Making a new distributor work

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Diana Brittan, chair of the Community Fund, gives her reaction to the Culture Secretary’s announcement that her board is to be merged with NOF 

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As Chair of the Community Fund, I welcome the commitment given by Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, in her Salford speech (on 25 February), that she would take into account the concerns of the voluntary sector in creating a new lottery distributor. I was pleased to see that the Secretary of State said that ‘the proportion of charitable funding’ for charities and the voluntary sector will not diminish and that, as things stand, there will be no ‘higher control’ over this funding than before. Both the proportion of charitable funding and no higher control are important factors because a new distributor would be allocated about 50% of all the money raised for good causes. It would therefore have considerable influence over the lives of those in deprived communities where charities and community organisations play such a key role in supporting and championing their needs. These organisations understand second to none the priorities of the communities they serve. We also think it is right that a new body should provide a responsive and streamlined source of funding and support for communities; this is something we and the New Opportunities Fund have already sought to do through our Fair Share initiative.

There are potentially significant advantages in the creation of a new, larger, lottery distributor and I view it as a personal challenge to try and combine the best of the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund to make a real difference to communities and indeed communities of interest up and down the United Kingdom.

However, to rush headlong towards the creation of a new distributor when the tasks and responsibilities of that new body have not been fully thought through would be foolish. Before any action is taken we must get the process right and that process should be seen to

be transparently democratic and fair to both organisations and credible to all our joint stakeholders. I have made no secret of the fact that I would like to see at least half the total money going to what we might call the Community Fund stream of funding and I am keen to try and ensure that charities and community groups have as much access to the money of a new distributor as they currently do to our pot of money. Before a new body is set up, the voluntary sector has asked to be properly consulted. The Lottery Review was not in itself a consultation on the amalgamation of the CF and NOF. The Secretary of State has now made that clear commitment to listen to the concerns of the voluntary and community sector. Although there are potentially significant advantages to be had in establishing a brand new lottery distributor, the Community Fund Board at its meeting in January identified some significant concerns and they have been made publicly known. 

1. There should be a guaranteed funding stream for any new distributor free from government direction and at least equal to the current grant budget of the Community Fund 

2. All new funding to any merged body should be additional to government programmes 
3. Grant decision making should be independent of government 

4. Any new distributor should operate wherever possible on the basis of a devolved structure in the countries and English regions 

5. There should be open appointment to all non-executive roles in any new body and decision-making should be transparent 

6. A commitment to equalities should underpin all policies and practices of any new distributor 

7. All programmes in the new body should be as accessible as possible to both the voluntary and community sectors 

8. There needs to be new primary legislation to enshrine these principles. 

The Secretary of State mentions in her speech the business case for merger. More work will need to be done to ascertain how any proposed new distributor will operate in practice and how bringing together the CF and NOF will really improve grant-making to the communities we serve. In particular we are keen to see if the huge changes and innovations we are introducing to our grant-making system through outcomes funding could be taken in to a new distributor. We also need to look carefully at the potential efficiency savings that the proposed distributor could deliver and the transitional costs that are likely to be incurred. Board members all want to move with the times and so the introduction of a single application form or a single front door, the encouragement of more joint working and less bureaucracy, are very welcome. A single promotional body would clearly enhance the image of the National Lottery. All the statements made in the Secretary of State’s speech are truly a step in the right direction, but I think this is only the beginning of a long process. There will have to be primary legislation and because that will be some way off, there will be time to think collectively to ensure that a new distribution body genuinely makes that difference we all want.