BIG Chat

Information contained in this document was correct at time of publication. For up to date information on programme developments please go to our website.

1. How important do you regard Cultural Diversity and what steps are the Big Lottery Fund taking to support UK diverse communities?

Sir Clive responds:

We received this question via Twitter. Unfortunately, its not possible to tell who the question is from but its an important one and Id like to answer it.

BIG values cultural diversity by recognising that people have different needs, beliefs, values and abilities and that those differences need to be both respected and promoted. We recognise the importance of building trust and confidence among the varied communities we seek to fund and having a diverse workforce is part of this. A diverse workforce can also provide a richer mix of ideas and talents. We also believe we are more efficient and effective when our decision-making structures are reflective of the diverse views of society. Cultural Diversity makes up one area of our published Equality Principles. These can be found at the following link.

As well as considering equalities principles in how we design and promote our own programmes, our guide Equality Matters helps organisations to incorporate these principles into their own projects. This means that we are able to highlight the importance of equalities principles - including cultural diversity - at every step of the funding process, including how the projects are delivered at local level.

2. Will you fund disabled Service Personnel? y/n

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks to Veterans UK who submitted this question via Twitter.

BIG has recently announced the Forces in Mind programme (up to £35m across the UK) which will assist veterans in their transition into civilian life. The psychological challenges faced by servicemen and women, including those who have been disabled by their injuries, requires long-term support and advocacy and we are proud to be able to provide support for this pressing need. You can see more information here.

WW2 Veterans (including those with disabilities) are being supported to make commemorative visits through our Heroes Return 2 programme. The programme enables World War 2 veterans to revisit the places where they saw action. You can find out more here.

We also continue to fund charities that work with disabled ex-service personnel through our Reaching Communities and Awards for All programmes.

For example, one could fund a village hall or other project which runs very satisfactorily whilst the Grant funding is being released but what happens post Grant funding. Is this element concentrated on sufficiently in the Application approval process?

From: David Herd - Chair CDFA Community Development Finance Association

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question David. Its true that the majority of BIGs funding is through grants, partly because this is what people generally tell us they need (this was certainly a message coming through in the recent BIG thinking consultation). It is not the only form of funding we use, howe'ver. The recently announced Forces in Mind programme, for example, will be delivered through an endowment to a Trust. We have the legal powers to fund in a wide range of different ways, including loans, and future programmes could reflect this. We of course fund the breadth of the voluntary and community sector, including social enterprise.

With our grant funding, we recognise the importance of sustainability and lasting impact. This means that we have moved towards giving awards for longer periods (up to five years), and in some cases through partnerships or with decisions being made locally (both of which builds capacity). In all cases, we require our applicants to demonstrate that they have thought about the sustainability and impact of their projects.

We cannot access funding because we do not fit the categories laid down by the Lottery and other organizations. This is very frustrating as we believe that given more funding than we can raise on our own we could develop a system were by the students in Luchenza and other Malawian schools could become self supporting in the long-term and contribute to the education and global awareness of Scottish/British students. A win Win situation.

A prime example of this is Scottish schools and indeed schools across Britain regularly dispose of English and Mathematics text books when their courses change. Technical departments throw away tools, computers are binned-I see this every year in the schools I know. If these materials could be transported to Malawi the students and staff could rebuild their own education system which has been decimated by HIV/Aids. Given the tools the Malawians I know could be self-supporting. Give us the funding for 4 or 5 containers a year and students is this country will benefit as well as Malawian students.

Another organization I have contact with FOMO is currently trying to build a school in Malawi as their are not enough school places for secondary school children in the Mulanjue area of Malawi. I do not suppose any one will respond, But we will keep trying

From: Liz Stewart, FLAG

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question, Liz. Our International programme supports organisations based in the UK but delivering projects overseas to communities in need, including projects on the African continent. We will be announcing a further round of our International programme later this year. The programme has always (and will continue) to support projects of different sizes. I cannot say with certainty, based only on the information in your question that your project will be eligible, but it does sound as if you might wish to check the programme guidance when it is available.

Clive, we are a very small group of people who are dedicated to, what we think is a very special cause and something that is not widely available here in the North West of England. Indeed there are several organisations that cater for people with disabilities in watersports that operate in the South of the UK and are doing a fantastic job.

We are not experienced at applying for funding to enable our group to purchase resources for people with disabilities. We are sailers and School Teachers and firemen and a Book Keeper. Would it be possible for you to create a service that would teach groups such as ours in the art of Grant Applications please? Thank you for your patience and I look forward to your reply.

From: Glyn Wright

Sir Clive responds:

Dear Glyn, thanks for your query. We fully appreciate the challenges faced by first time applicants and we offer help in a number of ways. Our website and information line offer general guidance but perhaps most relevant to you, our regional teams take part in local events and give advice to potential applicants. Our regional teams also work with organisations that we call Helper Agencies. These are organisations who can give very close support to organisations applying for funding.

We have worked to improve the application process so that forms are written in plain English and the recently announced improvements to our Reaching Communities programme reflect positively on the points you raise. Further information can be found here.

To find your local Helper Agency please visit webdb.navca.org.uk

and type in your area, this will then give you a list of all the Helper Agencies based your area.

For more information on any Big programmes you should contact the BIG advice line on 0845 4 10 20 30.

From: David Carpenter

Sir Clive responds:

David, thank you - this is just the sort of interesting question that makes for anything but an 'easy life as Chair of BIG!

Quite rightly, BIG is held to account on its operating costs and the first important point I should make is that the figure you quote is incorrect - our operating costs were in fact 8.6% last year. I cannot, of course, talk for the other Lottery Distributors but we give a full and transparent account of our costs in our Annual Report and Accounts.

We are committed to delivering value for Lottery money. As part of this in December 2009 we announced that the Big Lottery Fund and Arts Council England have agreed to new shared services arrangements to create a shared legal division.

There are very few "similar grant funding Foundations" to which direct comparisons with BIG can be made. In 2008/09 we awarded £718million worth of grants, made 11,724 new awards and assessed grant applications exceeding £2.4 billion. We are currently managing 25,726 grants totalling over £5.58billion.

The most reliable recent report has been by the National Audit Office who concluded that BIG compared favourably with other funders and the subsequent Public Accounts Committee report praised us for the quality of our outreach and development. Howe'ver, this is not to sound complacent and there are a number of developments that will help us manage our costs without losing the qualities and support that applicants say they value.

Camelot, of course, is a completely different type of organisation and their licence is to enable them to operate as a commercial organisation. BIG is established by legislation and subject to published directions from Government. The overall legislative framework or the particular directions can be amended by Parliament or Ministers at any time and we must be continually alert to this and do our best to perform well to achieve the maximum benefit for communities across the UK.

From: Sue Westbrook

Sir Clive responds:

Sue, thanks for your question. The new community buildings stream of our Reaching Communities programme will launch later this year. There is some information available here.

Please have a look at the guidance when it is available to see if it is appropriate for your project.

From: Sonia Pearce, Tendering Facilitator, Leicester College

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question, Sonia. We do our best to keep the website up to date. All open programme information on the BIG website is kept up-to-date and reviewed on a regular basis and updated as soon as the programme team require. We make historical programme information available to allow funded projects access to post award resources. Some of this historical information is kept online for information and archival purposes and clearly state if the programme is closed.

Anyone is welcome to contact us at: webmaster@biglotteryfund.org.uk - to alert us to any information that might need amending, is inaccurate or out-of-date. We will of course make any necessary changes immediately.

We are constantly improving the website in response to informal feedback and formal user testing sessions. In future we plan to rollout a new design and a community area. We are very interested to hear any comments or suggestions about the site from those who use it

9. Why does your CEO not keep complaints confidential?

Sir Clive responds:

This question was received from an anonymous enquirer via Twitter. BIG takes its complaints procedure very seriously and does not make the detail of any complaint public in a way that identifies the complainant. From time to time a complaint raises a point or issue that may be of wider interest, in which case we may refer to it publicly in general terms but again not in a way where a complainant can be identified.

From: Mel Chavennes, Chair (Volunteer) of England Volunteering Development Council West Midlands

Sir Clive responds:

Mel, thank you for your comment. Im pleased that you recognise the good work that our funding is contributing to in your region. Our Strategic Framework is informing the design of a number of funding programmes between now and 2015 and we expect that both the community focus and the potential for including volunteers will feature in them. They are certainly both very much in tune with the tone and direction of the BIG thinking Strategic Framework.

Indeed, we announced recently funding of a Family Volunteering scheme led by the National Trust.

We are now in the final year of YOF/YCF funding and I am looking at an exit strategy. It would be great to be able to inform the young people of Essex YouthBank that their skills and expertise will not just be disregarded and could be useful elsewhere- as well as know that the Big Lottery will be ensure participation of young people in the true sense of the word.

From: Christine Chester - Youth Capital Fund and Youth Opportunity Fund (Manager for YOF/YCF)

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Christine. Our Young Peoples Fund (YPF) programme involved young people in the Committee that makes the award decisions. In fact, YouthBank UK were one of the organisations that advised us along the way on how to involve young people. We wanted to practice what we preached as the projects we funded through YPF were all about young people designing and leading the work. We have learnt a great deal from their involvement, I think this is a sensible way of working, and we will look for opportunities to involve young people again in future programmes.

Alongside this, we are delivering the £270million myplace project in England on behalf of the department for Children, Schools and Families where young people are instrumental in the design, development and running of world class youth facilities.

It sounds like you have an excellent group of enthusiastic young people at Essex YouthBank - perhaps I can ask a colleague to get in touch to see how we might share some learning from their engagement?

