Community Benefit

LINEAR PARK -WHAT'S HAPPENING?

BAM Building have established a dedicated Community Benefit Fund for the new children’s hospital. The fund is an entirely voluntary corporate social responsibility contribution made in BAM’s tender for the construction of the new children’s hospital and is additional to the requirements of the Community Benefit Clause contained in the contract. Unfortunately, the €500,000 fund has not increased in line with the cost of the hospital.

The fund will operate for three years, 2020—2022 will be directed towards a number of thematic actions including:

Community Grants Scheme -€50,000
Educational bursaries -€96,000
Apprenticeship scheme -€96,000
Community Benefit Prog - €75,000
Arts, sports &culture prog - €62,000
Contingencies & admin -€21,000

Applications for 2020 closed for the Education Bursaries and the Community Grants Scheme and the awards have been made. In all 75 community applications were made and 22 projects were selected to receive awards ranging from €200 to € 7,000.

The BAM Community Grants for 2020 were awarded to the following:

Organisation	Purpose	Amount
Drimnagh Men’s Club	Games Equipment	€200
Rialto Men’s Social and Gardening Club	Equipment & Tools	€200
Diamond Twirlers	Sports Kit	€750
Irish Inland Waterways Assoc.	Feasibility Study for child friendly and disability accessible Canal Boat & Trips along the D8/D12 waterway	€800
Oliver Bond Celtic FC	Sports Kit	€800
Rialto Day Care Centre	Gardening Project	€950
Mercy Law Centre	Legal aid for Homeless Families	€1,000
Tidy Drimnagh	Environmental Enhancements	€1,000
Dolphin House Creche	Outdoor Play Equipment	€1,500
Presentation Secondary School Warrenmount	School Garden Project	€1,500
Tenters Centenary Committee	Community Photography Project	€1,500
The Mendicity Institute	Equipment for Craft Workshop	€1,800

Crumlin Community Cleanup	Trees & wildflower planting project	€4,000
Liberty Saints RFU	Sports Kit	€2,500
Inchicore Works Men’s Shed	Tools and materials	€2,500
Francis CBS Primary School	Sensory Trail for students with autism	€2,000
Canalways Educate Together Primary School	School Garden Project	€2,000
Artistic Liberties	D8 Green Spaces Storytelling Project	€3,000
Frontline Bike Project - Inchicore Community Drugs Team	Shop Front improvement and marketing material for Social Enterprise Business	€5,000
Liffey Gaels GAA	All weather Hurling Wall improvements	€5,000
Inchicore Environment Group, Drimnagh Community Environment Group, Mallin Avenue and Rialto Cottages Residents (Joint Project)	Greening Project along Grand Canal and streetways	€5,000
Flanagan’s Field Community Garden	Remedial Work/Upgrading of Geodesic “Growdome”	€7,000

Note1: Members of the BAM’s Community Benefit Fund for the new children’s hospital Committee are: Gordon Jeyes, Independent Chair of the Community Benefit Oversight Group Denis McCarthy, Director, BAM Building Ltd Eilish Hardiman, CEO, Children’s Health Ireland David Gunning, CO, National Paediatric Hospital Board

Note 2: Shortlisting of applicants and recommendations for awards was facilitated by independent philanthropy advisor, Emma Lane Spollen.

More information on the new children’s hospital Community Benefit programme can be found at https://www.newchildrenshospital.ie/community-benefit/

Should you have any questions in relation to the new children’s hospital please contact ;

Community Benefits Manager, Ingrid McElroy Ingrid.mcelroy@nph.ie

The scope of the Community Grant covers all of Dublin 8 and parts of Dublin 12.

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Background

Community benefit (also sometimes known as social value or social gain) is a strategic process aimed at ensuring that where a major capital infrastructure is being built the impact of this investment is maximised for the benefit of neighbouring communities – through the provision of jobs, education and training opportunities and supporting local business.

Community Benefit Clauses (CBCs) are contractual clauses that can be used to build a variety of economic, social or environmental conditions into the delivery of public contracts. By specifying contractual requirements that seek to deliver wider social benefits, CBCs allow organisations to contribute to the achievement of outcomes that will benefit their communities. They can be viewed as contributing to the Best Value and sustainable procurement agendas.

Community benefits that can potentially be included as contractual clauses include:
Creating opportunities for enterprising third sector organisations to deliver public services Employment and training opportunities for the long term unemployed and disadvantaged individuals
Creating opportunities for SMEs to deliver public services Provision of facilities for all
Contributions to achievement of education and training targets
Support for community initiatives Environmental targets

The government is now legally obliged to legislate on the issue of social clauses no later than January 2016 due to EU legislation. Under the EU public procurement directives adopted in January 2014, “The new rules seek to ensure greater inclusion of common societal goals in the procurement process. These goals include environmental protection, social responsibility, innovation, combatting climate change, employment, public health and other social and environmental considerations.

In the case of the NCH an oversight committee was established and includes all relevant stakeholders i.e. the Children’s Hospital Group, St. James’s Hospital; National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, Dublin City Council; Department of Social Protection; City of Dublin Educational Training Board; HSE; Tusla, An Garda Síochána and local community networks and partnerships.

The Community Benefit Oversight Group has identified four priority themes to implement as its main action items, namely to:

Maximise Employment & Training Opportunities
Optimise Economic Development through SME/Social Enterprise Support
Raise Aspirations through Education and Training
Improve Community Health & Well-being

The NCH Community Benefit Clause which is in included in each of the construction tenders (i.e. Enabling Works, Main, Mechanical and Electrical with a mechanism to involve the sub-contractor supply chain. This Clause specifies a required target for what are being called “new entrants” i.e. people who have been 12 months unemployed, recently left school or college or are new to the construction industry. All vacancies must be notified to the Local Employment Service in Dublin 8 and 12 and the Department of Social Protection’s Intreo Office in Cork Street, Dublin 8. Mechanisms will also be put in place to notify local residents and others who may be interested in availing of jobs with the contractor along with an anticipated workforce requirements and timelines.

Community Benefit Research that informed the Community Benefit Clause for inclusion in contracts HERE
See Primer for Social Benefit Clauses HERE

"CB clauses have predominantly been used by public agencies to create targeted training and recruitment opportunities from the construction of new physical developments. Less common, but potentially more sustainable in the longer term, is the targeting of end-use, service contracts. Furthermore, there is some recognition that CBs should not simply be viewed as something that delivers ‘x’ jobs or ‘y’ training places. Instead CBs should be viewed in a more rounded way that encourages greater creativity in the use of CB clauses"

Scotland ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT AND VALUE OF COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES IN PROCUREMENT Here

Community Gain

Section 37 G (7) of the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 stipulates in the event that planning permission is granted for a strategic infrastructure development, the Board can make provision for a community gain arising out of the development.