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Memorandum submitted by Big Lottery Fund (EM02-07)
1. Introduction
1.1
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the second
inquiry into the share of funding received by the
1.2 BIG distributes half of the good cause money
raised through the National Lottery. It
was launched on 1 June 2004 as the operating name for the
1.3 BIG is responsible for giving out half the
money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. BIG awards more than £600 million in grants every year and, with its
predecessor bodies, has committed over £6 billion so far across the
1.4 In addition, BIG has successfully delivered non-Lottery funding in the last two years through two programmes: Community Asset Transfer for Office of Third Sector and myplace for Department of Children, Families and Schools.
1.5 BIG has taken a lead across Lottery Distributors in involving the public in deciding where Lottery money should be spent. Approaches have ranged from:
· Consultation (3,400 responses to our recent 'Big Thinking' consultation on our strategic framework) · Young People Fund programme where 50% of our committee members were young people · People Millions programme (run in partnership with ITV) where members of the public voted for their favourite project · The
1.6 BIG's understanding of local communities is integral to how we work with applicants and grant holders, ensuring that communities are at the heart of our funding. This was noted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in 2008 who recommended that "Grant-makers should seek to learn from Big Lottery Fund's approach, including its regional outreach operations."
1.7 In 2008/09 BIG received over 23,000 applications worth over £2.4 billion against new funding of around £520 million. We anticipate demand for our funding to increase as the impact of the recession means there is less funding available and the demand for the kind of community services we fund, increases.
1.8 Responding to
the increasing pressure facing the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS), BIG
has also reprioritised and refocused its portfolio and increased the budgets of
some of its most popular programmes this year, to the tune of around £45 million.
All these adjustments have been made to help get funding fast to where VCS
voices are saying it is needed most. An additional £43 million
is to be invested across the
1.9 BIG has increased
its undertaking
to the VCS to a target of at least 80% across the
1.10 The National Audit Office's report 'Making grants efficiently in the culture, media and sport sector' showed that our costs compared favourably with public sector funders and with other funders in the voluntary sector. We seek to spend income on administrative costs only where these add value to the impact of the money we distribute: in the financial year 2008/09 our operating costs were 8.6 per cent of income received, down from 9.1 per cent the previous year.
2. Big Lottery Fund working in
the
2.1 BIG has provided £567,576,531of Lottery funding to thousands of projects benefiting
hundreds of thousands of people across the
2.2
BIG allocates funding through programmes which groups then apply to, usually in
a competitive process through applications. It is common for there to be a regional
indicative allocation as opposed to a guarantee of funding. The amount of
funding is normally determined by combining deprivation and population
statistics to provide a percentage amount of the programme funding. The general
indicative allocation for the
2.3
The East
3. The work of the BIG regional office
3.1 Every region has a regional team of eight staff in order to ensure communities have the same opportunities to benefit from BIG funding as any other. The role of the regional team is to promote BIG programmes, provide regional context for decision making and promote public awareness of Lottery funding. The team also seeks to ensure that there are good quality applications from across the region and from communities of interest such as disability, BME, and rural.
3.2 Approaches include:
· Organising briefing events for potential applicants and attending funding fairs · Encouraging pre and post award events where projects can share experiences and good practice · Working with approximately 80 helper agencies across the region who then provide local communities with accurate and up to date information and tips · Identifying priority areas and developing action plans to ensure a good spread of funding across the region · Linking in with stakeholder networks to share information and on occasions calls to encourage applications · Establishing good links with other funders and enhance customer care by signposting to appropriate funders · Working with MP's to encourage applications and awareness of Lottery funding - for example, the region piloted an Awards for All session for MP aides in September so they can signpost constituents to appropriate funding programmes.
4. Big Lottery Fund
4.1 Big Lottery Fund projects range from very small grants for grass roots community organisations, to larger grants to established charities and voluntary and community sector organisations as well as statutory organisations. Since 1994, it has distributed funding through strategic and open programmes. See below for examples of some of our funding programmes, and examples of the awards made through them.
i) Advice Plus
Eight projects in the region were awarded a total of £3,230,119 in 2007/8 from BIG's Advice Plus programme to support organisations offering advice services. One example is Lincoln Citizen's Advice Bureau, which received £416, 872 of funding in 2007 to expand its advice service to disadvantaged communities in outlying areas of the city.
ii) BASIS
Thirty
five projects were awarded a total of £9,593,844 in the region,
from BIG's BASIS programme in the last two years. BASIS was designed to provide
support to community and voluntary sector infrastructure organisations. This
included an award of £314,526 to Regeneration in
iii) Children's Play
Big Lottery Fund has
supported the development of children's play opportunities in the
Children's
Play: Playful Ideas funded four projects in the region which between them
benefitted from awards totalling £432,631. Examples include an award of
£140,103 to Greater Nottingham Groundwork Trust in 2007, for its
Forty
projects were awarded a total of £10,695,307 from BIG's Children's Play funding
programme in 2007/8. This included an award of £454,994 to Northampton Borough
Council to provide accessible and innovative play opportunities to benefit over
15,000 children and young people in the borough. The projects will include
after school and lunchtime activities, free play sessions in school holidays,
new play equipment and
iv) Community Buildings
Communities have been supported in the region, with 35 community buildings being supported through awards totalling £5,666,136. The majority of these projects were rural community halls such as Packington Memorial Hall in North West Leicestershire which was awarded £250,000 in 2007 to extend the existing hall so that it can offer a greater range of activities. It will be an economically and environmentally sustainable building that will provide opportunities for young people to take part in healthy activities and give greater access to services for elderly people and those with disabilities.
v) Community Libraries
The
region has benefitted from four community library awards in the region
totalling £5,654,915. This included the first community library to open in the
country, in the
vi) Family Learning
BIG's
Family Learning programme was designed to encourage families to learn together.
