Big Lottery Fund

The Role of the Board and its Committees

The Big Lottery Fund’s Committee structure is described here

The Board and its Committees are required to exercise judgement and discretion within the Big Lottery Fund’s operating framework.  Grant decisions are taken by the Country Committees and their programme committees.

• Read the protocol governing the decision-making of Committees

Board Members serve on a part-time basis.  Responsibility for day-to-day management matters is delegated to staff within a clearly understood framework of strategic control.  The Board may also delegate responsibility, subject to any directions from the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for specified matters to individual Members or committees of the Board or to another outside body.

Delegated Responsibilities

The National Lottery etc Act 1993 (as amended by the National Lottery Act 1998) gave the Fund the powers of external delegation and solicitation. This means other parties may be accountable for decisions about elements of particular programmes. The Board has agreed a Framework for solicitations. The use of solicitation has been delegated to the Country Committees and UK Funding Committee as relevant.

There is a guidance manual on solicitations for all Big Lottery Fund staff.  All solicitation decisions have to be clearly recorded in the relevant meeting minutes. The Board Secretariat holds a central record of all solicitations.  

The Role of the Executive in Grant Making

All decisions to award funding to a particular organisation are taken by one of the grant making committees to which either the Board or relevant Country Committee has delegated decision-making (see above regarding solicitations).  In addition, the Board has agreed specific process or decision-making delegations to the Chief Executive, as Accounting Officer, who may delegate to a senior officer as appropriate. Only the Board has the authority to agree delegations to the Chief Executive.

In exercising the delegated powers to award funds, committees must consider the analysis and advice provided to them by officers of the Big Lottery Fund.  The role of officers under these circumstances is to recommend, on the basis of their assessment, which applications are potentially fundable. As part of this process, officers provide relevant contextual information and to ensure the applications (including the applicants’ websites) are properly screened.

The senior officer present at the meeting charged with representing the Accounting Officer and advising the Committee has a duty to draw to the Committee’s attention any matter which they believe would assist the Committee in making the best use of the available budget.  In particular, they should advise the Committee which projects are considered to best meet the mission and objectives of the Big Lottery Fund.

General Role of Grant Making Committees

The role of grant making committees is to make decisions about which applications to fund, within the context of the information provided to them and to provide strategic advice, where necessary, to the Board, relevant Country Committee or UK Funding Committee on issues such as targeting and coverage of the programme.  In carrying out this function, the committees are exercising collective judgment.  This issue was specifically considered in a judicial review against the Millennium Commission which confirmed that grant-making by a Lottery distributor had to involve the application of judgement rather than the simple adherence to a set of rules or scores.

The role of the Committee Chair is to ensure that the committee undertakes its grant making professionally at all times. For example, when it would be inappropriate for the Chair to guide the committee because they had a conflict of interest, this role should be undertaken by the Vice Chair of the committee or an Acting Chair appointed by the remaining Committee Members.

Observers

Officials from Government Departments, external experts, co-opted members and Big Lottery Fund Board Members who are not members of a specific committee may be invited to attend meetings of that committee as observers.  Observers will not play any part in the decision-making made on grants or any other decisions or recommendations taken by the Committee but, at the discretion of the Chair, may take part in discussions.

Decision-Making by Committees

Grant making committees will normally be required to decide:

1. the phasing of the grant budget across the year and the size of the budget for any given meeting for the demand-led grant programmes;
2. which applications to reject and which, as appropriate, applications are unsuccessful due to insufficient funds;
3. whether it is appropriate for any decision to be deferred;
4. whether consideration should be given to part funding an application;
5. whether any specific feedback should be given to any applicant;
6. whether to solicit a bid.

Each of these decisions involves the exercise of judgment within a framework of agreed policies, priorities, procedures and criteria.  Committees should always have reasons for the decisions they make which must be clearly minuted.  

In deciding on applications a Committee will have to consider a number of issues including:

1. whether it agrees with the officers’ recommendations as to which applications should be rejected;
2. which of the potentially fundable applications they would like to fund;
3. which of the applications they would like to fund, they should fund.

In reviewing the overall balance of the portfolio in its broader context, committees will need to take account of the following factors:

• The programme’s past spending patterns and its progress in achieving (or overachieving) its local priorities.
• Exceptional circumstances.
• Reputational risk. Detailed guidance is available for committees regarding this matter.

Committees should ensure, inter alia, that:

1. the assessment is thorough and all aspects of the application have been considered carefully;
2. the application demonstrates an appropriate response to clearly identified and evidenced need.  It should be within the Big Lottery Fund’s Mission and funding strategy;
3. there is no doubt that the organisation is operating within the law and the Big Lottery Fund’s campaigning guidance.

Grant making committees are generally given the discretion to overspend the recommended budget for a meeting by 10%, but must remain within the overall budget for that grant programme for the financial year.

Deferral of decisions should only take place for the purpose of securing further information.  Applications should not be carried forward to a future meeting for purely budgetary reasons.

When making decisions about the applications before them at a meeting, committees may wish for particular types of feedback to be given to applicants.  This should be highlighted and agreed at the committee meeting.

The main points regarding the decision-making roles of committees can be summarised as follows:

1. Committees should exercise judgement and discretion in coming to their decisions.
2. Committees’ judgement should be exercised within an agreed framework of policies, priorities and procedures for each programme.
3. The reasons for committees’ decisions must be defensible, clearly stated and be fully recorded in the minutes, so transparency is maintained.
4. Where committees’ decisions involve greater risk, appropriate monitoring arrangements must be made and, again, the nature of the risk and the reasons for it fully minuted.

Video conferencing or teleconferencing participation

Participation by video-conferencing or teleconferencing shall count as attendance for quorum purposes.

Grant Assessment and Management Processes

Funding Development Framework

The Funding Development Framework (FDF) approach uses a simple three-stage process to develop the Fund’s policy aspirations into effective and efficient funding programmes:

1. stage one - outlining programme policy and approach;
2. stage two - developing the programme components;
3. stage three - detailed programme build.

The framework built on existing practice within the Big Lottery Fund and incorporated many lessons learned from recent programmes. It set out key programme development work to maximise the impact of the Big Lottery Fund’s funding programmes and to ensure they aligned with its 2009-15 Strategic Plan. The FDF also set out reporting arrangements from initial policy idea to programme launch.