From: Anne Michelle

Sir Clive responds:

Thank you, Anne. We are finalising our new programmes in Scotland and aim to launch these in summer 2010. Growing Community Assets was one of our most popular investment streams, and we expect to continue to provide funding for communities to acquire and develop their local assets.

From: an applicant in the North West

Sir Clive responds:

This is one of the messages that came through loud and clear during our recent consultation. As a result, from this Spring, the Reaching Communities programme will have a number of improvements including the introduction of a simpler application process and earlier decision making that will let you know whether we think the proposal should progress to a full application. This will save many organisations, particularly small ones, a great deal of time and effort. At this stage the assessment of the full application may still require up to four months but we are constantly reviewing this and will look to make improvements when we can. You can find out more information on these improvements here.

From: Stephen Mann, Chairman, St Mirren Youth Football Club

Sir Clive responds:

Stephen, thank you for your question. In fact, some of our programmes already fund feasibility studies - The Investing in Ideas programme in Scotland, for example, and (in a different context) our International programme. Generally speaking if feasibility studies are a way of achieving the maximum impact in relation to the programmes outcomes then it is included as an option. Feasibility studies are not eligible within Reaching Communities because in that programme the demand is already high from fully-worked up projects alone.

Looking forward, it is too early to say precisely how feasibility studies might fit into future programmes but our commitment to innovation and replication suggests that a similar approach - perhaps involving piloting or development grants might well feature.

Howe'ver, through the Welsh Assembly Government initiative the Strategy for Older People which was launched in 2003, much has been achieved through Local Authorities and their local partners in the Health, Statutory, Non Statutory and Voluntary Sectors, together with older people themselves to consider, prioritise and develop matters which have an impact on the quality of life of all those over the age of 50.

Can you therefore please let me know if, when considering applications received from organisations, whether consideration will be given to not only the national but also the local priorities and strategies to ensure that the Big Lottery Fund supports the local consultation along with the priorities identified, thereby offering the best value for older people living within that area?

From: Grace Halfpenny, Development Officer Strategy for Older People, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

Sir Clive responds:

Thank you, Grace. We are very clear that projects will need to be consistent with local strategies, work with local partners and complement local services (including those provided by public sector, VCS or private organisations) in order to be eligible for BIG funding. We intend to ask applicants to demonstrate how their projects will fit in with the local infrastructure that is supporting older people, and will be ensuring that projects demonstrate consultation with appropriate bodies at a local level such as older people strategy co-ordinators, forums and community voluntary councils.

From: Simon George, Wooton George Consulting

Sir Clive responds:

Simon, thank you for your question. A number of enquirers have raised this and Ive already mentioned some of the improvements that were making to Reaching Communities, which (along with Awards for All) is the programme that would be of most interest to small organisations. Small organisations might like to note that Reaching Communities will soon have a simpler application process and quicker decision-making for grants up to £40k per annum. This should benefit smaller organisations considerably. Further information can be found here.

Awards for All has also been improved. We have streamlined the programme, and therefore no longer require a referee for example which we recognise was a barrier for some organisations in the past. More detail on Awards for All can be found here.

Peoples Millions is currently open for applications (deadline 14 May 2010). The new streamlined online application form should make it easier and more convenient for smaller groups to apply.

 

Another organisation has experienced problems because the Big Lottery keep delaying making a decision around funding, which has put the organisation in jeopardy as they cannot apply for alternative funding options until they know whether they have been successful. Whilst I can appreciate that the decision making process might be complex, this does not seem to support a Compact way of working.

From Julie Edge, VCS Team, Hull

Sir Clive responds:

Julie, we are very aware of the Compact and endeavour to work within its spirit as far as possible. We work closely with the national VCS representative organisations, including ACEVO, NAVCA and NCVO and regularly exchange ideas on how we might improve our programmes.

BIG needs to collect the right information from applicants in order to make an informed decision and we strive to keep this proportionate to the size of the award (applying for a grant for £30k should feel much less onerous than applying for one of £500k). We need to ensure that Lottery money is being used to make a real difference in local communities and that the organisations we award funds to are capable of making that difference. Sometimes this makes the application process challenging but not, we hope, against the spirit of the Compact.

Over billion people already live in slums and the number is increasing rapidly. Urban poverty is one of the most pressing challenges facing international development. Is this challenge recognised in BIG's international work plans?

From: Lucy McFarland, International Grants Co-ordinator, Homeless International

Sir Clive responds:

Urban poverty is an issue that will certainly be within the scope of the next BIG International programme which will launch this autumn. Like International Communities it will be broadly based in terms of outcomes, which could cover health, education, natural resources, livelihoods or human rights.

From: Kevin Hutchens, Social Worker, Community Development Learning Disabilities

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question, Kevin. Were not building up to a BIG bang announcement of new programmes in the Summer so it would be wrong to give you a specific date to look out for. There will be various new programmes launched throughout the year and so adding our website to your favourites list is well advised. As I mentioned in the live BIG chat, we are looking at how we can make the details of new programmes more prominent on the website so you will be able to find them more easily in the near future.

Regarding giving fair consideration to people with learning disabilities, all of our programme design takes account of our commitment to equalities and this will certainly be true of our new programmes. Im confident that organisations that represent or support people with learning disabilities will continue to be eligible for many of our programmes and I note that they have enjoyed successes in current and past programmes.

On the subject of "transitions", this is not a theme that will define a single programme, so much as something that will inform our approach to funding overall. We want to look back in 2015 (when our current strategic framework ends) and see how we've made a measurable difference to people and communities who have been affected by transitions and isolation.

From: CD_Day - (via twitter)

Sir Clive Responds:

Hi CD_Day - thanks for your Tweeted question. Diversity and opportunity are, as I said in my reply to Question 1, important areas and we are keen that our programmes are open and accessible to all. But beyond, that, I'm not sure I am in a position to comment on the BBC - just to add I'm a big fan of BBC radio programmes generally and spend a lot of time listening.

From: Sue Reed, Funding Advisor, North Tyneside Voluntary Organisations, Development Agency (VODA)

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Sue, a very timely question post Winter Olympics in Canada and I can't wait to see the Olympics come to this country.

With regard to funding and the Olympics, over 5 years £638million will be transferred from BIG to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund. The last payment will be in the 2012-13 year. After the Olympics there is a commitment that the Lottery will receive funding from the sale of Olympic assets.

We are budgeting on the assumption that this funding, when made available, will enable BIG to continue its support to the VCS.

Howe'ver, the wider allocation of Lottery funding, between each good cause area (arts, sports heritage, health, education, environment and charitable purposes) is determined by Parliament.

From: Ben Ward, Director, World Jungle

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Ben, as you might be aware, our £155m Children's Play programme made 351 awards to local authority-led portfolios of 1,400 projects working with different sectors and community groups. It also supported innovation through Playful Ideas and helped develop an England wide infrastructure to promote sustainability of play provision - a fantastic programme that greatly increased the opportunities for children to play and the areas in which they were able to play.

This was a targeted and strategic investment. We don't have any plans for a further dedicated Children's Play programme at the moment BUT children's play projects will be able to apply under our Reaching Communities and Awards for All programme. The latter I know has funded a number of excellent after-school clubs. This link provide further information.

From: Pauline Reeve, Funding Advisor, Ryedale Voluntary Action

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Pauline - thanks for your email.

We have been very busy following our major consultation last year and have launched a number of funding programmes, for example, Village SOS, The Peoples Millions and Heroes Return 2.

We have also responded to the economic downturn by topping up our existing programmes, not reinventing the wheel, but making more money available at a time when communities need it most.

In addition, we have announced a number of new programmes across the UK in the past 18 months. In England this includes, as you say, an improved Reaching Communities programme (with a budget of at least £100m pa), £35million to a Forces in Mind programme, a £100m Replication and Innovation Fund, a £30million programme for Youth Transitions, the continuation of our light touch Awards for All programme and a commitment to developing place based funding.

Can I encourage you to join our e-bulletin so that we automatically update you on programme announcements? The link can be found on our website homepage.

From: Sue Reed, Funding Advisor, North Tyneside Voluntary Organisations, Development Agency (VODA)

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Sue, thanks for your question. I think the Awards for All programme is a great small grants scheme. In its old form involving several Lottery Distributors in England it was, as you suggest, an excellent single front door for groups to apply for small community grants across all the Lottery good causes.

Howe'ver, the other Lottery Distributors decided to refocus their resources on their own small grants programmes - details of which can be found here.

We continue to run the Awards for All scheme and the door is always open for other Lottery Distributors to rejoin. But it would be unfair to the good causes covered by BIG if we were to try to spread our funding across areas that the other Lottery Distributors are there to cover.

I hope this is helpful.

There is now no major source of funding for such projects. While Reaching Communities can help, capital grants are capped at £50,000. Rural communities desperately need a new Community Buildings programme, or something like it. Many great projects are falling by the wayside. Please can you confirm that the Big Lottery Fund will address this really important need?

From: James Watson, Natural Regeneration Consultancy

Sir Clive responds:

Hi James, this is an important question and one we have heard over the last few months and hopefully one I can positively answer for you. Our improved Reaching Communities programme will have a dedicated Community Buildings strand - this will open in the autumn and I'll make sure we send you further details then. I'm confident that programme will address the issues you raise.

From: Eileen Foulner

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Eileen, thank you for your question. Hopefully we are not a 'tick box funder'. We are very much about outcomes, we are more interested in what you want to achieve rather than the type of organisation you are. Of course there are some eligibility criteria but it sounds like you may be eligible under our Awards for All or Reaching Communites programme - have a look via this link and if you're still not sure, you can call one of my colleagues on 0845 4 10 20 30 - good luck.

