New Deal have announced the projects they have prioritised for the remaining five years of the programme – full details are in our article: “Decisions on funding for New Deal projects”.
No projects will lose their current funding, but each project has been allocated a traffic light: Green indicates ‘must do’ projects, Amber ‘funding only renewed if more money becomes available’, Red ‘funding not to be renewed’. New Deal will decide early next year how the remaining £5.5 million will be divided up among the ‘Green’ projects.
Of the 85 projects, 42 were given green lights. Red decisions were given to 62% of community managed projects and 65% of externally managed projects (such as those run by the Council).
When asked why none of New Deal’s internal projects had red lights, Rose Ardron, Community Rep and Chair of the Partnership Board, said that they are all “necessary for the running of New Deal”, explaining that:
“When we funded community projects, it was to build their capacity to become self sustaining because New Deal won’t be there for ever.With externally managed projects, we need to make the agencies think about how they can deliver without New Deal money.”
Rose explained how the decisions had been made, taking into account their top five priorities – wealth creation, governance, safety, health and environment:
“Over a series of away days we set priorities around what New Deal want to achieve by 2011.We asked ourselves ‘is this project going to help us achieve our priorities?’ A project’s past performance wasn’t considered, nor how much money each project might ask for.We want to achieve long-term change; so projects have to be sustainable.”
Of the 43 projects with a red light, 13 will have no New Deal money by April next year, leaving these projects with little or no time to find alternative funding. Seven have already ended. New Deal insisted that childcare and young people remain a priority, yet community provision is under threat with projects such as Ellesmere Youth Project, Cellar Space, Ellesmere Children’s Centre and Black Women’s Resource Centre affected by red and amber lights.
Concern was also expressed about the decision to red light Burngreave’s community language projects. Abdul Shaif of the Yemeni Community Association told the Messenger that the decision to close the Community Language Schools is “a major catastrophe”. The project has been widely praised for its excellent wok with children and community language teachers.
New Deal will be holding consultation events about their plans for year 6 on 21st January 2005 at Verdon Recreation Centre, see the “Year 6 consultation” article. A link is in the right-hand menu.