REFORM UK councillors in Tameside will be told concerns over a cash shortfall despite an extra almost £75,000 of grant funding are unfounded.
The borough’s council is being given a top-up of £74,707 by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG).
Of that, £51,690 will go towards the delivery of a social care worker in its Adult Social Care Interventions Embedded in Homelessness Team and £23,017 towards its Enhancing Move on – Personalisation Fund project.
However, seeing a potential shortfall of between £936 and £7,938 in documents led to Cllrs Jake Frater, Gary Roylance and Aron Webb calling it in.
Now Cllrs Andrew McLaren and Hugh Roderick have told them that will be covered by existing budgets.
They also say complaints over a lack of quantifiable targets or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are needless because there currently are none.
And worries over ‘no sustainability plan or exit strategy’ are allayed as data and outcomes from a pilot scheme will be used to justify a continuation of the service and a request for additional funding.
In their document, the Reform UK trio asked: “What specific numerical targets exist for Care Act assessments and housing outcomes under this grant? Which departmental cost centre guarantees coverage of the potential £7,938 salary gap if no staffing surplus materialises?
“Has GMCA provided written consent permitting 2025/26 grant expenditure across 2026/27 and 2027/28? What operational contingency exists if the Adult Social Care post remains unfilled after 60 days?
“What policy rules, award limits, and sign-off thresholds govern the £23,017 Personalisation Fund and what plan is in place to support ongoing client needs when grant funding terminates?”
Ahead of an extraordinary meeting of Tameside Council’s place and external relations scrutiny panel on Wednesday, August 19, they also asked for the decision to be referred back to the executive cabinet for reconsideration.
But Cllrs Roderick and McLaren have assured them everything is in order – but admit things were omitted from the original report
They state: “Adult Social Care have confirmed that any shortfall will be met from within existing salary budgets.
“It must be noted that savings are expected from this proposal, based on the learning from other pilot areas who have shown overall savings from having this model in place.
“The report fails to include formal written confirmation from GMCA authorising this multi-year rollover.
“At this time there are no defined numerical KPIs. However, there will be an expectation as part of the grant funding that we provide monthly updates to GMCA on the work and outcomes from the programme including soft data.
“As the pilots progress, a formal KPI framework will be developed.
“Whilst the funding from GMCA is time limited for a 12-month period from the start date of the postholder, the data and outcomes from the pilot will be used to justify a continuation of the service and request for additional funding from GMCA through a robust business case to continue to prevent rough sleeping in the first instance wherever possible, and reduce the number of long term and repeat instances of rough sleeping.
“However, we recognise that an exit strategy needs to be in place to support a cohort of vulnerable adults should funding not be available and this will be actioned via adult social care.
“The call-in request has raised a number of legitimate questions regarding the information presented to support the decision.
“However, it is felt that they have been addressed and the original decision should stand.”