From: Eileen Foulner

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Eileen, you may be eligible to apply to our Reaching Communities programme. Under this programme we can make grants of between £10,000 and £500,000 for projects costing up to £750,000. This programme mainly supports revenue projects, so we will only award up to £50,000 towards capital costs, which must be less than £200,000 in total.

Further details can be found here.

We are also developing a completely new stream of funding for community buildings in England. BIG has had a long history of supporting these vital community resources in both urban and rural settings. This new strand of Reaching Communities is still in development, and well be able to let you know more ahead of the strands launch in the autumn.

For the latest information on this you can sign up to our ebulletin.

I was wondering with the mechanism of cryobiology in natural environments (alpine environments), where the cooling rate and temperature is exactly opposite to the empirical cryopreservation techniques. I am interested in looking at the seeds in the soil seed banks (natural conservation site) have any mechanism in survival. If it has specific mechanism then the chances of developing many cryopreservation techniques seems to be possible.

Also in literature, three mechanism have been suggested during sudden plunging in to liquid nitrogen. we need to analyze does it correlate with the natural environment mechanism. I have had a positive response from Royal Botanical gardens, Kew for collaborating with them in continuing the project.

Please let me know your views here. Please let me know your suggestion. Looking forward to hear from you. Please could you send to some one who is working at seed conservation or even cryobiology I would be glad. I am looking for a grant of about 10,000 Pounds.

From: Ganesh

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Ganesh, I'm doing fine thank you. Im delighted that the Lottery was able to support the Millennium Seed Bank and I share your interest in how we can preserve species for the future.

You may not know but I have a background in education and so I applaud your commitment to your further development. But I must admit I've no background in alpine plants. With a large allotment to care for, I'm more runner beans and tomatoes man these days!

Unfortunately we at BIG are unable to fund individuals academic development but I wish you luck with your studies. I hope that the following link, covering student finance in the UK may be helpful to you.

www.direct.gov.uk

From: Jim Park

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Jim, BIG offers opportunities for first-time applicants and smaller grass roots organisations to access our funding. We are keen to see that the projects we fund make a lasting difference to their local communities and so our application process usually asks something about the way in which the project (and its impact) will be sustained after our grant is spent. This might mean demonstrating where other funders or partners are involved in the project. We try to be reasonable about this, howe'ver, and we do not expect applicants for smaller awards to provide the same level of detail as those applying for larger awards.

Your question also touches on the issue of timing and co-ordination with other funders. BIG appreciates that this is important for applicants and we do our best not to impose barriers. For example, we do not usually require match funding partly because we know that smaller organisations particularly find this difficult to co-ordinate. We also give good notice of when specific programmes open and close, and (so far as is possible) how quickly applicants can expect decisions. This helps organisations if they are trying to time their applications alongside ones to other funders. Perhaps most importantly we have moved towards giving awards for longer periods (three, four or in some cases five years). This gives organisations time to plan their next steps once the grant has finished. All of this, we hope, adds up to a virtuous rather than vicious circle.

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question and Im sorry to hear that you have been unsuccessful in an application.

The good news is that I can answer yes to your question. Our improved Reaching Communities programme, that will open in April, will see quicker response times to applications, better feedback to those that are unsuccessful and feedback sooner. We are also making the first stage more rigorous. I think this will address the point you made and hopefully demonstrate that we have been listening!

Further details on the improvements to Reaching Communities can be found here.

My question is: does the Lottery support and encourage successful organisation to take their programmes into new geographical areas where their work is needed.

From: Gina Dolan, Rumbles Catering Project

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Gina - I'm pleased to hear no grumbles from Rumbles! Bad pun aside, it's great to hear the good news of how Big Lottery Funding has helped your project and those with learning disabilities that benefit so much from the services you provide. Indeed our Chief Executive is one of those who has enjoyed Rumbles catering!

To answer your question, we are keen to replicate what works and share that knowledge with others. If you have something that works in your area that might work elsewhere then absolutely, that is something we encourage.

From: Steve Kimberley, Hull CVS Manager

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Steve - this is the second advance question we have had about BASIS and infrastructure programmes.

We recognise the important role our infrastructure funding has played through our BASIS programme. £157million has been committed to some excellent projects across the country. Importantly, because we fund up to five years, money to those projects will continue to be spent until 2014.

I'm suprised to read of the potential for duplication in Humber. We consulted widely on the second phase of our BASIS programme to ensure that funding was targeted to identify need in each region in England.

Details of the consultation can be found here.

Howe'ver, given your comments I will ask our Head of Region in Yorkshire & Humber to look into the issues for your further and ask that they get in touch with you.

We appreciate the two-stage approach but 27 pages and five months waiting for a verdict is too much work and too slow a response. We would like to see a simpler Stage 1 thus reducing the amount of work for both you and the applicants. A faster response is important because a long drawn out Stage 1 impacts on other grants in the applicants portfolio, each of which has its own time line.

From: David Robins

Sir Clive responds:

Hello David, I'm sorry that your bid was unsuccessful but as your feedback confirmed demand for this programme was very high.

The good news howe'ver is that our improved Reaching Communities programme, I think, addresses a number of the points you raise. In the Autumn it will have a dedicated community buildings strand and there will also be better support and feedback and a more proportionate approach for groups applying for up to £40K/annum - for these applicants there will be a simpler application process and quicker decision making than if you are asking for more than £40K per year. In particular this should benefit smaller organisations.

I hope this addresses your points, I will make sure that we keep a record of you details so that you are notified when the community buildings strand opens.

In the rejection letter there were words used like internal and external. On your criteria list internal and external are never mentioned. Why have the goal posts been moved and words added in? We have wrote a complaint letter back to the lady who sent us our rejection letter, but we are still waiting for a reply.

Sir Clive responds:

Thank you for your question. I have looked into this for you and have been assured that a response to your query, dated 26 March 2010, has now been sent to you. I have seen the response and am confident that goal posts were not moved and the programme criteria have remained the same. If when you see the response it does not answer your questions fully, then I will happily look into any further questions you may have.

I do appreciated that the guidelines are not as clear as they could be and, in fact, our policy team are looking into making the guidance notes much more user friendly for applicants, so feedback from customers like yourself who find them unclear or unhelpful is very useful and will be fed back to them.

The three men were John Hulley from Liverpool, Ernst Ravenstein from London and Dr. William Penny Brookes from Much Wenlock. They battled all their lives to get opportunities for young people to enter competitive sport, to have gymnasiums and also to reach their full potential through being mentally and physically fit. They also wanted to stop binge drinking that was a real problem in the mid eighteen hundreds (does this sound familiar?).

We want to highlight this unique British sporting heritage, while making sustainable change in the lives of 600 "at risk" young people in Liverpool, South London and Shropshire. Do you think this would be a project we should get funded to make a great story for the world's media, showcasing our British Olympic heroes and our cutting edge way of handling the problems of young people who can't get a job?

From: Rosemary Smith

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Rosemary - This sounds to me like a very interesting area of work and I am aware that you have already spoken to our West Midlands team about your ideas. As they advised, it may be something we can fund under our Reaching Communities programme. If we can't fund it perhaps the Olympic Legacy Trust may be interested - I will happily share these details with them.

From: Alison Cox, Founder and Musical Director, The Commonwealth Resounds!

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Alison, an interesting question. As we receive many thousands of applications a year, it would be impossible to allow everyone to make verbal presentations and at the same time be fair to all.

So we only include face-to-face presentations in a very limited number of programmes where we think they are absolutely essential to the decision making process. For example our Northern Ireland Committee has used this approach in some cases and our Village SOS Committee will be receiving presentations from Villages and Champions in May this year. Where this approach is used we would want to balance the presentation with other information, including a fair and thorough assessment of each project and take care to ensure that decisions are not taken on the basis of presentations alone.

Id also like to mention that we have considered how we might reduce the paperwork involved in the application process to make it easier for applicants to put their cases across. We are also working on improving our response times and giving better feedback to applicants.

We also provide support to applicants in a number of ways including through our website, information line and particularly through our regional teams who provide advice to applicants and work closely with helper agencies who are able to give close support to organisations applying for funding.

More widely we are looking to move our applications on-line, setting up applicant accounts and providing better support and guidance to help reduce the burden on the applicant. I hope that you soon start to see the benefit.

Many other 3rd sector groups - perhaps especially established charities with trading arms and Social Enterprises - can meet their revenue needs, but on occasion need capital support. These groups invariably demonstrate a successful track record, but lacking access to occasional, major capital grants, must borrow to invest. This reduces revenue available for charitable purposes by considerable amounts, until the borrowing is repaid.

Could BLF fill this gap by providing capital programmes to meet this need?

From: Brian Craven, Business Advisor, Social Enterprise Development

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Brian, good question and one we have been mulling over for some time. The good news is that we recently announced improvements to our Reaching Communities programme in England. One of the developments is that we are in the process of developing a community buildings stream to launch later this year. More information on this will be made available as the programme development continues.

As you will be aware, we've also mainstreamed the funding of social enterprises across all our programmes and they are eligible to apply under our programmes. Have a listen to the linked podcast from England Chair, Sanjay Dighe. He talks extensively about our funding of social enterprise.

I assume that BIG wishes to fund applicants outcomes and not the expertise of the consultants involved in completing the paperwork. Can we not have an Idiots Guide to completing a BIG Lottery application rather than an endless stream of consultants with varying degrees of expertise?

