefits to Oldham deriving from it. For example, say it costs £3,000 to support a long-term unemployed person back to work, the panel will compare this to the potential cost of the person claiming Job Seekers’ Allowance for many more months
look at the implications of the activity no longer being there
look at what government says we must deliver, and see if there are any ways of delivering such activities in a more efficient way

The panel will then recommend that certain activities are decommissioned and recommend new programmes of activity or different ways of delivering

Full support will be provided to organisations whose activities are decommissioned.

Find out more

Oldham Partnership is committed to this ABG review being an open and public process. We have produced a detailed frequently asked questions document to help you understand the reason behind the review and the process itself.

The partnership’s support team can offer support every step of the way. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Factsheet 7 (9 December 2010) (Adobe PDF, 31kb)
Factsheet 6 (18 November 2010) (Adobe PDF, 31kb)
Factsheet 5 (30 September 2010) (Adobe PDF, 75kb)
Factsheet 4 (8 September 2010) (Adobe PDF, 167kb)
VCFP Drop-in Sessions (2 August 2010) (Adobe PDF, 29kb)
Frequently asked questions (Adobe PDF, 64kb)
Factsheet: the review in more detail (Adobe PDF, 50kb)
Factsheet: the panel's recommendations (Adobe PDF, 220kb)
Timeline of the review (Adobe PDF, 4kb)

Contact Alison Vaughan (0161 770 3199) or your contact in the partnership support team.

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