Eligibility Criteria
Background
The Community Transition Fund has been developed to assist community organisations on a one off basis in developing resilience within Sefton’s communities.
Projects should be linked to the Council’s Core Purpose, with particular emphasis on making savings for the Council and supporting its most vulnerable residents.
The Core Purpose outlines the Council’s role in delivering the 2030 vision:
- Protect the most vulnerable: i.e. those people who have complex care needs with no capacity to care for themselves and no other networks to support them. For those who are the most vulnerable we will have a helping role to play, we will challenge others to ensure we all protect the most vulnerable and where we need to we will intervene to help improve lives.
- Facilitate confident and resilient communities: the Council will be less about doing things to and for residents and communities and more about creating the capacity and motivation for people to get involved, do it for themselves and help one another. We will create an environment in which residents are less reliant on public sector support and which have well developed and effective social support.
- Commission, broker and provide core services: the Council will directly deliver fewer services but will act as a broker and commissioner of services which meet the defined needs of communities, are person-centred and localised where possible. We will deliver services which can’t be duplicated elsewhere or where we add value.
- Place-leadership and influencer: making sure what we and what others do are in the best interests of Sefton and its residents and has a contributing role to the 2030 vision of the borough. This includes strong leadership and influencing partner organisations to work towards common goals and building pride in the borough.
- Drivers of change and reform: the Council will play a key role in leading change and reform to improve outcomes for Sefton residents and continuously improve the borough.
- Facilitate sustainable economic prosperity: that is, people having the level of money they need to take care of themselves and their family; creating the conditions where relatively low unemployment and high income prevail, leading to high purchasing power; and having enough money to invest in infrastructure.
- Generate income for social reinvestment: the Council will develop a commercial nature and look to what it can do either by itself or with others to generate income and profit that can be reinvested into delivering social purpose.
- Cleaner and Greener: the Council will work with others to maintain Sefton’s natural beauty and ensure that its many assets provide a contribution to Sefton’s economy, peoples wellbeing and the achievement of the 2030 Vision.
Funding criteria
- Organisations will in the main be community and voluntary sector based, social enterprises and mutuals. For town, village and neighbourhood centres this will also include local businesses. (Other organisations may work with the Council on developing ideas, but it is expected that there will be a cash injection in exceptional circumstances).
- Applicants should consider how their project could release efficiency savings against Council priorities and build community resilience to carry on these services in a sustainable way at no cost to the Council.
- Applicants must have the organisational ability to deliver the proposal past idea stage and make it sustainable. Sustainability is a key element considered within the decision making process.
- Project ideas should have compatibility with Council priorities and the needs of communities. In particular, new and innovative ways of addressing these priorities are encouraged.
- Funding for the development of new proposals will usually be short term in nature as this is a one off resource.
- Organisations can only receive funding from this pot once every two years – you may not reapply within 24 months of receiving an award. You may apply to the Sefton Crowd after 12 months from receiving a Community Transition Fund award.
- General organisational running costs and staff posts will not be considered for funding. All such costs must be attributable to a specific project.
- Applicants must demonstrate an identified need for the project.
- Projects with strong partnership working with other organisations and collaborative approaches are particularly welcomed. This should be clearly demonstrated in the application.
- Applicants must demonstrate they have explored other funding opportunities before applying to the Community Transition Fund.
- The Community Transition Fund is not a small grants fund and so in most cases applications for funding will be over £5,000 (smaller grant requests will be considered on a case by case basis).
- If and organisation folds within 5 years of a grant being issued, any assets purchased with this funding will be returned to Sefton Council.
Application process
Organisations interested in applying to the Community Transition Fund should complete the application form below. This information should be submitted to Paul McCann in Communities at: Paul.McCann@sefton.gov.uk
| Community Transition Fund Application |  (word 103KB) |
There are no deadlines for the application process. Completed applications can be submitted at any time.
For more information you can contact Paul by email or phone 0151 934 3202.
Approval process
All funding is approved by Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing via Sefton’s Council’s formal decision making processes. The Cabinet Member’s decision applications is final.