National Lottery Charities Board South West

South West Summary Strategic Plan 1999-2001

Introduction

Voluntary and community organisations form a significant part of the economy of the South West. According to one estimate 17,000 voluntary organisations employ 120,000 people, enlist the help of 494,000 volunteers and turn over £1.75 billion per year. This represents 4.7% of regional GDP.

The dominant feature of the Charities Board�s grantmaking has been the large number of high quality bids. This means that the gap between what is asked for and what we can give has been wide, with inevitable disappointment.

The pattern of our grantmaking must be viewed against the background of a sector and region which are both diverse. In December 1998 unemployment in the region�s travel-to-work areas ranged from 1.2% to 10.7%. The key to tackling need in a region which includes pockets of multiple deprivation as severe as anywhere in England lies in developing a detailed understanding on a District and sub-District basis, and in recognising that the needs of the few people in need in wealthy areas are vital too.

More people in the region live in rural areas than anywhere else in the country: 47% of the population against the national average of 18%. This makes it difficult to sustain viable small communities, or a lively voluntary sector.

A challenge for the Charities Board is to provide equal access to its funds for a region and voluntary sector which is not evenly equipped to apply for them.

What has been achieved so far

The Charities Board distributed £57 million in the South West between 1995 and February 1999, making it the biggest independent funder of the voluntary sector. Of this, £52.2 million went to 776 organisations in our main grants programmes, and £4.8 million to 1,648 groups in the Small grants programme.

Viewed geographically, the distribution of grants to areas of greatest need in the South West has been generally successful, with a significant relationship between deprivation scores and amounts awarded. Important regional variations remain, however. A key part of our development work lies in dealing with these, while recognising that the underlying reasons will take time to address.

Although small in relation to government spending, funding on this scale is likely to have outcomes beyond the basic grantmaking process. Our work, as it takes root, will offer insights into effective practices in supporting voluntary activity.

We are well placed to become a source of information for local authorities and other partner agencies across the region, and we aim to work with them on issues which affect our shared customers. These extend beyond the grants which we make to the means by which the culture of voluntarism and the social economy are supported and developed.

Meeting particular needs

The Regional Awards Committee (RAC) works to ensure that the Charities Board�s funds address the particular needs of the region. Over time it has developed a set of working priorities, which were the subject of public consultation in Autumn 1998. These are as follows:

• People in dispersed rural communities, and need arising from isolation;
• Meeting the needs of elderly people;
• Targeting low income groups;
• Young people and children;
• Minority ethnic groups;
• 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 inequities in the distribution of funds as well as sectoral weaknesses. As a grantmaker we can fund only those who apply, and we are beginning to discover an inverse relationship between need and voluntary sector capacity or provision in some significant areas.

How funding priorities will be delivered

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.
• Recognising that new ideas and approaches often emerge from the voluntary sector, we will be prepared to take risks and reserve the right 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 fall outside places where funds are more readily available. 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; we also recognise, however, that there may be good reasons why other sources of funding are not available.