What can you use the revenue grant for?
Revenue funding will cover the purchase of equipment such as bats and balls etc, transport, facility hire, staffing, training (must not exceed 8%) and volunteer expenses. Where training is provided to volunteers as an in-kind reward for their involvement this can be treated as a volunteer cost. Do not use Big Lottery Funding for anything you can purchase with your DCSF grant.
Will the grant cover any capital expenditure?
Yes. A maximum of 20% of the overall grant can be used for capital expenditure. Capital expenditure is defined as any item that will last more than a year and that would normally be put on the school inventory such as goal posts and trampolines.
How long can a school benefit from the lottery money?
As a rule schools can only benefit from lottery money for 3 years.
Does the activity have to be purely physical?
No. At least 60% should consist of physical activity.
How many sessions should we run as part of the activity?
You should aim for a minimum of 8 with a session being 1 hour.
Is lack of facilities an eligible target?
Yes. It is provided you target those most lacking in facilities possibly due to the extent of either their rural location or their urban deprivation and do not apply the absence of facilities as a universal issue to allow access to all pupils regardless of needs.
Can we just invent our target group?
No. If you cannot evidence your target group when your grant is assessed and monitored then you risk not being allowed the funding and/or having the funding recovered by Big Lottery Fund as being ineligible.
Can you give an example of an activity that is not allowed?
Pub games and games that may expose a grantee to risk of gambling for instance are not allowed. Activities that are in the main non-targeted, non-physical, focused on training, unmanageable (more than 12 in the first instance) or one-off events are not allowed.
Can we pay teachers to run activities?
Yes, provided the activity is not one that the teacher was running for nothing before and provided you don’t take the teacher from an activity that they were running voluntarily before to do this activity. Please note that paying staffing reduces the sustainability of the project, so you may wish to aim to phase out such payments in the course of the 3 years.
Our academy has a curriculum running from 9am to 5pm that includes options but not voluntary OSHL activities. What is eligible for funding under this grant?
If your school hours are outside the norm, then please explain this in the activity schedule so that we can make a judgement as to whether the time can count as out-of-school hours. Normally, we would take a school day as finishing around 3.00-3.15 from primary schools and 3.30-3.45 for secondary schools. As a general rule, anything after this time would be eligible for funding. If schools finish earlier, then let us know with some evidence to support this, so that we can allow appropriate activities.
Can we pay a mini-bus driver?
Yes, if this adds value to the activity. Previous grantees have funded training for drivers and drivers costs, where bus services are not already laid on for pupils, where additional buses are required to take children to activities and to extend the hours of coverage of an existing bus service is inadequate for OSHL needs.
Can we charge insurance to the grant?
Yes, if it adds value. If you have to extend existing insurance cover to allow an activity to run and that additional charge still means that the project gives reasonable or good value for money, then it can be funded through the grant.
Can we pay on-costs for teaching staff?
Yes. Up to a maximum cost of £30 per hour for any member of staff including all on-costs provided this is in addition to the work they are doing during their working day.
Will the Big Lottery Fund money cover the cost of VAT on items purchased?
No, Big moneys will not cover VAT. This is because Big Lottery Funding has to be additional to existing or statutory provision. Nearly all partnerships can claim VAT back from their LEAs. Please talk to your bursar about this. If your hub school is a direct grant school, then you may not be able to do this. In this case you need to make arrangements with another secondary school in your partnership to make your claims through that school's accounts so that you can recover the VAT costs.
Will I be paid all funding up front?
No. The grant is paid in instalments. The first instalment covers the first 6 months of the grant.
A new school has just joined my partnership. Can I get more funding from Big Lottery?
No. Big Lottery Funding will not provide additional funding for new schools joining partnerships after September 2006. You can, however, include this school in your existing plans by reallocating funding already awarded by Big Lottery to them. If you wish to do this you need to submit revised activity schedules and, if you are moving more than £1,000 between budget heads, an updated financial plan for your project.