From: Joe Lafferty

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Joe - I also loved Meccano but now spend my time turning over my allotment rather than the wheels of those large machines you refer to. That aside, you make a very good point about the application process. And like you, I dont think it should be necessary to involve consultants except for really large projects where their special expertise is genuinely needed.

The good news is that we aim to make our future programmes easier to apply to, with more support to applicants and better feedback when an application is unsuccessful. A good example of this will be our Reaching Communities programme in England which will feature these improvements from April. More information is available here.

The improved programme will also mean there will be a more proportionate approach for groups applying for up to £40K/annum - for these applicants there will be a simpler application process and quicker decision making than if you are asking for more than £40K per year. In particular this should benefit smaller organisations.

I hope these changes help illustrate how we are improving and evolving our programmes and processes. And you're right, we are an outcomes funder, we are more interested in what groups achieve and we want to help and support that.

The following link should also help; its an application walk through for our current Reaching Communities programme.

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities

From: Roderick Cobley, Fundraising Assistant, Peace Direct

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Roderick, and thank you for your question. I am pleased to confirm that the Big Lottery Fund does run an international grants programme. We will be announcing a new International Programme later this year that will run until 2015 with grants up to £500,000. I'll keep a note of your email address (if that's ok) so that we can send you updates nearer the launch of this programme

Having prepared a case for expanding our organisation, the Council explained the need to cut our existing funds by 50%, as there simply is......no money. The resulting factors are : staff will be lost, closure of the office, the client base will be lost, and 6 years hard work to deliver training, raise standards, promote best practice, support for our members and other development partners will be lost.

My question is.............. when will the big Lottery invest in groups whose main outlay is their core funding i.e. staff salaries, accommodation, petty cash and so on? Social enterprise is not possible for all groups! Money for projects is available, howe'ver when continuation funding is needed, no matter how small the amount..........BIG cannot help!

From: Angela Prescott

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Angela, thank you for your question. I am sorry that your council funding has been cut. As your question suggests that we are moving into a tighter funding climate and we therefore expect the demand to BIG for our funding to increase over the next few years.

With respect to your key point, whether we will provide core funding, we are only able to fund specific projects that support the programme outcomes. Howe'ver, under full cost recovery you can apportion the necessary overheads towards project costs.

I would like to ask: 1) Why is expenditure running so low given the problems faced by local groups in this current recession

(SEE ABOVE FOR THE REST OF THE EMAIL) What Big are doing to ensure this budget is fully allocated?

From: Martyn Riley

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Martyn, thanks for your question. As you will be aware, Awards for All is our light touch, quick turnaround, community grants programme for projects from £300 to £10,000. As you correctly state, the budget for 2009/10 is £45million. To date we have committed £38m. We announced £4.8m of awards in recent weeks.

I am very happy to give the programme a plug here so if anyone has a good local community project that is looking for £300 to £10,000 apply here!

On your wider point, about how we encourage applications, we deliver outreach work in local communities to encourage groups to apply. I think you spoke to a colleague of mine at the Kent Funding Officers network last week so well be able to keep you up to speed with the development of our programmes.

42. I am an individual, who is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, unable to find a job. I applied for JSA, ESA, Community care grant, etc, and was turned down. Where can I apply for a one fund of 2000 pounds, as an individual for my own project of avoiding to have psychotic episode and becoming homeless again?

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question and I'm very sorry to hear of your illness.

Unfortunately, the Big Lottery Fund cannot provide funding in response to requests from individuals. I know this may sound harsh when you are clearly going through a difficult time. We can help many more people by providing funding to charities and other organisations who are well placed to support those whose lives are affected by mental illness.

There may be other sources of help, perhaps local to you. You may find it helpful to look at the current edition of The Directory of Grant Making Trusts or Grants for Individuals in Need. These are published by the Directory of Social Change (DSC). The titles should be available at your local reference library or Council for Voluntary Services (CVS). Local CVS branches can be found on the CVS' website at webdb.navca.org.uk

From: Ann Jansz, Chief Executive, CVS, Stevenage Voluntary Centre

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for the question Ann - it's always great to hear how our funding enables and supports the wider voluntary and community sector. We committed £157 million through our BASIS programme in England and we are currently considering how we might contribute further to VCS infrastructure funding in the future.

44. Sir Clive, small organisations/charities seem to lose out when it comes to funding mainly because of their financial position. Many have innovative, challenging projects which are outside "the box" and not a quick fix. They need time and patience for them to be successful. Would you consider such organisations making presentations to a panel or to an assessor before being ruled out completely ? Thank you

Sir Clive responds:

Thank you for your question. We are keen to ensure that small grass roots projects are able to blossom and grow under our funding programmes. For example, we made 4,500 awards through our small community grants programme Awards for All last year - for grants from £300 - £10,000. More information on awards for all can be found here.

We cant accept presentations in place of applications because we have many thousands of applications to deal with and it would be unfair to allow some but not others to make presentations. In some programmes we do have experience of incorporating face-to-face presentations by projects in the decision making process because of the special nature of the programme concerned. For example our Northern Ireland Committee has used this approach in some cases and our Village SOS Committee will be receiving presentations from Villages and Champions in May this year. Where this approach is used we would want to balance the presentation with other information, including a fair and thorough assessment of each project and take care to ensure that decisions are not taken on the basis of presentations alone.

Alongside this we are taking steps to improve pre-application support to help groups with their application. This is either through the outreach work of our regional teams or through the local Helper Agencies we work with. To find your local Helper Agency please visit webdb.navca.org.uk and type in your area, this will then give you a list of all the Helper Agencies based your area.

For more information on any BIG programmes you should contact the BIG advice line on 0845 4 10 20 30.

From: Chris Knight. Funding Officer England Royal National Institute of Blind People Lottery, Statutory and EU Fundraising

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Chris, yes we have started to roll out our new and improved current funding programmes. This includes an improved Reaching Communities Programme (at least £100m pa), the continuation of our small community grants programme Awards for All, some strategic programmes, notably a Youth Transition Programme (£30m) and a Forces in MIND programme (£35m).

Full details of all these programmes can be found on our website - if you sign up to our ebulletin, you can be sure to be kept up to speed with all our announcements. The link can be found on our website homepage.

We are planning to publish an update on England programme plans soon. Further details will be made available on our website soon, so watch out for that.

From: Chris Knight. Funding Officer England Royal National Institute of Blind People Lottery, Statutory and EU Fundraising

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Chris, delighted to hear youve seen some progress here and the good news is that there is more to come. We are currently exploring how we can streamline our processes to make things easier for our applicants, this will include the development of on-line forms and the creation of an account system so that applicants do not have to complete the same information time and again. We have also recently announced improvements to our popular Reaching Communities programme that will see better support and feedback to applicants - I hope you continue to notice the improvements.

From: Kevin Mckenna. Department of Adults Services and Housing

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Kevin, thanks for your question. We dont have a set allocation to statutory bodies as such. Rather we have a minimum commitment that, across all our programmes, at least 80% of our funding will go directly to the voluntary and community sector. Last year this figure was at 88%. The remainder of this funding often also benefits the voluntary and community sector through, but not exclusively, the statutory sector. Good examples include our Community Libraries or Childrens Play programme where the statutory sector was the lead partner.

We are an outcomes funder, so whilst we have a primary responsibility to fund the voluntary and community sector, we are interested in what works. Therefore the flexibility to fund outside the voluntary and community sector allows us to fund cross sector partnerships to address common community concerns. Often this might be led by the statutory sector but delivered by the voluntary and community sector. We think it is useful to maintain this flexibility.

From: Andrew Heathman, Community Development Worker, Queens Road Neighbourhood Centre

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Andrew, yes we are due to launch a dedicated community buildings strand of our Reaching Communities programme in the autumn. If you sign up to our ebulletin, you can be sure to be kept up to speed with all our announcements. The link can be found on our website homepage.

From: Sam Parry, Parks Development Manager

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Sam, Im afraid the smallest we fund is £300 through our Awards for All programme - unfortunately we do not intend to fund any lower than that. Details of the Awards for All programme can be found here.

From: Rodney Ross, National Volunteering Manager - The Jewish Lads & Girls Brigade

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Rodney, I agree! We have a good record of funding projects that work with young people and have recently announced a £30m youth transitions strand that will launch in the summer. In the meantime you can apply to our Reaching Communities programme and the good news is that in April we will be improving the programme, in the manner you suggest, by introducing a more proportionate approach for groups applying for up to £40K/annum - for these applicants there will be a simpler application process and quicker decision making than if you are asking for more than £40K per year. In particular this should benefit smaller organisations.

 

From: Caroline Cook, Independent & voluntary consultant

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Caroline, thanks for your very good question. A number of our funding programmes, including BASIS, directly or indirectly support volunteering. Indeed very recently we announced funding for a Family Volunteering scheme led by the National Trust.

We dont currently have plans for a specific stream of money for volunteering but groups can apply through Reaching Communities and Awards for All for funding.

We have also funded Cornwall Centre for Volunteers (£259,842) and Volunteering Bristol (£238,360) under BASIS and a number of the BASIS funded projects in the region focussed on strengthening the capacity of infrastructure organisations by providing support and training for volunteers.

From: Roger Drury, Soundwork Community Projects

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Roger, thanks for your question. You make a good point. We cant fund in isolation and we need to take account of the needs of communities and what others are doing to support that need. Our regional teams are therefore responsible for informing our grant making process by feeding back on local issues relevant to grant applications and providing wider contextual information for our grant making committees. Through outreach work, the regional teams also strive to raise awareness and understanding of the funding that is available to communities.

