·  Support and advice available from Community Foundations for Merseyside, Wirral Council’s National Lottery Project Manager and Voluntary Community Action Wirral (VCAW)

  Support and advice available from Community Foundations for Merseyside.

Graham Batey gave a presentation on a range of funding programmes currently administered by the Community Foundation for Merseyside and the themes they target.

The foundation works closely with a range of donors and partners to help them connect with local voluntary and community groups across Merseyside.  The foundation undertakes an annual Local Needs Analysis with input from grant applicants, donors, staff and volunteers, to help identify the issues which most need addressing on Merseyside.

Six themes have been identified as the issues most affecting Merseyside this year.  These themes feed into the grant programmes on offer and can help make a difference in local communities.

Funds are available for projects which target children and young people, the local community and wider environment, seek to engage the community and increase community participation, tackle worklessness and related problems through training and employment, improve all aspects of people’s lives physically, emotionally and socially, and projects based around arts and cultural activities which improve wellbeing and increase community participation.

To be eligible to apply, the organisation must have a Constitution, Accounts, a Bank Statement and, where applicable, a Safeguarding Policy.

Information on the themes is available on the website www.cfmerseyside.org.uk.

Application forms were available at the Area Forum.

The Chair thanked Graham for the presentation.

  NATIONAL LOTTERY

The Chair welcomed Peter Riley, Wirral Council’s National Lottery Project Manager.

Peter explained that for every £1 spent on a national lottery ticket, 28p goes to good causes and funding is distributed to Arts, Heritage, Sport England and the Big Lottery.  His role is to help groups in Wirral obtain some of that money.

The Awards for All programme gives grants ranging from £300 to £10,000, and is available to every group provided they have a constitution, a bank account with two signatories, a committee with at least three members, a Chair, Secretary and a Treasurer.  Registered charities automatically qualify but this is not a requirement.

Although Lottery regulations do not allow him to write applications for groups, Peter Riley is prepared to look at applications and advise on ‘Lottery speak’ etc.  He urged any community group that is properly constituted and has an idea they want to run with, to contact him and he would offer advice.  If a group has had an application rejected in the past, he would be willing to advise how it can be turned around.  If he felt that an application did not meet Lottery requirements, he would advise accordingly.

Hundreds of groups across Wirral have bid successfully for grants up to £10,000, receiving in total about £2.5 million just from Awards for All.  There are  fifteen different programmes that groups can apply for.

Peter would welcome requests for information and would leave his contact details with the Area Co-ordinator.

Peter responded to the questions:

Q  [Cllr Brighouse].  You do a fantastic job, the money goes to all sorts of groups, but how do you monitor what it is spent on?  Do you get to situations where you have to try to recoup funds because they are not being used properly?

A  The National Lottery do the monitoring, not me.  My job is to help groups get the money.  We do not monitor it.

The panel for Awards for All meet monthly.  It is an open application process. You can download an application form but they will monitor you.  As far as I am aware, there has only been one project in Wirral where funds have been clawed back.

Q  [Mr Dollery].  Does Lottery funding cover paid staff to run the project?

A  It depends on which programme you go to.  There are many different programmes.  To qualify for Awards for All it has to be a new activity, not something you are doing already.  Potentially, you can apply for up to £10,000.  The lottery will fund equipment, sessional staff to run the programme or activity, but will not fund ongoing costs for rent, heating and lighting.  Groups have the opportunity to receive £10,000 within a period of two years from the date of the application.

Reaching Communities provides lottery funding for a new project for a five year period and will fund salaries.

The caveat is that funding is getting very tight and is more competitive.  At least three months should be allowed from the date of the application

Lottery funding is not a one-off programme.  Groups can re-apply.  The Lottery will give feedback on why they think a project does not qualify.

Peter can help groups to re-word the application etc so that groups can re-apply.

The Chair thanked Peter Riley for the presentation.

  VOLUNTARY COMMUNITY ACTION WIRRAL [VCAW]

The Chair welcomed Linda Denman, Community Support Manager, Community Action Wirral.

Linda Denman explained that VCA Wirral offices are based in The Fire Station, Exmouth Street, Birkenhead, in Wallasey at 220-224 Liscard Road, and in Pennant House, 63 The Village, Bebington.

The mission of VCA Wirral is to provide effective support for local groups, organisations and individuals in order to enhance the quality of people’s lives and build strong communities.

The strands are –

Community Support –which offers advice and support on Funding, monitoring performance and quality, Governance, Training and Volunteering.

Community Development – Wirral Link, which is an independent network made up of individuals, community groups and organisations working together to speak as one voice to influence and shape local health and social care services.

Wirral Third Sector Assembly – local third sector organisations which support the creation of local networks and partnership working to improve outcomes for local people by improving communication across all sectors.

Wirral ProHelp provides free professional advice and support to local community groups and voluntary organisations.

Commissioning and procurement – support to organisations and groups by offering a toolkit developed by VCA Wirral.

Business Development offers an online Centre ICT suite, e-learning, branding services, business planning and social enterprise, office rentals, room and equipment hire.

Wirral Compact – an agreement between the public sector and the voluntary and community sector which aims to improve the way they work together.

Linda Denman gave examples of the support available to organisations and some project ideas.

The Chair thanked Linda Denman for an interesting and informative presentation.