Jowell calls for ‘risk’ funding

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The Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, in a swift follow-up to her parliamentary announcement of a lottery funding review, has called for a ‘permanent revolution’ in grant-making so that the Lottery becomes an ‘innovation fund’ for communities.

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In a wide-ranging speech last month at a Millennium Commission event, the Secretary of State began to flesh out the big themes of her forthcoming consultation paper, with the emphasis on a streamlined distribution system, more local and democratic decision-making and far easier access to grants.
Specifically, the Culture Secretary announced that she is to review the financial directions governing the way the distributors give out money – a decision welcomed warmly by the independent quality assurance team Quest. Quest has just published its second report on Lottery application processes, copies of which go out with this issue of Lottery Monitor to all our subscribers this month. Quest’s new report scrutinises applications for grants over £100,000 and makes a strong case for a more risk-receptive approach from the distributors, which will only be possible with the removal of the barriers imposed by the current tight financial directions.
Tim Suter, chief executive of Quest, said: ‘There are more than 70 specific directions they have to follow. Taken as a whole they are very prescriptive. We need an agreed reinterpretation of what is appropriate, based on trust between government and distributors.’ In the new report, Quest proposes that the distributors should adopt a more flexible risk assessment approach. This would typically involve distributors making in-principle commitments to back projects at an

earlier stage of their development, and then providing an appropriate level of resource or back-up to bring the project’s development to fruition. The team was impressed with some of the work done by the Arts Council of England on large capital projects, where it has committed early and then worked in partnership to bring on proposals. 

The Larger grant process: Quest recommendations