1. SUMMARY

  1.1 The Big Lottery Fund's (BIG's) mission in Wales is to bring real improvements to the lives of communities and people most in need. To achieve that mission we aim to be an intelligent funder rather than simply be an efficient grant maker. Helping community groups combat the effects of the recession on their projects is an example of our responsiveness to change. Through our demand led funding stream, People and Places, we have set aside almost £5.5 million worth of funding designed to help groups do just that.

  1.2 We engage with stakeholders on a regular basis to ensure that information and learning from BIG is shared as widely as possible and also to learn from the experiences of our stakeholders. This year alone we have attended or facilitated at over 50 events in order to bring us closer to our stakeholders. This enables us to keep stakeholders concerns at the forefront of our work and act in a way which helps them the most.

  1.3 In addition to distributing Lottery funding, we are developing close partnerships in order to distribute non Lottery funds, with both the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) and the Welsh Assembly Government, maximising the impact of Lottery funding and making a real difference to communities across Wales.

2. INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

  2.1 BIG is the largest Lottery distributor in the UK and allocates half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. BIG currently invests around £1 million a week in Wales. Through our support for projects focused on communities, health, education and environment, we have invested over £600 million in Welsh projects since our inception in 2005. In Wales we currently commit to at least 80% of our funding going to the third sector.

  2.2 Whilst continuing to deliver our existing portfolio from 2006-2009 (See Annex A), we have also consulted with our stakeholders, in order to begin work on our new portfolio of programmes. These will invest millions of pounds of Lottery funding in Welsh communities over the next few years. Our ongoing communication with our applicants and stakeholders has made sure that their views and opinions have been at the forefront of our work. Our "Big Thinking" consultation earlier this year gave us the opportunity to test our proposals with a wider audience. (See Section 7)

  2.3 BIG takes its commitment to reduce operating costs and commit more money to the groups that we fund very seriously. In 2008-09 our operating costs were 9.1% of the total income received. The National Audit Office Report Making grants efficiently in the culture, media and sport sector showed that BIG's costs compared favourably with public sector funders and with other funders in the voluntary sector. The subsequent Public Accounts Committee report praised our outreach work and this is something we plan to build on with the communities that we fund.

  2.4 Our focus is no longer exclusively on distributing Lottery money. Legislative changes, in the 2006 National Lottery Act, now allow us to distribute non-Lottery funds on behalf of other organisations, or to match Lottery money with other funding streams to adopt a more rational and strategic approach to funding. This has given us the opportunity to work in partnership with other public bodies. For example, our Life Skills Project utilises European Union Convergence and Competitiveness funding in Wales. Matched with £7 million of Lottery cash, this £14 million initiative aims to re-engage marginalized economically inactive groups in employment and training.

  2.5 This autumn we also launched our Community Asset Transfer Programme (CAT), in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government. The £13 million programme is made up of capital funds from the Welsh Assembly Government and revenue funding from BIG. The CAT programme aims to enable communities to have more control and influence over their future development. Through the transfer and development of their local assets, communities will be able to improve their livelihoods and neighbourhoods. Assets can be used to generate income streams and provide quality services and amenities that are viable and sustainable in the long term—economically, socially and environmentally. We hope that this will mean more people will benefit from those assets, and that they help generate community income, employment and enjoyment.

3. THE WAY WE WORK

  3.1 We are a non-departmental public body (NDPB) sponsored by the UK Government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We are accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who has the legal power to tell us what factors we must take into account when making grants. Typically, this arms length relationship is managed through Policy Directions. Although we have a UK-wide remit, our activities in Wales are also governed by supplementary Policy Directions that are issued in consultation with the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG). Consequently, we work closely with the Department for Heritage within the Welsh Assembly Government, which oversees National Lottery issues within Wales.

  3.2 We now operate through a considerable degree of devolved decision-making. This gives us the flexibility to respond to different needs and circumstances across the four UK countries. It has allowed us to pursue different approaches in different parts of the UK and learn from each other. That range of experience informs our overarching UK Strategy. We also run UK wide programmes such as People's Millions, which gives the public a say in where Lottery money goes. We are governed UK wide by a Board of 12 members appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The Board is our ultimate decision-making body on all matters relating to policy, operations and our finances. The 2006 National Lottery Act also created distinct new Country Committees in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The Chairs of Country Committees are appointed by DCMS as they are also Board members, but the remaining Country Committee members are recruited by BIG; in consultation with the Welsh Assembly Government here in Wales.

  3.3 The responsibilities of BIG's Wales Committee are:

— setting and delivering the country strategic and corporate plans, within a UK Framework;

— receiving policy directions from the devolved administrations on BIG's outcomes and priorities for their respective countries;

— agreeing high level aims and delivery arrangements for the programmes that deliver against those outcomes and priorities;

— making funding decisions in their respective countries, either directly or by establishing specific programme committees; and

— monitoring the progress of programmes to ensure that our grants deliver the desired outcomes and contribute to the strategic direction of BIG.

  The Wales Committee Chair, Huw Vaughan Thomas, has the role of ensuring that the Wales Committee are making decisions in a way that is consistent with the Board Governance Framework. The Committee has seven members in total.

4. OUR CURRENT PORTFOLIO: HELPING COMMUNITY GROUPS IN WALES DEAL WITH THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

  4.1 Our current Wales funding portfolio for 2006-09 is worth over £120 million (See Annex A). These programmes were developed to reflect Welsh strategic priorities, in response to wide ranging consultation with stakeholders, policymakers and experts in the voluntary and public sectors. Consequently, our portfolio of innovative programmes blended new approaches with tried and tested methods. For example, our capacity to fund five year grants enables groups in receipt of funding to establish staff over a longer period and minimise disruption to the groups work.

