National Lottery Charities Board South West

South West Region - Guide to Regional Priorities and Policies

1. Introduction

This guide has been produced mainly to help those who advise organisations with their applications. It should be read together with the information in the application pack. A brief statement of our regional priorities is now included in the covering letter sent with every application pack for our main grants programmes. Copies and summaries of our regional strategy and the corporate strategy are available from the regional office.

The South West Regional Awards Committee (the RAC) has set priorities and policies for the Board's work in the region over the next three years. This document summarises them, and sets out the areas we are working most actively to address in the first part of this period.

While the RAC has set regional priorities, these complement the general aims of the grants programmes. We will continue to fund a broad range of organisations and projects through these programmes; it is only when we have to make difficult choices that our priorities come into play.

2. The RAC's Priorities

The RAC works to ensure that the Charities Board's funds address the particular needs of the region. It uses two approaches to help it make difficult choices. Firstly, it sets sectoral and geographical areas of priority and, secondly, it uses a set of principles to assist in making choices between them. Over time it has developed a set of working priorities, which were the subject of public consultation in Autumn 1998. These are as follows:

• Isolated people in dispersed rural communities;
• Meeting the needs of older people;
• Targeting low income groups;
• Young people 11-25;
• Black and minority ethnic groups;
• Disabled people;
• Mental health;
• Supporting the infrastructure of the voluntary sector and developing it where it is weak.

This last priority underpins the others, and is the means by which the Board can address geographical inequity in the distribution of funds as well as sectoral weaknesses.

3. Current areas of particular interest

The regional office is working towards a more equitable distribution of its funds over the next three years, and it may help applicants to know from which sectors and areas we are particularly keen to see applications at the moment. Please remember that our overall aim is to see that all geographic areas are served fairly by us.

3.1 Sectoral priorities

Compared to the known levels of need, we receive lower number of applications for projects helping:

• Young people 11-16
• Young people 16-25
• Older people
• Black and minority ethnic groups

When considering projects for young people and older people, we will be particularly interested in projects for low income groups. Our priority areas of work for young people are: affordable housing, sexual health, drugs and disability. Priority areas of work for older people are independence, access and community transport.

3.2 Geographic areas

We want all parts of the region to receive a fair share of our funding, but some parts of the region currently make applications more strongly than others. The current imbalance of our funding in relation to deprivation and application rates requires that special attention is paid to:

• Cornwall. Especially Penwith, Kerrier, Restormel, North Cornwall
• Plymouth
• Torbay
• Dorset. Especially Bournemouth, Christchurch, East Dorset, Purbeck, Weymouth & Portland
• West Somerset
• Tewkesbury
• Other dispersed rural areas, to tackle isolation

3.3 Voluntary sector development

The development of the infrastructure supporting voluntary organisations is a particular concern of the Board, and very relevant to our work in the South West. In order to improve the number and quantity of good applications in certain fields, we need to strengthen the existing infrastructure. Networks supporting groups in the following areas are of particular interest to us:

• Disability (especially organisations of disabled people)
• Older people
• Black and minority ethnic groups
• Places where bids are low or of poor quality (see geographic areas above).

4. Principles

In addition to priorities, the RAC works to a set of general principles to help it discriminate objectively between bids, target disadvantage in the region and achieve consistent application of policy. These principles are as follows:

• Projects which focus on prevention and sustainability will in general be preferred to those which focus on crisis intervention.

Prevention means:

• maintaining independence
• Alternatives to anti-social activity
• maintaining existing social networks and support

Sustainability means:

• tackling causes rather than effects
• life beyond end of grant
• resources recycled in the local economy
• broad ownership

• Recognising that new ideas and approaches often emerge from the voluntary sector, we will be prepared to fund bids rating less well on management and other general criteria where disadvantage and need are strongly demonstrated.

• We recognise that some of the neediest parts of the region already attract large amounts of funding from other sources, such as local authority, government and European funding. We wish to ensure that our funds reach areas and groups which have less access to funding, especially areas of need which are just off other funders' maps. We also recognise that small groups sometimes fail to benefit from large-scale government programmes, and will always need access to programmes such as ours.

• Value for money. We will regard the ability of an applicant to maximise support from other sources (including self-generated funds) as a strength. For example:

• A community hall which can show support for its building project in cash or kind may be preferred to a hall seeking 100% funding from us;
• A large organisation which shows commitment to a project by contributing some of its own resources to it may be preferred to applicants who do not.

We also recognise, however, that there may be good reasons why other sources of funding are not available.

• We recognise that the relationship between people, priorities and geography is close, and cannot be separated.

However, if choices have to be made, we place a higher priority on sectoral needs than geographic equity. Thus:

• whereas a mental health project for older people in Torbay which rates well in assessment might be preferred to a project of otherwise equal merit in Swindon, a playgroup in Torbay might not take precedence over a mental health project for older people in Swindon.
• A project for low-income isolated older people in the Cotswolds might be preferred to a village hall in North Cornwall.

5. Other policies to note

• LARGE GRANTS

There is no ceiling for requests. The South West RAC, however, has not normally made awards greater than �300,000 unless applications fulfil all the following:

• Rate well in assessment
• Target a deprived area
• Fit well with programme
• Good value for money
• Meet RAC priorities
• Innovative

• PART FUNDING

We assess applications as they stand and do not usually alter the amount awarded from that requested. Nevertheless, it is recognised that the integrity of a project can sometimes be maintained with a lower award. The RAC will consider cases, but only if recommended and substantiated by the Grant Officer and normally not more than a 40% variation on the original request.

• DEVELOPMENT FUNDING

We will consider making a second grant for up to three years to support the development of work funded by the first grant. What we mean by 'development reapplications' is set out on page 14 of the Application pack under the heading 'How often can you apply?'.

All development re-applications will be assessed on their merits, but in competition with all other development re-applications. You should be aware that budgets are limited, so competition for these grants is likely to be strong. This means that we are unlikely to fund large increases in total project budgets. Also, the RAC will be less likely to fund development bids where insufficient attention has been paid during the period of the first grant to how other sources of funding may be attracted to the project.

Finally, it is important for you to note that there is no commitment for the Board to provide any further funding for your project when the first grant expires. Equally, the Board retains the right to alter its re-applications policy at any time.