West Lothian voluntary groups can apply for two year…

West Lothian voluntary groups can apply for two year funding

West Lothian voluntary groups will be able to apply for two year funding starting in January as the council redraws its grants process for the sector.

Other moves will see groups winning an extra three months’ funding to take them to the end of June before the start of a new funding year.

The council's executive agreed to award the 28 organisations currently funded an extra £280,000 to secure them through to the end of June before the new funding year starts.

This covers organisations, which have commissioned service level agreements with the council, such as The Voluntary Sector Gateway and West Lothian Youth Action Project and community groups and social enterprises networks supported through the Third Sector Community Support Fund.

Currently many organisations find themselves in their busy months before Christmas also having to put together funding applications for the new year.

The new funding year for voluntary sector groups will run from July 1 to June 30 each year rather than April 1 to March 31.

In her council report Clare Stewart, community wealth building manager, said: “The third sector have asked in the past for the ability to apply and be allocated more than one year of funding at a time. The revised process has the ability to award funding for up to two years in March 2023 to organisations that apply for funding.

“In January 2023 it would be possible for organisations to apply for up to two years funding to cover year one, 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, with the option to include costs for delivery for year two from the 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, should projects want to apply for two years of activity.

“If this option was available the awarding and subsequent release of year two funding would be subject to conditions including the completion of regular quarterly monitoring reports which would outline the outputs, milestones and outcomes achieved by the funding, in line with the original application and regular financial projections that show all the year one funding had been spent or committed.”

Councillor Kirsteen Sullivan, depute council leader told the meeting: “Shifting the application process to the start of the year rather than the last quarter of the year I think will give many organisations a bit of breathing space in what’s already a very hectic time of year and of course bring it more into line with our budget setting process.

"Also I think it is to be welcomed that there’s now options to apply for two years’ funding providing more certainty at a time of great uncertainty to those organisations who apply for funding. I know that a lot of work has been done by officers in conjunction with the third sector working group working on this in the past few years.

“ I think this will be welcomed by the sector and will be good to see that working group used as a vehicle for co-working and co-production going forward and I think that’s a good example of what can be achieved through that model.”