DCSDC Peace IV Board Report – February 2017
Derry City and Strange District Peace IV Partnership Board – February 2017
Minutes of Meeting
Meeting Date: Tuesday 14th February 2017
Time: 11.30am – 2.00 pm
Venue: St Columb’s Park House
1. Meeting Opening
1.1 Welcome & Apologies:
The Chair welcomed all members to the meeting.
Attendees:
Kevin O’Connor / DCSDC / Cllr Colly Kelly / Sinn FéinSue Divin / DCSDC / Cllr Christopher Jackson / Sinn Féin
Mary Claire Kerlin / DCSDC / Cllr Eric McGinley / Sinn Féin
Ald Drew Thompson / DUP / Paul Donnelly / DEARA
Ald Thomas Kerrigan / DUP / Maura O’Neill / WHSCT
Cllr Martin Reilly / SDLP / Gearóid O hEára / An Gaeláras Ltd
Cllr Gus Hastings / SDLP
Cllr John Boyle / SDLP / Ivor Morton / PSNI
Mr Gerard Deeney / NIHE / Margaret McLaughlin / Dennett Interchange
Paul Gallagher / Strabane Area Trade Union / Samantha Traynor / NWRC
Teresa Stewart / Strange A.Y.E. / Anne McTaggart / YouthActionNI
Conal McFeely / Creggan Enterprises / Allison Wallace / Waterside NP
Willie Lamrock / YMCA / Stephen Quigley / EANI
Catherine Cooke / FWIN / Karina Carlin / Sinn Féin
Apologies
Agnieska Luczak (Polish Abroad), Maureen Hetherington (The Junction), Colleen Heaney (Youth Justice), Dairine McGarrigle (Dept of Communities), Darren O’Neill (Youth Representative), Ruairi McHugh (Sinn Fein), Ald David Ramsey (DUP)
1.2 Declarations of Interest
Alison Wallace declared potential Conflict of Interest.
1.3 Minutes
(It was noted that Martin Reilly and David Ramsey were in attendance at the last Board meeting on 13 December 2016. Minutes have been amended to reflect this)
The minutes of the previous Board Meeting was held to be an accurate record and were adopted
Proposed: Teresa Stewart Seconded: Colly Kelly
2. Update from PEACE IV Secretariat
2.1 Youth Open Call
Members were informed that an open call for youth representation on the Partnership Board was circulated at the end of November with a closing date of Monday 9 January. There were no submissions. Members felt that due to the Christmas period it may have resulted in no one applying and it was agreed to re-issue the open call with a revised closing date of Tuesday 31 January 2017. There was two submissions which were assessed and Darren O’Neill was appointed as the new youth representation on the Board. Both applicants have been invited onto the Children and Young People Steering Group but to date there has been no response from the second applicant Dale Simpson. Further efforts will be made to contact him.
2.2 Draft Letter of Offer
Sue informed members that a Draft Letter of Offer had been received from SEUPB for £6.1 million which is approximately over £600,000 of a shortfall from the total budget allocation and the elements that was disallowed. The secretariat had met with SEUPB on Wednesday 11 January 2017 in Omagh who highlighted conditions which must be addressed by the Secretariat. Members were informed of the following key points:-
Ø Received draft letter of offer for £6.1 million Tue 10th January
Ø Met SEUPB in Omagh on Wed 11th January
Ø SEUPB right to launch publicity circa end Jan (photocall launch 14th Feb Board meeting)
Ø Commended for quality of Peace and Reconciliation ambition and relevance
Ø Majority of content approved
Ø All councils except Belfast now have letters
Ø All councils some alterations – chance to rebid once for £600,000 approx
Ø No Brexit impact – 1 April 2016 – 30 June 2021 (final claim) 5 years 3 months
Ø Cross-community: Aspirational target on all programmes to be 50/50. ‘The minority should not always be the minority.’
Ø Cross-border: No target but higher expectations in council areas with a land border. They felt across entire 17 council areas this aspect was weak.
Ø No festivals/one off events
Members were also informed of the pre-commencement conditions that have to be submitted by 8th March and the Permission to Start conditions which must be submitted by the 10th April 2017.
