Minutes 10 August 2004

EPAG Minutes: 19 August 2004

In attendance

Liz Law, Peggy Flanagan, Una Gillespie, Niall Fitzduff, Maureen Piggott, Anne OReilly, Seamus McAleavey, Frances McCandless, James Laverty, Lisa McElherron and Jane Gribben (Chair)

Apologies

Helen Ferguson, Sandra Adair, Michael Briggs and Edwin Graham.

1. Membership

Gerard Deane from NWCN has left the Network and resigned his place on EPAG. Gerard asked that NWCN retains its place on EPAG for the new coordinator. This was agreed.

2. Matters arising

2.1. Funded Groups under 3.3

Lisa updated the group on the meeting arranged between groups funded under 3.3 and VCU organised by NICVA. Minutes of the meeting were distributed.

There was a discussion around the need to keep a close eye on developments and ensure that all of the action promised is carried out. It is also important to explore how these developments can be rolled out to other Departments. The Taskforce also deals with issues such as risk management and there is a general feeling that the change from existing systems to the new system needs to be managed well. Anne was aware of guidance issued by DFP to the Eastern Health Board covering the Boards relationship with the sector and Seamus pointed out that the Treasury guidelines on funding and accountability were a useful reference. They can be found at www.hm-treasury.co.uk

3. Peace II Extension

Seamus updated everyone on the developments in regard to the proposed extension to Peace II. The two prime ministers had asked the Council of Ministers to recommend to the European Commission that funding should be extended. This happened in June and the SEUPB were now tasked with making recommendations that the two ministers of Finance could bring to the Commission. SEUPB have established a consultation steering committee to help advise the process. Seamus sits on the committee representing the Monitoring Committee as does Tim Spalding from the Community Workers Cooperative. The public consultation will be taking place over the summer and the timescale is very tight. SEUPB need to have recommendations with the ministers by mid September. There was a general support for the idea of moving resources towards priority two. Therefore the focus would be less economical but there would be scope for training and the social economy. The group discussed the extension in general and acknowledged that the matter was complicated by the fact that we are dealing with an extension to the programme rather then a new programme – it was hard to know what elements were up for discussion. NICVA has produced a briefing paper for the sector and is encouraging as many groups as possible to respond. The group discussed the need for any new money to be truly accessible and there was a real concern that smaller and less bureaucratic organisations were missing out due to the inability to cope with the administrative requirements of the funding. Any future programme must make an effort to address this in a real way and some responsibility lies with the larger infrastructure organisations to pick up this administrative burden. There was agreement that EPAG should submit a responses based on the NICVA briefing and any additional points that are raised by the sector in the SEUPB’s consultation seminars.

4. Structural Funds

Seamus explained that Concordia had a meeting with DFP who updated them on developments regarding the structural funds. The UK position favours the renationalisation of regional policy which is in direct contrast to the proposals recently developed by the Commission. NICVA favours the retention of a comprehensive regional policy which is agreed by and implemented by all member states. In budgetary terms the new Commission proposals will mean that the UK will have to find an additional £4billion and it is on the budget that the real negotiation will take place. Negotiations are expected to continue for the next 18 months.

5. Monitoring Committees

5.1. BSP

There has not been a meeting of the monitoring committee since the last EPAG meeting. The question of mainstreaming is gaining more prominence and government officials seem to think that the work of the Taskforce will deal with this issue. DSD have agreed to do some research on networks but this should not be allowed to replace the essential research on sustainability which needs to be undertaken. It is not good enough that funded groups are shouldering all of the responsibility of dealing with the sustainability issue.

5.2 Peace II

At the least meeting SEUPB proposed that money be redirected away from LSPs and Seamus spoke against this. Nuala Kerr used her position as Chair to speak out against the NICVA Designing Peace III document which could be considered an abuse of this position. EPAG members expressed their support for the document and their surprise at the controversy it has caused.

5.3. Urban

No real change here. Spend is slow and £1.1million needs to be spent and vouched asap to meet N+2.

5.3. Equal

Decisions on the new funding will be made in early October. There was an intention to do more publicity around strand one and lots of existing partnerships are reapplying. The programme was also supposed to be about mainstreaming, policy development and learning and this side of things has been weak. The thematic networks which were envisaged have not developed and there is a real need to spread information and share learning. There is a need to focus on the links between section 75 and other equality legislation. The group agreed that this is an urgent piece of important work which needs to be started as soon as possible. It was agreed to ask George O’Doherty from DEL to attend the next meeting and brief the group on this issue.

6. Mid-term Review

All had been completed.

7. Date of Next Meeting

The next meetings will be 22 October at 10am and 1 December at 10am.