Important information about Kirklees Council’s Community Partnerships service

As I’m sure you are aware, public services are facing a huge financial challenge and there is an increasing gap between the money we have and the amount we need to run services. The council has to make many difficult decisions about reducing its budget and this applies across all of our services.
We value our relationships with community and voluntary sector groups and we know that your work helps to support local people. Whilst we will continue to work with you in the future, the support we provide will need to be different.
We don’t have full details at the moment as these are still being discussed, but we do know that there will be changes to Community Partnerships. Unfortunately the current system of funding is no longer financially viable as we need to focus our resources on the people who most need our help. Therefore we are looking at alternative ways to support local groups.
We wanted to share this information so that you can consider how your organisation might operate without Community Partnerships funding. Over the next few months we will be working with colleagues and partners to support groups who need help with this planning. For example, we may be able to help you find alternative funding, form new partnerships with other local groups or make different plans for the future.
If you need this kind of help, or can think of other support that would be useful, please contact us by email at community.partnerships@kirklees.gov.uk or by phone on 01484 225142. You can also find more information on our website, www.kirklees.gov.uk, by searching under ‘communities and volunteering’.
Please note that, unless we approach you ourselves, we are not currently accepting new applications for funding. However, we know the importance of keeping you informed and we will contact you again when more detail is available. In the meantime, thank you for the work you do.