2.3 Recruitment of Peace IV Staff
Members were informed that Fiona Lafferty has now been appointed as the second Project Officer. The Finance/Admin Officer was circulated internally with no applications and has now been circulated external with a closing date of 22 February 2017. Members were asked to circulate through their networks.
2.4 Tender Training
Sue informed members that the tender training was very successful and there was a large number in attendance. Those members that had attended agreed that it was a very useful exercise which gave all attendees an insight into exactly what is needed when applying for tenders generally. The following feedback was obtained from the Evaluation Forms:-
92% Felt they understood the Peace IV Programme better
85% Felt it was a useful networking opportunity
63% will consider tendering under Peace IV
79% will consider partner approach to tendering
68% will consider being on a project steering group for Peace IV (30% unsure)
Attendance: 53% CNR 29% PUL 18% BME
2.5 Tenders issued
Members were updated on the advertising of PEACE IV tenders which were in the public domain from week commencing Monday 13th February as listed below:-
Tender / Closing / Committee DeadlineTBUS 16-100 PIV Tender Youth Schools Train The Trainers / 16th March / April Committee and Council
TBUS 17-015 PIV Tender Patriarchy in Post-conflict society / 16th March / April Committee and Council
TBUS 17-004 PIV Tender Decade of Centeneries / 24th March / May Committee and Council
TBUS 17-008 PIV Tender Waterside Shared Village / 24th March / May Committee and Council
TBUS 17-009 PIV Tender Cross-Cultural Strategic Initiative / 24th March / May Committee and Council
TBUS 16-102 PIV Tender Interface Investment Programme / 24th March / May Committee and Council
2.6 Council Led Programmes
The Secretariat has met with Council Officers finalising job descriptions, programme content (to include cross community and cross border contact) and budgets. All information to be returned by the 17th February 2017.
2.7 Finance
Mary Claire informed members that previously on PEACE programmes that Council would have applied for a significant advance (£500,000). SEUPB have notified Councils that they only have a finite budget of €940K set aside for advance for all Local Authorities for this financial year 2016/2017. The secretariat will discuss with Council’s finance department whether to apply for an advance for 2016/2017. If it is the decision not to proceed applying for an advance for this financial year then this will be revisited in 2017/2018 as SEUPB may have a new allocations for advances set aside for the Local Authorities.
Members queried how the verification process would operate this time and if any improvements were being made to speed up the process of paying claims. Mary Claire stated that to date there was no formal clarification on the verification and process system but in conversations with SEUPB there was an indication given that all verification documents would be sent on line with hard copied being verified at a later date therefore speeding up the payment process of claims. SEUPB is currently developing their online system which should be ready by the end of March. Further clarification will be provided to Board Members at a later date.
SEUPB has provided written clarification that they are satisfied with our approach to managing Conflict of Interests within our Board and Steering Groups.
2.8 Cross Border – Donegal PEACE IV
The Secretariat met with Donegal Council on 9th February 2017. There will be several opportunities (at least 4) that Derry~Strabane Council will able to work with Donegal on PEACE projects. The Manager of the Donegal PEACE Programme will give an update of their programmes at a future board meeting.
3. Operational Steering Group
Members were informed that Aggie Luczak was elected as chairperson.
Members were reminded of the requirement of cross community contact as stipulated by SEUPB. Verbally SEUPB had indicated a virtually 50% CNR / 50% PUL approach was required. Steering groups had discussed this and recommended as detailed below:-
CNR / PUL / BME/Other/NoneRevised DCSDC Peace IV Programme Target / 48% / 48% / 4%
Since the Steering Groups Sue had made contact with a number of other Local Authorities with similar (or inverse PUL/CNR) population imabalances. They indicated the stipulation unrealistic. They did not seem to be aiming for 50/50 approach.
Formal feedback had also been received from the Equality Commission on the recruitment target stating that “It is illegal to reject or accept an applicant onto a specific programme on the basis of religion. This falls under equality legislation for the provision of services.
