National Lottery Charities Board England

England Strategic Plan Summary

Introduction

The National Lottery Charities Board�s mission is to help meet the needs of those at greatest disadvantage and improve the quality of life in the community. We seek to achieve this by funding voluntary and community organisations in England. The organisation of these groups and their capacity to deliver have an impact on how we fulfil our mission.

The Index of Local Deprivation, produced by the Government, together with a collection of other data provide a framework of needs across England. The England-wide strategic plan sets out our approach to grant-making for projects working across England.

The strategic plan also uses information obtained through a series of meetings with national infrastructure bodies, including the black and minority ethnic community, disability groups, ACENVO and NCVO. The joint conference with the Local Government Association in November � Towards a Common Agenda � also provided useful information on joint working between the Board and local authorities.

We seek to undertake our grant-making to England-wide projects and initiatives in a three-fold approach.

Working with England-wide and national organisations we will:

• Work strategically with other distributors and organisations.
• Support national organisations in the development of their regional/federal infrastructures. We will also identify the impact of grants which might need regional support in order to succeed.
• Fund England-wide organisations working to develop programmes through their branch networks. Working through our regional offices we will:
• Ensure continued communication with local and regional government throughout the country.
• Ensure support for projects that increase capital community resources and evaluate the impact of that funding.
• Ensure a sufficient spread of funds across the country, identifying gaps in provision and recommending policy to fill these gaps.

We will also:

• Monitor assessment and management of all grants to ensure a uniform and high standard across the regions.
• Ensure projects addressing rural disadvantage are given support throughout the country.
• Ensure support for projects that address the needs of black and minority ethnic communities throughout England.
• Ensure that policy is implemented equally and fairly in all regions.
• Evaluate the impact of grants across England in relation to identified need, geographical spread and local impact.
• Work strategically with other distributors and other organisations to achieve our mission.
• Support projects from national organisations that enable them to extend their reach to the smallest community of need.

What we have achieved so far

By March 1999 we had awarded more than �54.6 million to 344 national organisations working across England, and almost �769 million to 13,132 local and regional groups.

An effective voluntary sector ensures that our grants have the maximum impact on disadvantage. We have awarded grants worth more than �16 million to national and regional organisations working throughout the country to develop the voluntary sector, and almost �80 million developing local infrastructure.

Some examples of national projects funded include:

• National Federation of Youth Action Agencies � to support and develop local projects co-ordinating volunteering and community action among young people.
• Directory of Social Change � to provide management and financial training to small organisations working with disadvantaged groups.
• Refugee Action � to provide specialist advice to refugee community organisations.
• National Association of Councils for Voluntary Services � to increase the number of sustainable CVSs in areas where existing support networks are poor.

Meeting need across England

We will undertake grant-making to national organisations in England to address identified needs, and will publish examples of the work we fund to the voluntary sector to promote good practice and innovation in project design and delivery.

We will begin to evaluate the impact of grants made. We want to ensure a sufficient spread of funding for projects and to help identify the key factors of success. Areas of grant-making to be evaluated include: youth projects, community enterprise projects, women�s projects and the work of umbrella bodies. We will also look at projects relating to specific issues or needs, for example village halls, pre-school play projects and refugees.

Delivering our funding priorities

We will support projects addressing gaps in provision or where specific areas of work need England-wide support.

We will fund innovative projects that result in sustainable developments.

We will consult with national voluntary sector infrastructure bodies to develop a joint understanding of the ongoing needs of all parts of the voluntary and community sector.

We will continue to communicate with local and regional government throughout the country.

For further information about our England-wide strategic development plan, contact:

National Lottery Charities Board
England Head Office
1st Floor, Reynard House
37 Welford Road
Leicester LE2 7GA

Telephone: 0116 258 7000
Minicom: 0116 255 5162