Slough Borough Council: Voluntary Sector Review

Voluntary Sector Review

Voluntary and Community Sector Consultation

The council provides grant funding and/or contracts as well as a range of in-kind support such as parking permits, office space to a number of voluntary and community organisations working in the town.

Within the central Voluntary Sector Team we have 3 main budgets for grant funding. These are:

Longer Term Funded Grants
Capacity Building Grants
Small Grants Fund

A range of grants and contracts are also allocated via the individual directorates throughout the council:

Longer Term Funded grants are allocated over a period of 3 years to larger and more established organisations
Capacity Building Grants include annual, one off grants of up to £10,000 to help medium size organisations develop and grow
The Small Grants Fund awards grants of up to £2,000 to small and new organisations. Our total budget for the Small Grants Fund is £20,000, which is about 3% of the total grants budget. We are normally able to support up to 15 small groups a year.

Through a Voluntary Sector Review consultation we have reviewed the current system with the aim to introduce a more open, transparent and effective council-wide system. This will result in:

more equitable and effective systems for funding and commissioning the voluntary and community sector
the development of funding priorities and criteria in line with the council’s sustainable community strategy, Proud to be Slough, which sets out the long term priorities for the area. You can find more information on the council’s sustainable community strategy elsewhere on this site
council resources allocated fairly and equally against set criteria and priorities
the commissioning of council services becoming more accessible for the voluntary and community sector
more opportunities for the Voluntary and Community Sector to become involved in strategic work, such as the Local Strategic Partnership
Improved communication and understanding between council and the sector

Throughout the process we have been committed to the values and principles of the Slough Compact. The Slough Compact is a shared commitment by statutory and voluntary organisations to work together, and provides guidelines for working well together. You can find more information on Slough’s Compact within this site.

The final results from the consultation have been compiled. The full and the summary report can be found below.