Responsibilities involved in being on the panel
All panel members are responsible for
- attending training sessions – this is essential for new panel members to attend in order to participate. Refresher training sessions are provided for existing panel members.
- Communicating respectfully and giving equal weight to each other’s strengths and knowledge.
- Familiarising themselves with the CGF guidance and understanding the purpose of the fund.
- Reviewing applications in advance of attending meetings and coming prepared with comments.
- Attending meetings either in person or via Microsoft Teams. Where this is not possible, submission of comments to the CGF officer is required at least one working day in advance of the panel. A template for this will be provided on request. Alternatively, a member of the same organisation can attend provided that the officer is given sufficient notice to ensure they are properly briefed ahead of the meeting.
- Maintaining confidentiality about the applications that are assessed and any recommendations made during panel meetings. The outcome of a meeting should not be discussed until a Council officer has notified all applicants.
- Bringing local knowledge and expertise to bear on the process of making recommendations throughout the year, for instance through knowledge of the applicant or similar organisations/initiatives operating locally.
- Local promotion of the fund, with any enquiries being signposted to communitygrantsfund@edinburgh.gov.uk.
- Declaring an interest before any meeting at which there may be a potential conflict of interest in relation to any of the grant applications. A declaration of interest form must be submitted ahead of the meeting. Further information on this can be found below.
- Completion of an equalities monitoring form at the start of each financial year.
We expect the time commitment for each volunteer to be seven to 15 hours depending on the volume of applications and if there are one or two panel meetings.
The Council’s CGF (CEET) team are responsible for
- checking that each application meets the CGF eligibility criteria
- carrying out due diligence on all applicants and working with the facilitator to ensure that conflicts of interest on the panel are managed properly
- providing panel members with the redacted applications and meeting papers at least one week before the panel takes place.
- Ensuring that the papers include:
- An agenda
- All redacted applications o Information about previous awards to applicants
- Details of the total fund available, awards to date, and balance remaining
- Share a record of the meeting with the panel.
- Monitoring of all grants made from the CGF.
- Promotion of the fund in local areas as well as city wide.
- Provision of training and capacity building activities for applicants and panel members.
- Other work related to the implementation and development of the CGF.