  4.2 The need to respond to individual community priorities is at the forefront of our work. Around half of the funding committed between 2006-09 has been channeled through our People and Places programme. It's broad aims and outcomes allow communities to identify the priorities that they want to address.

  4.3 Through this programme, we have also recently earmarked a tranche of our funding to help tackle problems faced by community groups during the recession. At least an additional £5.5 million in funding is being made available up until 2011 for projects addressing the recession through our existing People and Places programme.

  We have also invited current grant holders to contact us to discuss ways to amend their projects if the effects of the recession are putting their project at risk. We have made over £500,000 available to support projects in this situation. With a short assessment time this process has proved very popular and we received over 90 applications which are currently undergoing assessment.

5. ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITIES IN WALES

  5.1 Our stakeholders play an important part in our work. As well as informing our current work and future direction, it allows us to share our learning with others. Engagement with key sectors is ongoing, and we communicate regularly in a number of formats to ensure that we are accessible to all who have an interest in our work. Our free award-winning quarterly magazine, Big/Mwy is distributed to over 2,000 recipients and has been promoted at Lottery ticket sale points to those buying tickets.

  5.2 Big Briefing, our key parliamentary publication, is distributed to all MPs and AMs on a quarterly basis informing of developments within BIG in Wales. We also hold various events with elected members within constituencies, across Wales and in Westminster to encourage debate and discussion around our funding and work.

  5.3 We attend the major summer festivals in Wales (the Urdd Eisteddfod, National Eisteddfod and Royal Welsh Show) sharing a stand with other Lottery Distributors to provide information and advice to the public. Over the last three years we've run campaigns focussing on mental health issues (2007), young people (2008) and the 15th anniversary of Lottery funding (2009). This gives us the opportunity to be more than a funder and add benefit to the programmes that we run. To complement our Mental Health Matters programme we developed our More than a Number campaign. Working with Mind Cymru and Hafal to help raise awareness of mental health issues we organised events, a piece of research on rural stress and young people, a conference and creative work with young people on the subject of mental health.

  5.4 We try to ensure that our stakeholders are fully briefed on how to go about accessing our funding. This is achieved through working closely with Councils for Voluntary Services (CVCs) and running briefing sessions on funding opportunities available. To complement this we have run a number of briefing sessions in conjunction with the community's local MP or Assembly Member. Through our programmes we work closely with communities to achieve lasting change; helping their regeneration and creating employment. We strive to provide development and support services to our applicants to help develop, deliver and evaluate their projects. This effectively supports less experienced organisations like small community groups to build up their skills and confidence to access funding. Further information and copies of our evaluations can be found at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.

  5.5 Since January this year we have held an information stand at nine funding fairs across Wales. We have held over 15 consultation or briefing events and we have attended over 30 project launches. This all serves to illustrate our close involvement with the communities we fund.

6. BEING AN INTELLIGENT FUNDER

  6.1 In line with contemporary thinking amongst funding organisations, BIG has adopted Intelligent Funding principles to guide its work. We aim to be a strategic investor, looking for where our funding can have significant long-term impact. We try to have a more engaged relationship with the people we fund, supporting them in designing, delivering and evaluating their projects so that they develop their expertise and skills. We learn from our experience and apply this to inform future programmes, improve our internal procedures and influence external policy and practice.

  6.2 We aim to work with and complement the work of other funders to achieve common objectives. While recognising that our funding is relatively modest compared to that of Government, we provide an important resource for the third sector that enables it to pursue its innovative and campaigning activities independently.

  6.3 One of our clearest expressions of Intelligent Funding is the outcomes approach that we have implemented across all our programmes. This approach concentrates on the outcomes we want our funding to achieve rather than the activities or services that will be provided. We ask applicants to describe what will be different for the people and communities that their projects are meant to serve rather than what they will do. This helps us to establish clear terms of engagement with the applicant from the outset and underpins the application and assessment process. It also forms the basis of the contract with the grant recipient against which we monitor progress and evaluate performance.

7. 2009-15: BIG'S NEXT STEPS IN WALES

  7.1 Earlier this year we launched our Strategic Framework which set out the type of funder we would like to become. At the same time we announced our plans to spend around £250 million across Wales between now and 2015.

  The Strategic Framework built on the findings of our wide ranging public consultation, Big Thinking. In Wales, Big Thinking reached over 500 people through the online consultation and the specific consultation events we held across the country. Using the latest interactive technology, participants were able to give us their views on the key questions for BIG both across the UK and in Wales.

  7.2 The consultation confirmed the relevance of our proposed future portfolio of programmes:

— In spring 2010 we will launch a programme aimed at improving the quality of life of older people by reducing poverty and isolation amongst older people.

— This will be followed by programmes to promote the citizen's voice, to allow citizens to engage in planning and running services which respond to service needs of local communities; and to reduce the impact of climate change by raising awareness and reducing local carbon footprints.

— We will also establish an innovation fund to support social innovation.

  As well as our new strategic programmes we will also continue to respond to the needs of Welsh communities through a revised demand-led programme. This will follow on from the current People and Places programme using intelligence gathered on the projects and areas that we fund and closely work with our stakeholders to ensure the revised programme is even more suited to the needs of those most in need.

8. IMPACT OF THE OLYMPICS ON LOTTERY FUNDING

  8.1 The transfer of Lottery funds to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund began in February 2009. A total of £1.835 billion will be made available to the Olympic Lottery Distributor from now until 2012 with the National Lottery in total contributing £2.175 billion towards the Public Sector Funding Package for the Olympic Games. Although this diversion is substantial, the Government has made it clear that no more money will be diverted from the Lottery to pay for the games.

October 2009