Modernisation Fund: Capital Grants

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Overview

The Schemes

Pilot Infrastructure Scheme
Community Facilities Improvement Scheme
Small Capital Grants Scheme

Modernisation and Change

The Task Force on Resourcing the Voluntary and Community Sector, in its Report ‘Investing Together’, identified the need for resources to help promote modernisation and change within the voluntary and community sector and to enhance the capacity of the sector to deliver services. ’Positive Steps’ recognised the significant role of the voluntary and community sector in delivering services and in developing stronger and more cohesive communities. It is also clear that action is needed to improve the competitiveness of the sector through increased efficiencies by, for example, addressing duplication and overlap so that more resources can be directed to delivering services.

There is considerable change ahead to the environment in which the sector operates. Overall funding is likely to reduce and the structures of local and central government are changing. The voluntary and community sector will need to adjust to this changing environment if it is to deliver the services that are so necessary to the wellbeing of our community.

The Modernisation Fund

To help encourage and facilitate the necessary change, and recognising that the change cannot be achieved without additional targeted resources, Ministers’ approved the establishment of an £18 million Modernisation Fund. VCU has now agreed grants totaling £2million under the Modernisation Fund revenue programme and will shortly announce how the remaining £1million is to be used. £15 million was approved to support capital projects. This capital programme will encourage collaboration and resource sharing among voluntary and community organisations and it will place particular priority on services and facilities for disadvantaged children and young people.

The capital programme will encourage collaboration and resource sharing among voluntary and community organisations through the development of physical infrastructure. To be eligible for funding organisations must demonstrate that their proposal delivers at least 2 the outcomes set out below. Considering whether your project delivers these outcomes will allow you to decide whether the capital programme is for you.

Partnership and collaboration;
Income generation and/or cost reduction;
Improving access to services;
Enhanced capacity to deliver services;
Tackling obstacles to good relations within and/or between communities;
Deliver of services and facilities in support of disadvantaged children young people (0-24 years) and
Applications will be scored against how well they meet these outcomes. We have also established a set of priorities for funding which will be used in the scoring process.

There are three schemes within the capital programme which are intended to meet differing needs and the outcomes and priorities outlined above will vary from scheme to scheme. They are:

An Infrastructure Pilot Scheme– budget £9m, providing £300k - £1.5m capital grants. This Scheme is intended to allow the development of a small number of relatively major infrastructure projects, each of which will be a model for the development and modernisation of the Sector.

Community Facilities Improvement Scheme – budget £3m, providing £100k – £300k capital grants. This Scheme is intended to allow charitable bodies, voluntary or community organisations and social economy enterprises to modernise and improve community facilities to allow better service delivery including better access to services.

A Small Capital Grants Scheme– budget £3m, providing £20k - £100k capital grants. This scheme is intended to allow charitable bodies, voluntary or community organisations and social economy enterprises to undertake minor works or purchase assets that will improve their ability to deliver a service to the community.

All proposals must, however, meet a few common requirements:

Meet our eligibility criteria.
Be able to spend the grant by 30 March 2010.
Be sustainable.

We are committed to investing £3million over the next three years on providing or improving youth facilities in disadvantaged areas. This investment will be addressed across the three strands of the programme through the application of the scoring criteria.

Number of applications and part funding

Applicants may seek funding from one or more of the capital programme’s schemes but may make only one application to each scheme. Up to 100% funding will be provided.

Decisions on awards may take into account the equitable and geographical spread of funding support, the availability of funding and a judgement on the capacity of the applicant to carry out the proposed project.

Sustainability

Funding will be made available for one-off initiatives and the impact of the Department’s investment must be sustainable. Where ongoing revenue costs are required to be met, evidence must be produced that management of this cost has been properly addressed.

Consortia and Partnerships

We welcome applications from two or more organisations intending to work in partnership. Where this is the case, the lead partner, to whom the whole of the grant will be paid, should complete the application form.

What sort of organisations will be eligible?

The Modernisation Fund is intended to be delivered through the voluntary and community sector. A business or statutory organisation may take part in a consortium delivering a project, provided the application is made by, and the project led by, an organisation that meets the criteria listed below.

Applicants must be constituted bodies that are either:

Charitable bodies, recognised as such by Revenue and Customs;
Voluntary or community organisations;
Social economy enterprises.

and therefore must:

Be an independent organisation clearly constituted for public or community benefit.
have a formally adopted constitution; and
have adequate and appropriate financial systems and good governance structures to a standard acceptable to Government as detailed in “Setting Standards, Improving Performance”; best practice in Finance and Governance in the Voluntary and Community Sector.

Such organisations that do not have a formal written constitution will not be eligible for funding.

The assistance offered to a successful applicant will take the form of a cash grant to be distributed within the three year period of the Modernisation Fund, i.e. closing by 31 March 2010.

Track grant Notes