Broadly speaking, we will have three types of funding programmes in England: open demand led (for example, Reaching Communities and Awards for All); more strategic, targeted investment (for example Forces in Mind); and finally specific place-based funding. This balance between open and more strategic funding, I think allows us to both fund grass roots projects but also work with partners to address more strategic issues.

From: Bob Reid

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Bob, this is an interesting point. It is clear from reading applications to us that many organisations are increasingly interested in their carbon footprint. We havent made carbon neutrality a condition of receiving funding from us but we are going to incorporate sustainable development into our future applications and in a proportionate way (remembering that we fund many different types of projects, large and small).

From: Norman Hatcliff, Chairman - Management Committee and Social Club

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Norman, thanks for your question. Difficult to say too much from the information provided but it looks like you may be able to apply to our Reaching Communities programme. More details can be found here but your best bet may be to speak to someone direct on our advice line: 0845 4 10 20 30.

Will you consider 'patching in funding to give organisations a development breathing space while they recover from loss of contracts, grant funding or other support as a result of existing and proposed cutbacks in public sector spending, in order to save the development costs of such organisations and the increased costs of setting up replacement organisations? Will you support third sector organisations like CVSs to highlight their services in funding and other support to organisations that may be struggling?

From: Helen Jones, Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Helen, I know you have asked a number of questions - all will be answered but I found this one particularly interesting and thought of interest to wider groups. We are acutely aware that the tighter financial climate will mean that demand for our funding will increase as funding opportunities elsewhere lessen. We have done a number of things to address this, including topping up the budgets of some of our popular existing programmes so that funding was available to groups at a time they needed it most without them having to familiarise themselves with a whole range of new programmes. We allocated an additional £45million to programme budgets in this way, including an extra £7.2million to our BASIS infrastructure programme. We also identified an additional £43million that would to be invested across the UK to tackle the longer-term effects of the recession on the UKs communities.

The following link outlines our approach: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_250609_uk_cor_big_response_to_help_uk

From: David L Mcginley, Penicuik Community Sports and Leisure Foundation

Sir Clive responds:

Dear David, Thanks for your question. When BIG makes a grant which involves land or property, it is required to take some sort of security to protect the investment of public money. This is something the National Audit Office demands of all the Lottery distributors. We try to keep this as light touch as we can though the larger the award the more security we may need to take. We also recognise that the law is different in Scotland from England and Wales (and Northern Ireland). Thats why we are concerned about ownership of assets. If organisations have to close and the asset is disposed of this means public funds are protected because the value of the grant can be returned to us. We do not get involved with the ownership or disposal of property in any other way; that is a matter for the liquidator of the organisation.

There is often talk of using best practise and rolling out models - how could we get our model into that pot as it were? There is also a funding issue - we are not sure how we can continue to provide this service for young people in Swansea at the end of the Big Lottery Grant.

The project is in part funded by CYMORTH ( from WAG) through the Young Peoples Partnership but the future of this funding is currently very uncertain and not always enough to cover those staff costs - so we are obviously starting to think of the future, but as yet have no clear ideas.

The Project is very well thought of by the local agencies - who also refer the young people to us - but they do not have any funds to distribute. Any suggestions would be fantastic.

From: Anne Roszkowski, Project Manager STORM

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Anne, thanks for your email question

BIG in Wales funds Sustainability Cymru, a service provided by WCVA which offers advice, support, training and skills development to help projects become more sustainable once BIGs funding has ended. One of the key steps is to ensure that projects are properly tied into local service strategies and partnerships, so STORM is clearly on the right track operating within the local Young Peoples Partnership. BIGs Wales office will be in touch with contact details for Sustainability Cymru.

On your first point, I would suggest you make use of the Young Peoples Partnerships network across Wales to identify groups in other local authorities who would like to develop similar services, and encourage them to apply for BIG funding, making sure they build in the additional costs to STORM of providing them with assistance, mentoring and support.

I am an NGO doing service in between rural poor villages who are belonging to the depressed groups and communities. And who are depending upon their daily wages but unable to meet their basic needs like food,clothing, health care pure water and sanitation, especially unable to educate their children. I am seeking donors and sponsors for my sincere service for the above mentioned projects.And submitting some international projects behalf of these people to eradicate the poverty,give health care and education to their children especially New technology education. and charity works like car orphan children,street children,disaster affected children,Leprosy parents children, and abandoned and abused children,care aged people of both gender,disabled and widows care in our target project areas.

In this way when i searched the web sites i found out the BIG Lottery Fund 5 years back and contacted but they are doing projects only in Uk. and gave some advices and few web sites to find the sponsors or the projects t that time.

Now MY QUESTION IS our org is IN INDIA AND DOING GOOD AND SINCERE SERVICE TO GOD AND HUMAN SOCIETY, IS THE BIG LOTTERY FUND WILL SUPPORT OUR SERVICE OR THE PROJECTS? PLEASE LET ME KNOW SIR PLEASE If you want i will send all the work proofs to support our service sir.

From: N.M.Helen Dorothy.-NGO

Sir Clive responds:

Thank you for your question. We have a had a couple of questions already regarding our international programme. Our International programme supports organisations based in the UK but delivering projects overseas to communities in need. We will be announcing a further round of our International programme later this year.

Joining our e-bulletin list is the easiest way to keep up to date with any announcements. The link can be found on our website homepage.

From: Irene Lindsay, Managing Director, DArtE CIC (Disability Arts Empowerment)

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Irene, thank you for your question. I dont think that our costs are unreasonably high. In 2008/09 our costs were 8.6% of income received, this, I think, made us one of the most efficient Lottery Distributors and certainly the National Audit Office found that our costs compared favourably with other funders. That said, we are very much alive to the financial climate in which we operate. We are looking at ways in which we can continue to strike a balance between cost efficiency and providing the outreach and support that small community groups in particular say they welcome from the Lottery. This also requires us to strike a balance between our open programmes where we fund grass roots community ideas and more strategic investments with a very clear and defined area of funding. The former generates many more applications and is therefore more expensive to run (all applications have to be assessed) but it is also the style of programme that is welcomed and encouraged by community groups - and one therefore we intend on keeping.

If we were in Wales, Scotland, Ireland or NE England we would not have this rejection. I also think too much money has been given to Olympics or Sport . This is just unfair and the whole concept of Lottery Money was to help groups and communities

From: Dawn Palmer

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Dawn, thank you for your email question. We have different funding programmes in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and the priorities are different in each country. We did run a Community Buildings programme in England that was heavily oversubscribed. The good news is that we will be introducing a dedicated community buildings strand as part of our reaching Communities programme in the Autumn.

I think the Lottery is big enough to fund across a number of groups but I am pleased to confirm that we remain committed to funding the very community groups you highlight. I think the Olympics offers a number of opportunities for groups in 2012 and we expect to receive money back following the sale of Olympic assets.

From: Emily Kippax- Basis Project Manager ; The Basis Project ; Refugee Council

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Emily, thank you for your question. To find out more about Conservative policy, may I suggest that you go to the following link.

This explains the changes that the Conservative Party have in mind for the distribution of money to the "good causes".

 

From: John Wilson, Training Manager, Holistic Partnership Limited

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question John. We recognise the important role our infrastructure funding has played through our BASIS programme. £157million has been committed to some excellent projects across the country. Importantly, because we fund up to five years, money to those projects will continue to be spent until 2014. You raise a good question about small group infrastructure. We are currently looking carefully at our previous investment in infrastructure, and wider capacity-building support. That review will help inform our approach as we go forward. Im sorry I cant say anything more at the moment but be assured that this is something we are looking into.

What does BIG mean by 'failing risk assessment when informing unsuccessful grant applicants? And why does BIG refuse/fail to disclose the issue of risk when requested by unsuccessful grant applicants?

Sir Clive responds:

We have to take steps to ensure that applicants for funds pass a number of tests so that we can be assured that the organisation applying for funds is a properly constituted body and that the people running it are, for example, not related to each other or connected to other organisations where we may have had to withdraw funding. We publish some guidance about good governance which is available on our website.

BIG is unable to disclose the issue of risk when requested because risk analysis forms part of our framework of controls regarding the prevention and detection of fraud. To do so would expose us to increased risk.

From: Emily Kippax - Basis Project Manager, The Basis Project, Refugee Council

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Emily, you will know that we have supported the Refugee Council in the past and believe that the substantial investment we have made in BASIS for RCOs will have significant benefits for the refugee sector in the years to come. Our future plans do not include the specific support of this or any other sector as we fund outcomes rather than organisations, but Reaching Communities and Awards for All are open to RCOs who can meet the programme outcomes.

From: Emily Kippax - Basis Project Manager, The Basis Project, Refugee Council

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks, Emily. A key point here is that we've made a considerable (£157m) investment though BASIS in infrastructure. Whilst the awards have all now been made, the projects we've funded will of course continue to deliver for 3, 4 or even 5 years to come. As to whether BIG will develop another dedicated BIG infrastructure support programme, well, we've made no decisions yet, but part of the answer is 'not immediately. As you may be aware, we are developing 3 stands of funding in England. One of which will be 'place-based funding (well be talking more about this later in the year). Through this will develop skills and confidence within selected neighbourhoods to change things for the better. Along with residents and other community groups - I can foresee a key role of infrastructure in the long-term support these communities will need.

From: Steven Mitchell

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Steven, thanks for your question - sounds intriguing. We are about helping communities and people in need. A lot of our funding has helped to tackle some of the issues you highlight and I certainly see us having a role to play through the groups and networks that work with communities to address these issues.

