Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Equality groups handed another £70,000 of public money despite ‘major issues’ with performance

Equality groups handed another £70,000 of public money despite ‘major issues’ with performance

Two council-funded equality groups handed a further £70,000 of public money last month have failed to meet service level agreements with the local authority, The Courier has learned.

Damning evaluations by Fife Council’s Equalities Unit, released following a Freedom of Information request, found ”major issues” with Fairness Race Awareness and Equality (FRAE) Fife and recommended that Fife Independent Disability Network (FIDN) receive ”no further funding”.

The reports were presented to the cross-party working group on engaging with equalities before the eight councillors who make up the committee opted to overlook the official’s concerns.

The council’s executive committee rubber stamped the working group’s decision to award a further £14,870 to FIDN and £59,360 to FRAE the equivalent of six months’ funding at a meeting in August.

Since it was established as an independent voluntary organisation in 2009, FRAE Fife has been handed more than half a million pounds by Fife Council, so that it can provide services for ethnic minorities.

But an annual evaluation seen by The Courier details a catalogue of underachievement, which led the council’s Equalities Unit to warn councillors there is ”limited evidence” that FRAE is fulfilling its contract with the local authority.

”Whilst Frae is making some progress in delivering the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and is providing some limited evidence of achievement, many of the concerns raised in last year’s annual monitoring remain,” the report states. ”These include questions as to whether Frae is leading on, as opposed to participating in, activities, the need for evidence of the role Frae is playing in supporting community groups and the need for systems to be put in place to gather and report evidence.”

The 16-page document covering the year from March 31 2011 said ”attempts have been made” to record the contact staff have with clients and community groups using a database but it remains unclear how the organisation identifies ”the real issues of concern and how such issues are resolved”.

”There are 37 community groups listed in Frae’s paperwork but little evidence to demonstrate how active they are, how often they meet and what support is actively provided by Frae,” stated the monitoring report. ”There also needs to be greater clarity about what activities Frae staff are involved in and which activities they actually lead, as opposed to contribute to.”

The report concludes: ”There are major issues, detailed above, that need to be addressed and remitted back to committee for decision.”

A three-year evaluation of Fife Independent Disability Network found that the organisation ”does well with limited staff in dealing with day-to-day inquiries from disabled people” but raised concern that there is ”no long-term planning to identify disabled people’s issues or any patterns of concerns raised by disabled people.”

The council handed FIDN almost £100,000 during that time but ”membership of the organisation has not greatly increased and the profile of the members has remained more or less static,” according to the report.

”In view of the ongoing concerns raised through the previous annual monitoring reports and the lack of evidence to demonstrate the achievement of outcomes, it is recommended that no further funding be awarded to the organisation,” the report concluded.

FRAE Fife co-ordinator Naeem Khalid said: ”FRAE Fife has received no formal communication from Fife Council as yet. Therefore, under our contractual obligation with Fife Council FRAE Fife cannot comment on any specific issues.”

The Courier contacted Fife Independent Disability Network for comment but no one responded.

The chairman of the cross-party working group on engaging with equalities, councillor David Ross, also failed to respond.