Agenda item

Consider report by Chief Financial Officer.  (Copy attached.)

With reference to paragraph 9 of the Minute of 30 March 2017, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Financial Officer providing an update on the progress of the reorganisation of the Council’s registered and unregistered Trust Fund Charities and proposes the amalgamation of some Trusts. The report explained that Scottish Borders Council currently administered a number of Trust Funds and Bequests for a range of purposes, which it inherited from previous Scottish Borders Town, County, District and Regional Councils.  There was a mixture of Charities registered with HMRC, and subsequently OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) and some unregistered.  Through the passage of time, the purpose or low value of the funds had resulted in many no longer being able to be disbursed.  Following a report to Council on 30 January 2014, work had commenced on the establishment of 3 OSCR registered new Trusts and the reorganisation of Trusts into the new Trusts.  On 21 May 2015, Council agreed to reorganise some of the registered Trusts into the 3 new Trusts and also amended the Scheme of Administration to establish Charitable Sub Committees and approve amendments to the Scheme of Delegation for grants to be disbursed from the SBC Education Trust and SBC Welfare Trust.  A further report was approved on 30 March 2017 which agreed the dispersal of ten trusts to other organisations and agreed a process and timetable for the review of the remaining trusts.  The aim of the review was to, where possible, reorganise the trusts into the 3 new OSCR registered Trusts, whilst preserving the ethos and locality of the original trusts.  Two consultation meetings had been held in each locality area with invitations to all Members and Community Councils.  Additional meetings had also been held with interested groups and members of the public.  OSCR had also been consulted on the process and recommendations contained within the report.  The various appendices to the report contained details of   the proposed criteria to be used in the disbursement of grants from the Trusts, recommended amalgamations of individual into the 3 new Trusts, those which had been fully disbursed during the consultation, Trusts where work was currently ongoing with the Community to finalise either one-off projects or further recommended amalgamations and the remaining 50 Trusts where there was currently no recommended outcome.  Members supported the proposals. Councillor Bell proposed that the fund for the re-painting of the Walter Scott Monument in front of the Clovenfords Hotel should be transferred to Neighbourhood Services as they always carried out the work.  This was unanimously approved.

DECISION

AGREED to:-

(a)     note the consultation undertaken on the re-organisation of the Council’s Charitable Trust Funds;

(b)     approve the criteria detailed in Appendix 2 to the report for the SBC Community Enhancement Trust;

(c)     approve the criteria detailed in Appendix 3 to the report for the SBC Welfare Trust;

(d)     the amalgamation of the 70 individual Trusts detailed in Appendix 4 to the report into the SBC Welfare Trust, subject to approval from OSCR for those registered;

(e)     the amalgamation of the 99 individual Trusts detailed in Appendix 5 to the report into the SBC Community Enhancement Trust, subject to approval from OSCR for those registered;

(f)      note the ongoing work for the individual Trusts detailed in Appendix 6 to the report;

(g)     note that a further report would be presented by the Service Director for Children and Young People for the Education Trusts detailed in Appendix 7 to the report;

(h)     disband the Charitable Trusts Sub-Committees and remove these from the Scheme of Administration;

(i)      amend the Scheme of Delegation to replace the  delegated authority for the Service Director Customer and Communities “to make payments to individuals or families from SBC Welfare Trust according to set criteria” with the following:

          (i)      Approve applications for funding up to the value of £500 from the SBC Community Enhancement Trust and SBC Welfare Trust;

          (ii)     Approve applications for grants from £501 to £2,500 to the SBC Welfare Trust, subject to the agreement of at least 50% of the Members in the relevant Wards; and

          (iii)    Approve applications for grants from £501 to £5,000 to the SBC Community Enhancement Trust, subject to the agreement of at least 50% of the Members in the relevant Wards.

(j)      amend the Scheme of Administration to add that the Executive Committee should approve grants from the SBC Welfare Trust and SBC Community Enhancement Trust, in situations where grant applications exceed the limits specified in the Scheme of Delegation or less than 50% of the Members in the relevant Wards are in agreement; and

(k)     that the Sir Walter Scott Statue Fund in the sum of £832 be transferred to Neighbourhood Services.