From: PATRICK ADJEI-AMPOFO

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Patrick, thanks for your question. We have had a number of questions concerning future international funding. Our International programme supports organisations based in the UK but delivering projects overseas to communities in need. We will be announcing a further round of our International programme later this year.

Joining our ebulletin list is the easiest way to keep up to date with any announcements. The link can be found on our website homepage

From: Kitty

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Kitty, thank you for your question. We have a strong record of supporting Childrens Play. In England our £155m Children's Play programme made 351 awards to local authority-led portfolios of 1,400 projects working with different sectors and community groups. It also supported innovation through Playful Ideas and helped develop an England wide infrastructure to promote sustainability of play provision.

Children's play projects will be able to apply under our Reaching Communities and Awards for All programme. You can find further information on these programmes here.

From: Steve

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Steve, we have received a number of questions about infrastructure funding and that is something I will reflect on further. We committed over £157 million through our BASIS programme in England and we are currently considering how we might contribute further to VCS infrastructure funding in the future.

From: Rev Chris Kyewe

Sir Clive responds:

Reverend Kyewe, thanks for your question. We have had a number of questions concerning future international funding. Our International programme supports organisations based in the UK but delivering projects overseas to communities in need. We will be announcing a further round of our International programme later this year.

Joining our ebulletin list is the easiest way to keep up to date with any announcements. The link can be found on our website homepage.

From: Malcolm Jack, Venture Trust

Sir Clive responds:

Dear Malcolm, thank you for your excellent question. I agree we need to avoid slipping into a simplistic value for money trap you describe. We are an outcomes funder and aspire to be an intelligent funder. This means we are more interested in what our funding achieves, the qualitative impact it has on people and communities and sharing that learning with others - this is not simply a game of top down targets.

That said, we are operating in a tighter economic climate, where there is less other funding available and therefore demand for Lottery funding is likely to increase amongst community groups. We also have a commitment to manage our costs without cutting off the support and outreach that we know community groups value. This outreach and ability to understand communities to reach those you described is key, but it is also the area that requires investment of resource.

This means we do need to understand the impact of our funding but I am keen that this is done in a proportionate and thoughtful manner.

From: Sheila Richard, Chief Executive, The Coach House Trust

Sir Clive responds:

Sheila - thanks for your question. Im glad that you were successful in obtaining three years funding with your original application. The implication in your question is that the Committee chose not to fund for the full five years. Wed need to look back as to why this was so and to see if any future application would be treated as a new project or continuation of the current one. We are happy to look into this in more detail with you outside of the BIG Chat.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund has worked closely with the Older Peoples Commissioner and numerous stakeholders in the statutory and third sectors in developing this programme and intends to maintain these close relationships throughout the life of the programme. Stakeholders have recently been involved in user-testing application materials and officials have attended events across Wales to raise the profile of the programme. Following the launch event in June, we will hold briefing events across Wales. We will also offer further briefing sessions in September before the application deadline. Once projects are up and running, we will offer opportunities for projects to come together and share good practice.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

We are very keen to build on the Older Peoples Commissions timely review of advocacy provision in Wales to inform the development of the Older Peoples Programme. We have held meetings with the Commission to ensure that BIG is able to make use of early report findings in assessing projects.

We also hope to share learning from the projects funded under this programme and from our programme evaluation with the Commission and explore opportunities for joint working in the future.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

At the Big Lottery Fund, we are determined to achieve a lasting impact beyond the life of our funding. We have included a question on the long-term sustainability of the project in the application form to encourage early thinking about the long-term future of projects. We will also be supporting grant recipients in their efforts to secure long term funding. We will provide advice, support networking and sharing of best practice amongst projects and the development of essential skills, and will ensure that the evaluation of projects results in the robust information that those responsible for commissioning in the public sector will need when making decisions about the provision of future funding.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

We are keen to share learning from our older people programme with our colleagues across the UK who are also developing programmes. During programme development, we have learnt lessons from older people programmes in Scotland and have shared papers with policy officers and grant officers in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. We will continue to share information and learning throughout the life of the programme.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund is an "additional" funder. This means that our funding is distinct from that provided by Government and the statutory sector. We complement and add value to others work at a local level, not duplicate or replace it. As such, we have carefully considered the issue of potential duplication in developing the programme themes of advocacy and befriending. Applicants to the programme will need to demonstrate the need for their project and how their project fills a gap in local provision. Projects must show that they have consulted with appropriate bodies in their area and are linked into local services.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund recognises that independence is a key principle of advocacy provision. The programme application form specifically asks whether the applicant is contracted to deliver any other services in the project area in addition to the advocacy service. If this is the case, the applicant must demonstrate how the advocacy service will be independent and how conflicts of interest will be avoided. This will be highlighted during briefing events.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund recognises elder abuse as a major issue facing older people in Wales. The programme application form asks applicants to ensure they have appropriate policies in place for the protection of vulnerable adults. During consultation, a number of stakeholders have mentioned to us that advocacy can play a role in identifying elder abuse. Once clients have begun to trust an advocate and build up a relationship, they are often more willing to confide. In view of this, we ask projects in the programme application form to tell us not only how they will recruit volunteers but also, crucially, how they will effectively train and support them.

From: Richard Jones, Public Affairs Officer, Older Peoples Commission for Wales

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund is keen to ensure older peoples involvement in planning, delivering and evaluating projects and this is a key eligibility criteria for the programme. The programme application form asks a specific question about volunteering and how projects will target older volunteers. This question recognises the valuable role that peer support can play and acknowledges the benefits of volunteering for older people.

Children will continue to need good and inspiring play spaces around the country (and award winning projects like our Street Play project, funded through the Playful Ideas strand). Also, having supported the creation of a national infrastructure for play - Play England - to help ensure that all children benefit from exciting and innovative as well as traditional play opportunities like adventure playgrounds, wherever they happen to live, it would be fantastic if BIG could continue to support this funding stream - especially in times of economic belt-tightening by local authorities, growing demands on voluntary organisations like London Play and local play associations and networks, and hardship through poverty for many children and families.

From: Dr Ute Navidi - Chief Executive, London Play

Sir Clive responds:

BIG Childrens Play initiative has been hugely positive for the play sector and has helped to create and improve play opportunities for children and young people in some of most deprived areas of the country. While we do not currently have any plans for a new dedicated funding stream for childrens play we are actively considering a number of ideas to sustain and build on our previous investment. Play focused projects are able to apply to BIGs Reaching Communities and Awards for All programmes.

 

From: RACHEL eCCLES

Sir Clive responds:

There will indeed be some funding for young people in Scotland. This will be targeted at those young people in greatest need. we've already announced our intention to invest £50m of our future funding in supporting young people leaving care (alongside improving the lives of older people with dementia and their carers). We also expect that our new programmes will aid some of the challenging transitions faced by younger people in Scotland. Well be making more announcements on this over the next few months as we prepare to launch our new programmes in June.

The majority of our funding will continue to be made available through demand led grant funding programmes. We are pursuing more innovative ways of investing the £50m we've announced for supporting young people leaving care and improving the lives of older people with dementia and their carers, and will make further announcements in due course.

From: Martin Carr

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Martin, Im a bit puzzled by this one as charities form part of the voluntary and community sector and are therefore eligible to apply to the Big Lottery Fund. Perhaps you can drop me a line if youd like to outline a specific issue you have come across.

From: Martin Carr

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for this question, Martin. We are always looking at ways to improve the balance between whats necessary to collect during the application process and how this informs the quality and speed of our decision-making. We often get feedback saying that applicants prefer not to wait too long for a response to their application, though that response still needs to be a properly considered one - never dismissing an application "out of hand".

There will always be a certain level of detail we need to collect in the application process (to ensure that lottery funds are used to the best effect by organisations properly established in law) but we want to keep this in proportion. Applying for a small grant should never be as complex as applying for a large one, and we are looking to refine how we achieve that. Youll see, for example, that we have recently made improvements to our most popular programme in England, Reaching Communities, to assist those applying for smaller grants.

From: Chris Knightley, Tansley Village Hall, Debyshire

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question Chris. Obviously we dont have a limitless pot and demand remains high. Having said that we have a long history of supporting vital community resources and spaces where people can meet and come together. In England we plan to develop a new strand of Reaching Communities which is specifically for Community Buildings in both urban and rural communities. Look out for more information on our website in the Autumn. For the latest information on this you can sign up to our e-bulletin.

From: Alex Bate

Sir Clive responds:

The 1993 Welsh Language Act established the principle that in the conduct of public business in Wales the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally. Under the Act, therefore, BIG as a public body operating in Wales has a statutory obligation to provide a bilingual service to the public in Wales. The Big Lottery Funds Welsh Language Scheme is overseen by a Welsh Language Officer. BIG also employs a translator to ensure that all written material is available to the public in Welsh, which is more cost-effective than using external translation agencies. In addition to our staff, the costs of operating our Welsh Language Scheme includes simultaneous translation at public meetings and Welsh publications.

The majority of BIGs written publications are produced bilingually and customers in Wales can choose which language they wish to read or use in making applications. BIGs Information and Events team in Wales receive a significant number of email and phone enquiries from Welsh speakers and BIGs Welsh language website ( www.cronfaloterifawr.org.uk) is widely used by the public. BIG also holds regular briefing events across Wales to inform the public about our funding programmes, and when these take place where there is a high percentage of Welsh speakers many of the questions and inquiries from the audience are made through the medium of Welsh.

