[WiLT] Three year funding is still not the norm grant survey shows

[WiL Admin]

Three year funding is still not the norm grant survey shows

Ministerial ambitions for three-year grant funding to be normal
practice in the sector are not yet a reality, a survey of government
grant programmes has revealed.

Of 22 programmes in England and Wales that are currently listed on
http://www.governmentfunding.org.uk, a website run by the Directory of
Social Change, the average maximum grant length from government
departments is 2.8 years.

The training and publishing organisation analysed the information on
its site and found eight programmes had maximum grant lengths of one
or two years and only six were available over periods longer than
three years.

Ben Wittenberg, director of policy and research at the DSC, said the
figures showed that three-year funding was still not the norm, despite
ministerial pledges. "The big thing is that the times stated are the
maximum terms rather than the actual amount of time the grant will be
available for," he said.

"With a lot of the programmes this is sensible - there is no need for
funding to refurbish a war memorial to be available over three years.
But there is a danger that we look to three-year funding as the answer
to everything - and it's not."

Louisa Darian, policy officer at umbrella body the NCVO, said
ministers had talked up three-year funding, but it was not appropriate
in all cases. "It will be interesting in, say, October, when
government departments will have to explain exceptions to the
three-year rule to the Office of the Third Sector," she said.

Kevin Curley, chief executive of local umbrella body Navca, said the
figure was better than he had expected. He added that three-year
funding was important. "We argue for three years because this gives
the public the best and most cost- effective services," he said.

An OTS spokesman said: "Our commitment was in relation to the
government spending round that began on 1 April this year, so it won't
be reflected by existing programmes.

"Government departments will report their progress to the third sector
minister in the autumn, and his findings will be published as part of
the Compact review later this year."

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/834769/Three-year-funding-not-norm-grant-survey-shows/03D3E84EC7E064D5822FCFB4A4EB9649/