THE CARNEGIE UK TRUST

  1.  The Carnegie UK Trust is unusual for a grant-giving trust in that it reviews its priorities systematically every five years and as well as giving grass-roots grants takes pro-active strategic research-based initiatives.

  2.  These have included the voluntary or amateur arts which resulted in the formation of the Voluntary Arts Network; and the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age which resulted in a follow-up Programme and now the Trust's representative on the Cabinet Office, "Better Government for Older People" Steering Group.

  3.  The Trust has had a long-standing interest in heritage and two of its present policies aimed at independent museums are volunteer development and innovation in the use of information technology in which AIM (the Association of Independent Museums) and MDA (Museum Documentation Association) act as advisers.

NATIONAL HERITAGE ACT 1997

  4.  The new powers are welcomed. It is too early to judge their effect. Some of the points made in this memorandum may well be met in the future.

NARROW VIEW OF HERITAGE

  5.  With the 1997 Act and the Lottery Bill 1993, we hope the opportunity will be taken to extend creative initiatives such as the urban parks initiative and to widen the remit beyond, for instance, sites of outstanding natural beauty to encourage new creative urban initiatives.

 GEOGRAPHICAL SENSITIVITY

  6.  Geographical coverage has been hugely inconsistent and very Greater London biased. Clear policies should be developed on the principles for fewer future funding distribution.

  7.  Area Teams should not be London based but in the areas of their responsibility to enable them to spend more time at the grass-roots and to give a clear signal of wider and fairer geographical commitment.

SMALL GRANTS TO SMALLER ORGANISATIONS

  8.  Until this, The Local Heritage Initiative, the Lottery Fund has been poor in responding to smaller organisations. The Trust welcomes the Countryside Commission based Initiative and the Scottish Lottery Charity Board "one-stop" small grants Initiative.

  The concern about the Countryside Commission Initiative is that there is no corresponding urban pilot scheme. The one-stop shop for small organisations seems to have much to commend it and it may be the way forward for the future.

ACCESSIBILITY

  9.  With no clear policy on free admissions, it is difficult for the Lottery to be consistent. There should, however, be clear policies for Heritage funded projects on accessibility particularly if funding is widened to commercial and private heritage sites.

MAKING GRANTS MORE EFFECTIVE

  10.  The Lottery should correlate information on different grant-giving themes so that the field can benefit from the experience of others, stimulating creativity and good practice. For example, a condition of the Carnegie UK Trust's innovation in the use of IT policy is that the report on completion of the project is written up as a case study. These will be published by MDA and widely distributed, together with a commentary distilling the experience.

  11.  The Trust's grants for volunteer development have been developed in the context of an initial conference on visitor care and volunteering, a series of funded trials of different approaches considered along with others at a conference and now an initiative to provide guidelines on volunteering (steered by the field, not the Trust).

LACK OF COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER FUNDERS

  12.  Despite writing to the Glasgow University IT research project, and contact with staff, there has been no response to information about IT policy. As a big funder, the Lottery Fund has a responsibility to be clear in its policies and communication so that other funders do not unnecessarily duplicate funding.

July 1998