Council backing for Calderdale's 'valuable' volunteers and community groups

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet agreed to recommission services at existing budget levels for the next five years, with two changes.

An additional £85,000 a year for at least three years will be found from NHS health inequalities funding and is aimed at supporting the sector through the cost of living crisis.

And an additional £40,000 a year found from the council’s adults and social care and public health budgets will help fund watchdog Healthwatch past 2024.

The council hopes the moves will strengthen existing partnerships with voluntary and community groups, and a leading one, the Community Foundation for Calderdale, will be approached to take on a wide role administering some of the council’s grant programmes.

Cabinet member for Climate Change and Resilience, Coun Scott Patient, said the commitment to the sector would strengthen their financial sustainability to continue delivering services through the contracts.

“They make a difference,” said Coun Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot).

In the community foundation’s case it had played a key role in helping the council and community deal with flooding, Covid-19, and now the cost of living crisis, he said.

Coun Sarah Courtney (Lab, Calder), Cabinet member for Towns, Engagement and Public Health, said: “In times like these, when our budgets are stretched to say the least, being able to work in partnership with other organisations, important on many levels but certainly from a financial point of view, it’s absolutely vital we support them.”

Councillors often heard councils should learn from businesses but it should learn from any effective organisations, said Cabinet member for Adult Services and Wellbeing, Coun Josh Fenton-Glynn (Lab, Calder).

“We need to make sure that when we deliver things we deliver them in the most effective way possible, using people with the right skills in the right places – and often that is the community foundation,” he said.

Coun Jenny Lynn (Lab, Park), Cabinet member for Public Services and Communities, said organisations like Citizens Advice were demonstrating how valuable they were in terms of trying to meet the needs of Calderdale’s most vulnerable residents.