1. Building Better Opportunities in New Anglia
Welcome to Building Better Opportunities
Introductions
Today we want to give you an overview of our Building Better Opportunities programme.
Jonathan Clark
Policy & Learning Manager
Big Lottery Fund
April 2015

2. Big Lottery Fund

3. Why are BIG delivering ESF?
Big Lottery Fund
“To bring real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need”
Objective for ESF Theme 9:
“Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty” B O
Big Lottery Fund’s mission to “bring real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need” is similar to thematic objective 9 of the ESIF: “promoting social inclusion and combating poverty.”
We believe in the potential for ESIF to make a real difference and have opted to play a role because we believe our own experience and learning can bring real added benefits.
Through Building Better Opportunities we want to improve peoples life chances and provide better opportunities to unemployed people. It will support a wide range of projects including:
improving employability for the most disadvantaged
helping those with multiple and complex needs
improving financial literacy
helping people and communities to overcome challenges in their lives.
We want to fund projects that:
- reflect local priorities and community needs
are based on evidence about what works best
are delivered by capable providers
We have two objectives within this programme.
Firstly, we seek to maximise the impact of our funds. We will take on responsibility for managing ESIF funds as well as Lottery funds, so effectively doubling the impact we could make with Lottery money alone.
Secondly we seek to improve access to European funds by voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. Our support and funding has the potential to increase the ‘voice’ and influence of the VCSE in this area, and facilitate access to a greater share of funds. The VCSE has the skills and experience required to make a real impact for beneficiaries in this area, but has historically faced barriers in accessing EU funding.

4. Key components of our offer1
Cash match £220M Lottery money 2
Run a two-stage competitive grants process 3
Offer Lottery development grants 4
Provide support to applicants throughout 5
Offer different application windows 6
Simplify reporting and monitoring requirements
We’re very nearly there with finalising the detail for BBO, however it is still to be formally approved by our board, hopefully by the end of Feb. However, here are some of the things we expect to be delivering with our main funding (as per slide).

5. The application process
Stage 1
Outline proposal
Development funding
Lottery money
Stage 2
Detailed proposal
We expect to offer Lottery development grants, with a total value of up to £10M lottery funds, to applicants successful at stage one. This funding could be used to develop partnerships, plan and consult on activities, and prepare applications.
The main purpose of the development grant is to enable strong applicants to ready themselves for delivery of the project and so in most cases we only expect to award development funding and invite the strongest (single) applicant to stage two. There may be cases where there is more than one strong applicant, in which case we will consider awarding each of them development grants, but this will be rare.

6. Key features of BBO in New Anglia
We are match funding approximately £7.5m of ESF over the life of the programme (total £15m)
BBO 1 will run for 3 years with around £7.5m of funding available
Funding available for up to six projects – each likely £1m plus
Partnership model = lead + local delivery partners

7. Target beneficiaries
Long term unemployed, including WP returners and the economically inactive
Families experiencing multiple barriers
Young people
Older People seeking a return to work
Migrant Workers

8. Emerging themes* Young people 16-24 (pre 15+ NEET by exception)
Supporting early engagement with young people, especially those NEET, at high risk of NEET, looked after children, care leavers and children with special educational needs
Removing barriers to work for families
Support for family members experiencing multiple barriers to employment and addressing root causes of poverty and social exclusion
Towards Employment or Self Employment
Supporting long-term unemployed, economically inactive and those most distant from the labour market to move towards or into employment

9. Monitoring commitment
Standardised tools, processes and systems
Support in meeting requirements
But specific delivery and monitoring requirements will apply!
Comprehensive evidence of all expenditure
Live record of participants , characteristics and indicators
Robust performance measures
Evidence of learning and progression
Confirmation that all delivery requirements are being met
Retention of evidence for at least 10 years
Awards will be assessed by our funding officers, with the support of our local managers who have built links with the LEP and local sector bodies to ensure the focus is on local need and priorities.
We know the bureaucracy involved in European funding is one of the biggest barriers smaller VCSE organisations face, therefore they aim to simplify the paperwork involved by providing standard templates and comprehensive guidance notes to help break down these barriers.
Our funding officers will offer intensive support to each grant holder to ensure they fully understand and are able to comply with the reporting and claim requirements.

10. Proposed timelines* Phase (Tranche 1) (Tranche 2) Activity
Development Phase
Nov 14 – Launch
PDF
Stage One Application
June – July 15
October – November 15
Application
August – Oct15
Dec 15 – March 16
Assessment
Stage Two Application
Nov 15 – Jan16
March – May 16
January – Feb 16 (plus 2 alternative assessment windows)
May - July 16 (plus 2 alternative assessment windows)
Delivery Phase
March 16
July 16
Grant Management
Our timelines are guided by various negotiations. We want to ensure we move at the right speed for LEPs and applicants using learning from previous awards, so acknowledge the importance of planning time, whilst avoiding the temptation to rush project delivery. We also want to ensure there is enough time allowed to deal with the additional monitoring and reporting requirements that come with European funding.
Proposed timescales therefore are;
Development Phase From October 2014 – Spring/Summer2015- Almost £630k of lottery money, through the Programme Development Fund, has been given to local areas to help them make the most of the joint Big Lottery and ESF funding which will:
ensure widespread awareness of the ESF opportunities and requirements
provide administrative support
provide a publically advertised contact for local organisations
Application Phase – We will be submitting funding applications to the MA as early as possible (in 2015). These will give detail of the LEP proposed activity and will allow more formal planning with LEP’s. The proposal is to launch calls in two tranches; the Fund will agree with LEPs which tranche is most appropriate for which project. We are currently planning for tranche one to launch in June The second stage allows flexibility to allow faster awards to projects which are relatively small and straightforward or where we know applicants will be well prepared and able to move quickly.

11. Questions