faq's

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answer

Do projects have to sign up to (as part of their grant acceptance) the Big Lottery Fund's Welsh Language scheme? Can they agree to adhere to the policy of the lead organisation? What happens if smaller organisations do not have a policy that is as detailed as BIG's?

The standard terms and conditions of your grant include the clause "We will operate, where possible under the recommendation set out in the Big Lottery Fund’s Welsh Language scheme. We will take into consideration the linguistic needs of the beneficiaries of the project and the wider community and act accordingly."

Is there any indication of what is an acceptable Service Level Agreement? Are there any guidance notes on what should be included as a minimum?

BIG does not have specific SLA guidance, but we do have partnership guidance - which all projects have been provided with. Additional copies are available on the website, under Resources. Some of this guidance will apply to SLA's.

If the project submits a business plan before the deadline will the Board be able to make an early decision about the result?

No, all business plans will be considered together, after the submission deadline.

If an aspect of the project is not working well during the delivery period can we change it?

This is a trial programme and the BIG Lottery Fund does not expect everything to work out exactly as planned. Changes can be made but only with the written consent of your Grant Officer.

Should projects just include the lead organization in the organization summary section?

Just the main organization but if there are major delivery partners you should have a brief summary of the partner organizations somewhere in the business plan. This should only be a couple of sentences in length.

Can I included a 'pre project start' column to the Gant chart to cover things like agreeing service level agreements, recruitment, securing office space, etc?

Yes.

Many of the initial milestones for each outcome will be similar. Can I add a 'project milestones' table for these common milestones, as well as including separate tables for each outcome?

Yes.

The template has a requirement for projects to present a monthly cash flow for Year 1 of their project. Will a quarterly cash flow suffice?

Yes.

Can projects claim their first project payment (not the lead payment) in advance of the project starting? Or are all payments in arrears?

Projects can clam for a lead-in payment for developing business plan or, if you don't claim anything for business plan development you can ask for a project lead-in to pay for recruitment etc. However, if you claim for business plan development you cannot have a second lead-in payment - and you would have to start the projects in order to draw down funds. BIG cannot give two lead-in payments.

Can projects claim their first project payment (not the lead payment) in advance of the project starting? Or are all payments in arrears? Can projects claim any money in advance? For example, claim the cost of venue hire and publicity for events in quarter 2 in their quarter 1 claim?

Yes, you can request money in advance once the project starts.

To what extent are organisations expected to 'bank roll' their projects?

BIG does not expect organizations to bank roll their projects at all.

Is there any possibility that business plans could be approved before November?

This may be possible but BIG cannot commit to any date prior to November.

Could you provide clarification on recruitment and new posts?

BIG funding is offered on BIG’s terms and conditions, all new posts must be advertised externally. Regardless of whether Grant Recipients have such a policy in place, a newly funded post through a BIG programme is not freely available as suitable alternative employment, as it would not exist at all unless funded by BIG. This does not conflict with employment law or a Grant Holder’s own policy. This represents a justifiable precondition attached to newly funded posts via BIG so that open and fair recruitment is in place and practiced by grant holders.
This condition does not prevent any internal applicant applying for an openly advertised position and, if the competencies match closely, then that internal candidate can of course be appointed.
BIG encourages Grant Holders to carry out external recruitment and discourages grant holders from slotting in an internal candidate simply because the Grant Holder believes it is essential under current employment law. Believing that employment law requires a Grant Holder to recruit internally in a prospective redundancy situation is not of itself a justifiable reason for BIG to waive the term and condition of grant. There may be some occasions when there are justifiable reasons for needing to recruit internally. These should have become clear at the assessment stage.
At all times Grant Holders should seek to instil the principle of open recruitment, however if the Grant Holder presents a strong case the requirement for open recruitment could be waived on a case by case basis.