Consultation process
Review of Scheme for Establishment of Community CouncilsAdministration Grant - Donations
Currently donations can be made to community groups from the administration allowance (see Scheme page 43) however there is no maximum value noted against this donation.
Should donations to Community Groups be an agreed maximum (of groups and money) ? If yes, please provide your suggestions?
Clearer on guidance on this I feel would be appreciated, as far as we were aware it was £50 as a few years ago we received a letter from SAC informing us that because we had gave £100 to a community group we were in breach of regulations. There should be a cap of course and maybe there should be information collected when giving out donations such as who was the donation made to, how much, did they reach out to the CC or did the CC reach out to them to give community groups a fairer chance when it comes to donations and it isn't just a case of who you know.
I do not think that any of the funding that the CC receives from taxpayers should be allowed to be donated to specific groups in the community at the discretion of the CC. CC's should only be allocated funding for the purpose of continuing to exist.
The question is wrong - it doesn't mention donations in the Scheme anywhere. In fact, this is a great example of the confusing and contradictory nature of the Scheme. 11.4 says "Administration Allowances shall be for Community Council administration and/or promotion purposes only, and shall not be expended on any other purpose. All decisions in relation to the expenditure of the Administration Allowance should be minuted."
You would have to argue that a donation is being made to promote your community council, which isn't a very charitable position to put yourself in. No wonder SAC often get it wrong themselves.
I had to do a search on the document to find it but on page 43 of the Guidance for Community Councils it has the list of items that the admin fund can be spent on which included Donations to Community Groups.
There appears to be no other information on donations such as how much they can be. Seems like this was missed out in this version of the Scheme?
There should be no limit on donations.We should be able to receive charitable donations
There is no clear guidance at the moment re grants from CCs to support local groups but it appears that CCs 'typically support 3 groups with £50 each, however, that is not set in stone. The only guidance (on page 43 of the Financial Accounting for Community Councils) states that anything over £250 has to be approved and agreed with the SAC CC Engagement Officer in advance; otherwise, it is up to each CC who they wish to donate to/fund, so long as all the admin expenses (again details of the typical uses/considerations of the admin allowance are shown on pg 43) are taken into account then the CC can make those decisions.
Clear guidance would definitely be welcomed! Upto £250 from admin grant seems appropriate if all expenses are accounted for. In practice community councillors do not claim for all expenses which explains some of the underspend.