About 10% of the applications we receive in Wales are through the medium of Welsh. In addition, some of the groups which apply to us in English wish us to communicate verbally with them through the medium of Welsh. These applications are handled by Welsh speaking Grants Officers who are able to communicate with the applicant in both languages. The overall proportion of applications that require Welsh language communication is therefore much higher than 10%.

Whilst the provision of a bilingual service to the public in Wales is a statutory requirement for the Big Lottery Fund, we also believe it is fully consistent with our commitment to equality and our commitment to providing excellent customer service. The 2001 census recorded 582,368 Welsh-speakers (20.8% of the population of Wales) and this number has continued to increase. BIG considers it essential that BIG in Wales can communicate effectively with those whose preferred language is Welsh.

- Would BLF consider this kind of strategy of reaching hard to reach community organisations?

- Would BLF consider establishing dragon den style grant provision in which grant seeker pitch for their project to a panel?

From: Rene C Mugenzi, Chief Executive - London Centre For Social Impact

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question, Rene. BIG works hard to reach out to grassroots community groups and already offers numerous points of contact, though I take your point that we cannot be complacent on this and we are constantly looking for new approaches. As examples of how we already reach out to smaller community groups, I would mention our regional offices in England who take part in many different types of local forums to encourage new applicants. Recognising that many first-time applicants have difficulty with the forms, we also work through what we call helper agencies who can provide support to local groups. We also have several light-touch small grants programmes such as A4A and Reaching Communities which are primarily intended for grass-roots organisations.

Your local panel and Dragons Den ideas are interesting. We have a major investment in the Fair Share Trust which does indeed have local panels. We have recently published an evaluation report on the Trust to date (it runs until 2013 in England) which you can access here.

Overall, the evaluation concludes that use of a local Panel is one of the key FST success stories. We will be reflecting on what we have learnt from Fair Share and will look at where local participation might have a place in our programmes in the future.

From: Rene C Mugenzi, Chief Executive - London Centre For Social Impact

Sir Clive responds:

Yes. We can and do fund faith-based organisations to delivery community projects. They cannot use our funds to promote religion but they can run a whole range of projects within commmunities including projects for young people, older people, well-being, families, environment and homeless people for example. We would not seek to establish as stand-alone programme for faith groups as they can already access a range of our programmes in the same way as other voluntary and community organisations.

From: Rene C Mugenzi, Chief Executive - London Centre For Social Impact

Sir Clive responds:

Rene, thanks, this is another good idea. Indeed it is already something we are working on and we hope to be able to tell you more in due course.

From: Rene C Mugenzi, Chief Executive - London Centre For Social Impact

Sir Clive responds:

Rene, judging from this and your previous questions, we appear to be on the same wavelength. An on-line application form that makes life easier for our applicants is very much an ambition of ours. We already have an Electronic Application Form available through our website but we are certainly looking into how we can make improvements in how we collect and use data electronically.

From: David Fitzpatrick, Chief Executive, Hertfordshire Community Foundation

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks David, you are right about the success of the Fair Share Trust approach. You can read the full evaluation report here.

We will certainly learn from Fair Share and consider where local participation in decision-making might play a part in our future programmes. As our BIG Thinking strategic framework set out, BIG will retain a mix of different funding models, each geared towards achieving appropriate outcomes. Approaches influenced by the Fair Share model might well be a part of that mix where they can deliver the largest benefit for local communities.

From: Amanda Scott, Play Facilities Development Officer, Maidstone Borough Council

Sir Clive responds:

Amanda, thanks for your question. BIG has made a public commitment that at least 80% of its funding will go directly to the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). The eligibility criteria differs from programme to programme, depending on who appears best placed to deliver the outcomes that the programme is intended to achieve. Most often, VCS organisations will be best placed but not always so (which is why we do not promise 100% of our funding going directly to the VCS). In looking at the design of future programmes, including any that include capital elements, we will always consider who is best placed to make a difference for local communities and that is what will determine the eligibility criteria.

From: Emma Stewart, Women Like Us

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Emma, Good to hear from you. Absolutely. At BIG we understand that organisations are not always ready to start their project when they apply to our funding programmes, that is why across many of our programmes we offer development funding to support organisations to develop projects that are able to deliver the difference we are looking to make.

One example of this is the Village SOS programme through which BIG in partnership with the BBC is searching for six UK villages with great business ideas and six enterprising individuals (to act as Village Champions to help the Villages achieve their ambitions). Each project will create a brand new venture that will bring new life and energy to the chosen villages. Each of these projects will receive funding of between £100,000 and £400,000 from BIG. The journey of the six successful villages and their Village Champions will be filmed for a major prime time BBC One series in early 2011.

During these early stages of the programme we've invested up to £10,000 each in over 20 projects which have made it through to the shortlist. These development grants have helped them to carry out planning and development work, feasibility and research to help ensure the long-term sustainability of their project.

From: John Bissett, Gibson Gardens Community Radio Project

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks again for your question, John. Unfortunately there isnt a simple way to address this. We do our best to ensure that our funding benefits all parts of local communities but the fact remains that nearly all of BIGs income, and hence all of the money we are able to provide in grants, is generated from the sale of Lottery tickets. The only exception to this is where we are delivering programmes on behalf of government departments (the Community Assets or myplace programmes for example). These are not lottery programmes - the grants they provide derive from the exchequer - and so groups who are unable to accept funding from gambling could benefit from these programmes.

From: John Bissett, Gibson Gardens Community Radio Project

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks for your question, John. Im a little perplexed by your reference to "localism" being mentioned in our funding criteria. Having looked through the guidance for some of our current programmes, I cant put my finger on where this might be. It isnt the sort of term that we would normally use in our guidance, though perhaps its there in a particular context. If you would like to contact us again with the specific reference I would be happy to look into it.

More generally, we tend in our funding towards projects that are rooted in their local communities and which meet local needs. The guidance notes for our programmes describe how to address this in applications. I wouldnt necessarily promote this as "localism", howe'ver.

From: Scott Cain, Enterprise UK

Sir Clive responds:

Thanks Scott, the Big Lottery Fund is really excited to be involved in Village SOS. This partnership with the BBC is breaking new ground for us in lots of ways. The TV

Series which will feature six rural villages across the UK is a great way of promoting social enterprise and showing the positive impact Lottery funding can have in kick-starting transformation change in small communities. I know that Enterprise UK played an important role in helping to recruit the entrepreneurs for the programme, or "Village Champions" as they are called.

As for the types of ideas coming through from villages, Ive been impressed by the range of project proposals we've had from right across the UK. The shortlisted projects are listed on our website and include examples of Community Shops & Pubs, Heritage, Tourism, Leisure, Training, Environment and more. Only time will tell which ones get through to the final six but my colleagues on the Village SOS Committee will be looking for sustainable social enterprises that have sound business plans and full community backing. We want projects that will capture the public imagination and inspire people to make a difference in their community.

From: Scott Cain, Enterprise UK

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Scott, BIG recognises the important role that social enterprises fulfil in communities through: supporting more enterprising empowered communities; delivering vital services in deprived communities abandoned by the private sector; providing sustainable solutions to local need; and, providing opportunities (including job opportunities, work experience and training).

BIG is a strong supporter of the Social Enterprise sector, we consider them to be part of the wider Voluntary and Community sector (VCS), who are our major partner in delivery. In our new Strategic Framework we have set ourselves a target that the VCS sector will receive at least 80 per cent of our funding between now and 2015. This is something we consider a positive step for Social Enterprises and the wider Voluntary and Community sector.

From: Barry McCrory

Sir Clive responds:

Very good question. When you're dealing with priorities, it's sometimes quite difficult to decide how to allocate funding and to identify the projects that seem to be the most valuable and the most important. In the case of BIG in Northern Ireland, we decided to actually ask the people who would be most likely to be affected. So we engaged in a very lengthy and quite wide spread consultation exercise. And it was largely as a result of that, that we identified young people as one of the groups of people in our society that most need our help.

From: Barry McCrory

Sir Clive responds:

Again, one of the things we did was to go out and consult. As part of Big Proposals, we asked if there were particular groups of young people at risk that we should target our funding on. We received comments from organisations working with young people who have extensive experience of seeing young people succumb, for example, to drug abuse and criminality, and working to try to prevent that from happening. Using the findings from consultation and evidence on what groups of young people are most in need, we will target our funding at some of the most vulnerable in our society.

From: Barry McCrory

Sir Clive responds:

BIG sees the voluntary and community sector at the heart of what we do. With our next round of programmes, we are committed to ensuring that up to 80% of our funding supports the voluntary and community sector. This includes small community groups and larger UK-wide bodies.

Our new young people at risk programme in Northern Ireland will be open to voluntary or community organisations, organisations recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as exempt for tax purposes, charitable not-for-profit companies and social enterprises. We wont award grants to statutory bodies who are the main applicant, individuals, sole traders, for profit organisations except social enterprises, professional fundraisers or organisations delivering projects outside Northern Ireland.

From: Karen McAllister, VOYPIC the voice of young people in care

Sir Clive responds:

We will assist in a number of ways. First, we welcome applications to do work on presenting evidence and changing practice so that the lives of young people at risk are improved. We have already done this in Northern Ireland under Change Ur Future with projects like Eye Matters where young people themselves are trained to act as advocates. We also require projects to do self-evaluation so that they have the evidence to show the effective work they undertake. Finally, for young people at risk, we do plan on putting into place post-award support that will help projects engage with beneficiaries effectively, share good practice, and gather evidence.

