Highlights: Big Society Innovation Bank
At a time of financial constraint in the public sector, ‘business as usual’ is not an option. We will need to make much greater use of the wealth of local creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The council has put aside £600,000 over three years for the new Big Society Innovation Bank to kick-start citizen- and community-led projects. Up to £200,000 has been made available in 2011/12.
Round One awards announced
The first round of applications (‘Round One’) closed in July 2011. It attracted 79 bids worth £1.9 million, more than nine times the amount available this year. Nine of these projects were selected for the final grant awards.
| Applicant | Award | Purpose |
(a) JESUS HOUSE (b) ELEVATION NETWORKS | £50,000 (combined award for two applicants to work in partnership) | (a) Support for young people who are not in education, employment or training (‘NEET’) to develop business ideas through creation of the ‘Barnet Youth Business Incubator’ (b) Training and volunteering opportunities for disadvantaged young people, focusing on engagement with older people in the community |
ENERGISE BARNET | £37,500 | Development of an effective approach to reduce Barnet’s carbon footprint per head; to increase the energy efficiency of homes and buildings; to reduce fuel poverty; and to make renewable energy more affordable |
AGE UK BARNET | £30,000 | Training to prevent malnutrition in older people |
LONDON AMBULANCE RESPONDER GROUP | £28,350 | Recruitment of doctors and police men and women to work in their own time to provide a ‘blue light’ emergency medical response capability to enhance the provision by the London Ambulance Service |
BARNET COMMUNITY PROJECTS | £21,000 | A home decorating and maintenance service for the vulnerable and disadvantaged (in partnership with Age UK Barnet), providing training and employment opportunities for young unemployed people |
BARNET FEDERATION OF ALLOTMENT & HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES | £16,000 | Training for allotment societies to facilitate the transfer to them of management of responsibilities of allotment sites |
BARNET VOICE FOR MENTAL HEALTH | £13,000 | Provision of a ‘safe space’ in community venues to support people with mental health problems to be more resilient and take control of their lives |
HALEY BLACKMAN | £4,150 | Workshops to help first time tenants to manage their finances; sustain their tenancies; and live independently |
What were we funding in Round One?
Ideas were required to comply with one or both of the following themes:
Theme 1 – Innovating to help your local community
Theme 2 - Shifting
power from the state to citizens
Bids had to fall in the following ranges:
Individuals and unconstituted groups: Between £500 - £5,000
Constituted
groups: Between £500 - £50,000
How the fund can be used
Funds may be used as seed capital, to purchase business support, as a start-up grant or for certain one-off costs. In deciding on which applications to fund, we looked at how well the project met our criteria including the benefits to the local community and whether the project was innovative, deliverable and could be sustained financially without public sector funding.
More Information
Further details can be found at the Innovation Bank site which you can check for developments over the coming months.
Key contacts:
If you have any general enquiries about the Innovation Bank, please call Ken Argent on 020 8359 2020 or e-mail us at
innovation.bank@barnet.gov.uk
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