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Swimming Pool Support Fund – reminder
Phase One of the £20 million revenue element of Sport England’s Swimming Pool Support Fund has now opened for applications, with some pre-populated data available on the form which can be requested from Sport England. Councils will have six weeks to prioritise which pools need to receive funding in order to stay open, including any community owned pools which may be in the area. This includes one week to submit the application to the online portal, which will open from Friday 4 to Friday 11 August.
Bids are expected to range from a minimum of £10,000 to a maximum of £500,000. Please note this fund is expected to be oversubscribed and highly competitive. The remaining £40 million of capital funding, supplemented by an additional £20 million of Sport England funding, will follow later in the year. For more information about the fund, please email swimmingpoolsupportfund@sportengland.org
Moving Communities highlights £1 billion of social value generated by leisure centres
More than £945 million in social value has been generated by leisure centres across the UK in the last 12 months, an increase of over £170 million compared to last year. These figures have been generated using Sport England’s Moving Communities Social Value Calculator platform which helps indicate where centres are creating the most impact, and assist in shaping funding decisions. To find out about the social value of your leisure centre, email movingcommunities@4global.com
Complete Crown Commercial Service's social value survey
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is committed to helping you achieve your social value goals, acting as an enabler of social value and leveraging purchasing power to realise tangible benefits. In order to improve how it delivers social value outcomes for the sector, CCS is asking people to complete its social value survey which should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
Ofgem to clamp down on rogue energy brokers ‘ripping off’ care homes
Under proposed rules to be put forward by Ofgem, energy suppliers would be forced to reveal the billions in secret broker commissions they load on to business contracts. A recent article in The Guardian reports that the regulator will also call on the Government to introduce legislation allowing it to clamp down on energy brokers directly by bringing them under its regulatory remit for the first time, following an outcry from small businesses including charities, care homes and faith groups.
New round of Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS)
The PSDS provides grants for public sector bodies to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures. For the next phase, Phase 3c, an additional financial year of funding has been granted. This funding increases the value of the overall funding to the scheme and will enable Phase 3c projects to deliver across two financial years. Phase 3c of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme has up to £230 million available in 2024/25. The budget available in 2025/26 will be confirmed this autumn, though applicants should assume a broadly balanced profile across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
New Domestic Retrofit Handbook
Local Partnerships has published a refreshed Domestic Retrofit Handbook for supporting councils plan through projects for retrofitting housing stock, to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
Extended producer responsibility scheme deferred for a year until October 2025
Following extensive engagement with industry, and in light of the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context, new rules to ensure packaging producers pay for the cost of recycling their packaging will be deferred a year from October 2024 to 2025. Government will use the additional year to continue to discuss the scheme’s design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible.
Growth of STAR Procurement
Two Merseyside councils have made the decision to join Tameside, Rochdale, Stockport, and Trafford councils in becoming partners in the public sector shared procurement service, STAR Procurement. St Helens and Knowsley councils are the latest to sign up to STAR, which has saved nearly £50 million of taxpayers' money when procuring a wide range of supplies and services for its councils since 2014. Driving wider social, economic and environmental benefits, known as social value, through procurement has also been very successful within STAR with over £230 million of these benefits secured over the last few years.
School transport and licensing
The Department for Education has published revised statutory school travel guidance. This guidance advises local education authorities to share any concerns they have about a driver of a taxi or private hire vehicle with the relevant licensing authority to improve safeguarding and signposts to guidance produced by the LGA and the Institute of Licensing on home to school transport. Licensing teams may wish to highlight the amended guidance with school transport colleagues.
Procurement Team Leader (Strategy and Development) | Natural Resources Wales
Procurement Reform roadshows (Newcastle, Birmingham, Norwich, Bristol, Liverpool, Sheffield and Nottingham)
Tuesday 3 October–21 November | In person
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