BIG Lottery has launched a consultation through a discussion paper ‘Building capabilities for impact and legacy’. This paper implies that BIG will, in future, no longer directly support infrastructure work within the VCS, ie the provision of development and support services to the sector.
In the past BIG has provided such support through programmes like BASIS, which SUSTAiN was able to use to develop its successful and productive relationships with the local private sector and bring in CSR support and to raise standards for promotional activity, including the development of the current SUSTAiN Alert methodology.
BIG indicates that:
- It is not sustainable in the present situation to use limited lottery investment to maintain the current structure of the voluntary sector infrastructure bodies at local, national and regional level.
- There are diverse and equally valuable sources of support for the VCS from public, private and voluntary organisations and also within the untapped assets of people and communities in which VCS organisations are based.
- Where BIG Lottery does invest in VCS support and development, resources will be aimed at organisations which they already support or high quality organisations doing work in BIG’s priority areas and will be targeted at support for potential applicants to main investment programmes, in-grant support and end of grant support. The majority of such funding will go directly to frontline organisations to pay for a support and development provider of their choice.
In setting out its stall in this way BIG is potentially using its weight to shape the market, apparently questioning the need for local infrastructure organisations like SUSTAiN or questioning their efficiency or effectiveness. As it is now more directly controlled by the Cabinet Office, it may be offering a window on Government policy in the matter.
From our perspective, this is a disappointing development. We believe that, particularly in the present climate of diminishing funding and increased pressures on our deprived areas in particular, the sector needs strong local infrastructure organisations, able to support the building of capacity and the development of new strategies, able to provide effective local representation and to facilitate strong networking. In the past national funding from BIG and directly from the Government has complemented local funding and helped to achieve more, that door is now closing.
We are not fazed by the proposition of competing to provide support, through the principle that such infrastructure funding that there is will flow through organisations that can choose its support provider. We are used to a competitive environment, proud of our reputation and confident in our ability. We do believe, though, that such an environment will bring in predatory operators who are turnover rather than customer driven and who will not understand the local environment, to be a distraction for us all.
We are also disappointed that such funding as there is to build support and development activity will go to ‘organisations we already support or high quality organisations doing work in BIG’s priority areas’. Organisations that are already high quality need support and development investment less than those aspiring and committed to become high quality and those already supported need it less than those not supported.
It is clear, however, that the die is already cast. The consultation is apparently not looking at whether we agree with these new approaches that BIG has set out but rather at how they will be applied in practice. That is a further disappointment.
Nevertheless, at its recent meeting, your VCS Reference Group determined that it, on behalf of Solihull’s VCS, should consider the consultation questions and make a response and we advocate that you all contribute to this process.
The consultation documents can be found at on the BIG Lottery web site at http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/building_capabilities and, whether you reply directly or not, please send your thoughts to me at davep@solihull-sustain.org.uk and they will be assimilated into the Solihull response.