Pro-active targeting and promotion of the service to encourage under-represented groups is however within the law and to be encouraged”.
Decision after discussion:
Members agreed that through the programme we would endeavour to meet the target and encourage the growth of the minority and BME Sectors but this would not always be achievable. Sue reminded members that a decision had to be made on agreed target figures. Stephen suggested that we use the agreed figures 48% 48% and 4% but to include a note stipulating “Success’ will be defined as ‘a variance of no more/less than 20%’ across project between numbers from CNR and PUL participants” as defined in the TBUC Summer Schemes programme from the Executive Office. This was unanimously agreed.
3.3 Workplan for Project mobilisation/management
An update was given to the Board on the Job Descriptions for the implementation staff of Council Led programmes which are now with HR awaiting agreement. Banners, conference folders, pens have been agreed and ordered though the Marketing department.
4. Update from Children and young People Steering Group – 17.1.17
Members were informed that Stephen Quigley had been elected as chairperson. Stephen gave a quick update on the previous steering group meeting. .
Conflict of Interest (In relation to Re-bid)
Margaret McLaughlin, Stephen Quigley, Willie Lamrock, Karina Carlin and Anne McTaggart declared interest and Conflict of Interest policy was followed accordingly.
Sue also updated the board on the Youth Planning day which was held on Monday 6th February. Those in attendance had agreed 2 re-submission proposals of a cross community youth project targeting age 7 to 11 and 11 to 14 years old. The Board agreed to proceed with the suggested proposals.
Proposed: Martin Reilly Seconded: Teresa Stewart
5. Update from Shared Spaces Steering Group – 19/01/17
Members were made aware that Cllr John Boyle was elected as chairperson. John gave an update of the previous meeting. He stated that it was disappointing that the youth zone was disallowed but following guidance from SEUPB that there should be a re-submission for a different programme such as a rural contested spaces programme.
Members felt that while the rural areas had some contested areas that there were also urban areas that fell under the radar from neighbour renewal schemes and which were not deemed interface areas. These could be identified as experiencing contested spaces issues. Discussion ensued whether to open it wider than rural. Members felt that a pairing programme of areas could be beneficial.
Decision
It was agreed that there would be a re-submission for contested spaces (Urban and Rural) for the amount of £219,390 but Shared Spaces Steering group would identify the areas for the programme which could then be submitted for 8th March deadline.
6. Update from Building Positive Relations Steering Group – 24.1.17
Members were informed that Catherine Cooke was elected as Chairperson. Catherine gave a brief update of the last steering group meeting.
Decision
Members agreed to a re-submission of £105,000 for programme costs for the Riverine project and for the remainder of £131,518 into Small Grants. The board unanimously endorsed the re-submissions. The Peace IV Partnership will include this within the submission for 8th March 2017.
7. PEACE IV Grant Aid
Sue informed the Board that Councils present grant aid system is online and asked members to consider whether or not for the PEACE IV Grant Aid/Small Grants system should also be online. She also requested the Peace IV Board give consideration to the financial lower and upper parameters and criteria of this programme.
Decisions:
It was the unanimous decision of the board that £30,000 should be the lower limit and £50,000 should be the upper limit.
Unanimous decision that the secretariat should proceed procuring the online Grant Aid Systems.
Conflict of Interest:
At this point virtually all Board Members declared direct and indirect Conflicts of Interest in relation to the criteria for small grants. It was therefore agreed not to discuss anything in relation to the detail of the Programme beyond that which was already publicly available on the website in the BPR Workplan.
Decision:
Unanimous decision to allow the Peace IV Secretariat to develop up the detail of the Peace IV Small Grants Programme independent of the Board and Associated Steering Groups. Their development should be in line with the workplan information in the public domain.
8. Decisions on agendas/meetings for February steering groups
Board Members agreed to postpone the steering group meetings in March except for the Shared Spaces group due the heavy workload and the SEUPB deadlines of the (8th March and 10th April) that the team have to meet.
A.O.B.
None
Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 14th March 2017 in Strabane area. VTBC
Meeting concluded at 1.00 pm
Formal Launch followed at 2.00pm
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