The region saw 12 projects funded from the programme totalling £3,225,793. This
included an award of £385,257 to
vii) Heroes Return
BIG has
enabled over 900
viii) New Opportunities in PE & Sport (NOPES)
Awards
to improve school and community PE provision were made to 154 projects
totalling £39,792,856 from 1999 to 2004. These included new sports halls, multi
use games areas, and flood-lit pitches. For example, Grantham Sport and
ix) Reaching Communities
This programme is one of BIG's open programmes, with grants between £10,000 and £500,000 available for up to 5 years. Since it was launched in 2005, 103 projects in the region have benefitted from awards from the programme, totalling nearly £23 million. Examples of funded projects include:
· £ 211,016 to Chesterfield Law Centre in 2009, to support disadvantaged communities in their fight against hate incidents and harassment in the area · £431,518 to Home-Start Blaby District Oadby and Wigston in 2008, to support families with young children · £218,994 to Derbyshire Association for the Blind in 2007 to provide a range of local support services for visually impaired people and their carers · £344,290 to New College Nottingham in 2006, for a learning bus, which will travel to hard-to-reach groups to teach them basic. A community partner works with participants to build their confidence and help overcome negative perceptions about learning.
x) Peoples Millions
This is one of BIG's
public engagement programmes and is run in partnership with ITV. Twenty two
projects in the
xi) Young People's Fund
BIG has funded 51 grants totalling £7,630,247 in the support of activities for young people in the region. To be successful with this programme, projects had to involve young people in generating ideas and through the application process. Projects examples include: £66, 255 to Rainbows Children's Hospice in Leicestershire in 2007, to offer youth facilities for young people aged 11-25 years old affected by cancer or a life limiting threatening condition. Rev and Go in Nottinghamshire was awarded £55,975 in 2006 offering off road motor cycling riding & maintenance skills development to 12- 17 year olds in exchange for a contract of good behaviour with the aim of reducing anti-social behaviour in the village of Cotgrave.
5. Lottery Distributors Working Together
5.1 The Lottery distributors work together in the region on a number of shared programmes and projects. For example, in 2008, we celebrated the fact that over £1 billion of Lottery money had been invested in the region, in a shared publicity campaign. This campaign involved two world renowned artists creating a three dimensional drawing and Olympic medallists acting as spokespeople. As a result, considerable media interest was achieved, with over £1.7 million worth of PR gained for a small outlay.
5.2 We also work on joint programmes, where more
than one distributor can bring expertise to the table. Parks for People was a
joint programme between Big Lottery Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund, whereas
Active England was a joint programme between
i) Parks for People
The Parks for People programme uses Lottery funds to support the regeneration, conservation and increased enjoyment of public parks. The programme aims to improve the local environment and put parks firmly back at the heart of community life and offered grants between £250,000 and £5 million from 2006 to 2009.
So far two projects in the region have reached second stage approval, with two more reaching the first stage decision phase.
One of the successful projects is Stafford Orchard in Quorn, Leicestershire, which was gifted to the people of the village in 1922. It consists of open grass areas, mature trees and recreation facilities and adjoins Buddon Brook, a tributary of the River Soar. The application was put together by village volunteers and will allow the park to be revitalised with new planting, a sensory garden, easier access and new recreational areas. Enhancements to natural habitats, particularly in the park's brook area, form a key part of these proposals. An award of £645,500 from the programme will help with these plans and to enable the park to gain Green Flag status.
ii) Active
Launched in 2005, the aim
of the programme was to improve the health and well-being of individuals and
communities, through actively promoting sport and other forms of healthy
exercise. A total of £9 million was awarded in the
Project examples in the
region include South Derbyshire District Council which was awarded £460,000 for
its Get Active in the
6. Summary
· The · Through working with stakeholders the regional team seek to ensure good quality applications are submitted which benefit communities across the region · Helper Agency work is an important tool BIG utilises to ensure the region benefits from funding opportunities · Programmes such as BASIS have helped significantly improve the support available to VCS/Third Sector groups across the region which in turn will improve the quality of applications and help with sustainability of projects once the Lottery funding ends · BIG will continue to work with other funders to maximise the impact of our funding and to provide good customer care · BIG is committed to excellent service provision to customers and is constantly looking at improving our processes and offer · BIG is happy to provide further detailed evidence if required.
Appendix 1 BIG Expected and actual share of funding June 2004 - December 2008
9 October 2009
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