From: Karen McAllister, VOYPIC the voice of young people in care

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Karen, we recognise that delivering projects cost money. And it isnt just direct project costs. For several years now, we have operated full cost recovery within our funding. Our website provides guidance so that projects can work out the true costs of their projects, the overheads, the support costs of both administration and management, and other costs. We can and do fund these costs.

From: Karen McAllister, VOYPIC the voice of young people in care

Sir Clive responds:

As an intelligent funder, we do work with other organisations and support potential applicants and funding recipients to work together, where we can see potential benefit. As well as sharing knowledge with each other and the wider world, working together is about managing and running projects so that everyone can make the best of their roles and opportunities.

Over the years we have held a number of events to highlight the impact of our funding and to offer our grant recipients a chance to share learning and discuss issues such as sustainability.

For example we held a major event earlier this year to highlight the real difference our funding is making to support young people in Northern Ireland. This networking event was put together by BIG working in collaboration with other independent funders and highlighted what is being achieved across Northern Ireland through all of our work. The event offered young people and the projects that support them the chance to network and share learning.

 

From: Kyle Magee

Sir Clive responds:

Lottery funding is time bound and we cannot fund for ever. We therefore recommend all the projects we fund to think about what happens when our funding ends. In addition, we are funding longer, for three to five years because we know it takes time for good projects to establish themselves, achieve their outcomes and gather the evidence to prove what works and what doesnt.

From: Murray Dawson, Project Director at Station House Media Unit

Sir Clive responds:

BIG Scotland Recession Response was designed to target additional funding to support Scottish families through our existing network of investing In Communities Grantholders. BIG has always has the ability to vary grants for existing grantholders within certain limits, as was the case for this programme. We'll review the approach taken in Recession Response to determine its overall effectiveness, but we're pleased that, anecdotally, grantholders have been positive about the approach we have used.

From: Murray Dawson, Project Director at Station House Media Unit

Sir Clive responds:

We have no current plans to make significant changes to the Awards for All or our 2014 Communities Programme. At the moment we are examining ways of expanding the scope of Investing in Ideas so that we can fund the development of even more good ideas from across the country, in addition to making some development funding available to future Investing in Communities Applicants.

From: Murray Dawson, Project Director at Station House Media Unit

Sir Clive responds:

Yes, but we will not normally consider multiple funding requests for the same individual project.

From: Brian Smith

Sir Clive responds:

We are currently considering our approach in relation to continuation funding in Scotland, and will be able to confirm this as we launch the next funding portfolio.

From: Brian Smith

Sir Clive responds:

The full details of our new programmes in Scotland are currently being finalised ahead of our launch this summer. We expect that roughly the same type of organisations who were previously eligible will be eligible this time round. We are also looking to be clearer about the outcomes we want to achieve through our funding, which we hope will mean that well be able to be able to advise potential applicants at an early stage whether they are likely to be successful or not.

From: Serge Merone

Sir Clive responds:

We value the work carried out by Local Authorities, CVSs and others to support the work of the BIG Lottery Fund in Scotland, not only to support applicants and raise awareness of the opportunities available to organisations in their local area, but also to allow BIG to build relationships and share intelligence with key local stakeholders.

From: Serge Merone

Sir Clive responds:

Absolutely. While we understand the difficulties in managing successful partnerships, we know that they can add real value to an application by combining the talents and expertise of a range of organisations. As with Investing in Communities, we anticipate that majority of our funding will be distributed to projects led by third sector organisations.

From: Serge Merone

Sir Clive responds:

BIG will provide targeted development support to some applicants where this is required, and look to provide enhanced general support to all applicants. Over and above this, in Scotland, we will be embarking on a targeted programme of outreach work across the country in order to help potential applicants understand our new programmes better, and we hope that local partners will play a key part in this communications strategy.

From: Anne Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Age Concern Port Talbot

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Fund has carefully considered the issue of dependency which was raised in meetings with stakeholders in the Wales third sector. The first programme outcome which we want befriending projects to achieve is:Reduced loneliness and increased wellbeing through improving social interaction

This outcome suggests the programmes emphasis on enabling older people to meet new people and gain in confidence rather than become dependent on a relationship with one individual. Grant Officers during assessment will carefully consider whether projects can demonstrate that they will help isolated older people to expand their social networks and become more involved in the life of their community.

Using independent advocacy as an example, is there any way that the Big Lottery Fund could help grant recipients identify continuation funding to help sustain successful activities?

From: Anne Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Age Concern Port Talbot

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Funds funding can never be a long-term funding solution for organisations. But we are determined to achieve a lasting impact beyond the life of our funding. In Wales we will therefore be supporting grant recipients in their efforts to secure long term funding. We will provide advice, support networking and sharing of best practice amongst projects and the development of essential skills, and will ensure that the evaluation of projects results in the robust information that those responsible for commissioning in the public sector will need when making decisions about the provision of future funding.

From: Anne Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Age Concern Port Talbot

Sir Clive responds:

We intend holding a number of briefing events across Wales for those considering applying to the programme. They will give us an opportunity to provide advice and answer questions about the programme, and for organisations to explore potential partnerships.

From: Donald Rees

Sir Clive responds:

BIGs Older People Programme in Wales aims to improve the quality of life for older people in Wales by funding advocacy and befriending projects. Befriending projects could include friendship groups, telephone befriending, befriending for specific isolated groups such as men, or older people with disabilities. Advocacy projects could include outreach advocacy, advocacy for people with specific needs for example people with dementia, or those older people going through transition points. The beneficiaries of projects will be older people over the age of 50. The programme has a budget of £20 million for projects across Wales

From: Donald Rees

Sir Clive responds:

BIGs Older People Programme in Wales will launch in June and four briefing events will be held across Wales. Projects may apply for three to five year funding.

From: Donald Rees

Sir Clive responds:

The Big Lottery Funds funding can never be a long-term funding solution for organisations. But we are determined to achieve a lasting impact beyond the life of our funding. We will therefore be supporting grant recipients in Wales in their efforts to secure long term funding. We will provide advice, support networking and sharing of best practice amongst projects and the development of essential skills, and will ensure that the evaluation of projects results in the robust information that those responsible for commissioning in the public sector will need when making decisions about the provision of future funding.

From: Richard Jones, Older Peoples Commission on Wales

Sir Clive responds:

BIG recognises that advocacy and befriending offer distinct services to beneficiaries and that we need to be clear about what we mean by these terms. BIG has consulted widely on the older people programme in Wales with stakeholders in the statutory sector, VCS, academia and older people themselves. During meetings with stakeholders, we discussed the issue of definitions at length. The programme guidance notes contain the definitions agreed by stakeholders

From: Richard Jones

Sir Clive responds:

At the Big Lottery Fund, we are determined to achieve a lasting impact beyond the life of our funding. In Wales we have included a question on the long-term sustainability of the project in the application form to encourage early thinking about the long-term future of projects. We will also be supporting grant recipients in their efforts to secure long term funding. We will provide advice, support networking and sharing of best practice amongst projects and the development of essential skills, and will ensure that the evaluation of projects results in the robust information that those responsible for commissioning in the public sector will need when making decisions about the provision of future funding.

From: Julie Allen, Funding Advisor, Charities Information Bureau

Sir Clive responds:

Hello Julie, Good question. Yes, we have developed a set of useful tools and information for helper agencies just like you, which can be accessed through our website. We want organisations on the ground like yours to help others access Lottery funding. To register, all you need to do is drop a line to the following email address:

helperagencies@biglotteryfund.org.uk

And you'll then be able to use training materials and find out more about helper agency events near you.

From: Alaa Alrawi

Sir Clive responds:

Hi Alaa, I would recommend contacting our BIG Advice Line about your previous application. We keep records of all applications so well be able to check back. The BIG Advice Line will also be able to steer you the right direction if you are considering another application to us.

For funding information or general enquiries our BIG advice line can be reached by telephone or email: 0845 4 10 20 30 or general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk

Are there any plans amongst all the Lottery providers to revert to a joint scheme to make matters clearer and easier for appropriate groups to apply.

From: Michael.J.Gaffney, Capacity Building Manager, Walsall Partnership

Sir Clive responds:

Awards for All was originally set up to fill a gap in the Lottery funding programmes available at the time. It has been very successful in providing an open access light touch application programme for small awards. The programme was set up as a joint pot because at the time the lottery distributors did not feel they could address this need as efficiently and effectively through their own individual programmes.

Since then things have moved on significantly. Other Lottery Distributors have developed their own funding programmes, building on the learning from Awards for All, so in England, Wales and Northern Ireland believe that they are now better able to address the needs of those groups that would apply to the programme, both in terms of the type of applicant and the type of activity supported. I think that some applicants will prefer the more focused schemes that have been introduced and some, like you, will not. Its a pity that the Lottery Distributors cant please everyone! Howe'ver at BIG we are continuing with Awards for All covering the types of good causes eligible to apply for BIG funding.

Awards for All is still operated as a joint scheme in Scotland.

From: Joanne Archer, Together for Regeneration

Sir Clive responds:

we've made a considerable (£157m) investment though BASIS in infrastructure. Whilst the awards have all now been made, the projects we've funded will of course continue to deliver for 3, 4 or even 5 years to come. As to whether BIG will develop another dedicated BIG infrastructure support programme, well, we've made no decisions yet, but part of the answer is 'not immediately. As you may be aware, we are developing 3 stands of funding in England. One of which will be 'place-based funding in local communities (well be talking more about this later in the year). Through this we will develop skills and confidence within selected neighbourhoods to change things for the better. I can foresee a key role for infrastructure in the long-term support these communities will need.

30 March 2010