Community Grants Black Country Consortium

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Community GrantsBlack Country Consortium
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The Team

• Sophie Thompson- Project Manager
• Danielle Oum- Project Director
• Monitoring Officer

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Agenda

• Overview of the funding
• Who can apply
• What grant can be used for
• Monitoring issues
• Process
• Common Mistakes

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What are Community Grants

• Funded through European Social Fund (ESF)
• AND Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
• Crucially this is already co-financed so NO MATCH
  is required
• Black Country Consortium are co-ordinating the
  grant applications for organisations delivering
  in the Black Country

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Monies available

• Up to 12,000 grants available
• Over 400,000 worth of grant money has been
  awarded to the Black Country, 80,000 is
  available in Round 2.
• Aims to reach disadvantaged groups of people,
  particularly those who experience multiple
  disadvantages.
• Aims to reach the people and communities that
  other grants have failed to reach.

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What can the grant be used for?

• ALL participants must either be unemployed or
  economically inactive
• Participants must be aged between 16 and 65
• Priority will be given projects aimed at
• Lone Parents
• Women
• People with health/disability issues
• Older people (50)
• People from ethnically diverse communities
• We particularly welcome any innovative or unusual
  projects

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What can the grant be used for?

• Removal of Barriers
• Consultation and first contact
• Engagement activities
• Mentoring and appointment of Community
  Champions
• Non-Accredited Learning
• Taster work experience including voluntary work
• Initial help with basic skills (not literacy or
  numeracy)
• Sessional training

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What can the grant be used for?

• Soft skills These are skills which may not
  lead to qualifications, but are vital for
  employment success including
• confidence building
• communication and presentation skills
• Accredited Learning Under certain criteria,
  these outcomes will be funded.

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Who can apply

• Community and voluntary organisations that
  provide services to help people to improve their
  chances of obtaining work.
• Organisations must be serving the community in
  one or more Black Country Local Authority
  area(s)
• Dudley
• Sandwell
• Walsall
• Wolverhampton

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Who can apply

• Organisation with a turnover of LESS 100,000
• Have a constitution of rules saying how the
  organisation is managed and what it does.
• Have a bank account. At least two people must be
  required to sign cheques.

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How will the money be provided

• 50 of the grant will be paid in advance
• 30 will be paid in the middle of the project
  with the remaining 20 to be paid at the end
  (subject to paperwork and outputs)
• Monitoring visits will take place during and at
  the end of the project.

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What can the money be spent on

• Staff costs including managers and trainers
• Travel costs and out of pocket expenses for
  people running the project or people that the
  project is helping
• Care of children or other dependants of people
  the project is helping
• Hire or lease of equipment
• Materials used in the project

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What cant it be spent on

• Normal travel to work costs of staff employed on
  the project
• To pay interest on financial accounts and other
  financial charges
• Buying major items of equipment that cost over
  1,000 such as 50 TVs
• Any spending that is not clearly needed for or
  related to the project

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Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET
16-18)

• Money CAN be used to Engaging with NEETs with a
  view of getting them onto NEET provision
• Money CAN NOT be spent on Delivery of NEET
  provision.

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What money can/ can not be spent on

• List is not exhaustive
• If in any doubt please get in touch

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Monitoring Issues

• Records have to be kept, including receipts and
  invoices, to prove that the grant has been spent
  on these items
• We can only give pay what is in the original
  proposal.
• All spending has to be for the community grant
  project, no other activities.
• You need to contact us before you deviate from
  the proposal in anyway.

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Monitoring Issues Financial

• Staff Costs need to be supported by
• Signed timesheet identify number of hours and
  description of the work undertaken,
• Proof of defrayment of expenditure (.i.e. proof
  an individual has been paid)
• Hourly rate calculation sheet (ESF hourly rate is
  based on working hours you can claim - basic pay,
  employer NI and employer superannuation)

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What records will you have to keep Other costs

• Copy of the invoice
• Proof of defrayment (i.e. copy of bank statement
  cheque stub).
• Apportionment method if the costs are not
  solely attributed to Community Grants you will
  need to apportion the costs appropriately.
  Please use the ESF method.
• Other Costs Form

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What records will you have to keep Beneficiary
Costs

• Details of Dependants Form- only for people
  claiming for care of dependants
• Learner Costs Monitoring Form- Learners Claim
  for expenses
• Learner Timesheets

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What records will you have to keepBeneficiary
details- ILR

• LSC Short Individual Learner Records need to be
  completed for every beneficiary
• Not all of the form needs to be completed.
  Information is provided in the monitoring pack as
  to which aspects need to be completed.

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(No Transcript)
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What records will you have to keepBeneficiary
details

• Progress during the projects (details of activity
  undertaken including evidence i.e. workshop
  attendance sheets)
• Attendance sheets
• Visit or contact sheet
• Notes of meetings
• Output forms including evidence (i.e.
  qualification copy of certificate or notice
  from awarding body proof of gaining employment
  job offer letter)

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What records will you have to keep

• You should also keep copies of the following
  records
• Copy of your bid
• Copy of publicity/press releases / promotional
  materials (you must use the ESF logo)
• Agreed outcome and outputs
• Copy of your contract
• Good Practice - Case studies
• Photographs
• Correspondence with the Community Grants Team

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The Application

• With your application you will need
• Your constitution or set of rules
• Financial Statements for the last 12 months
• A copy of your Health Safety Statement
• A copy of your Equal Opportunities Statement
• Evidence of adequate insurance
• Copy of your vulnerable adult policy (if
  applicable) with confirmation of CRB

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Process

• 28th August 5.00pm CLOSING DATE Applications
  will go to a Technical Assessment Group (TAG) and
  ratified by Grant Advisory Panel (GAP)
• Projects finished by 31st March 2009

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Common mistakes

• Not sending supporting documentation with
  application form (see application for more
  details)
• Application sent in late- closing date is 28th
  August at 5.00pm
• Not enough detail in the cash breakdown
• Project not fitting criteria

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Common mistakes

• Not enough clarity about the project and how it
  will be carried out
• Incomplete application details
• Incomplete or missing referee details
• Signature is not an original
• Not meeting criteria
• If in doubt get in touch

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Other- Successful Applicants

• In addition we will need you to identify one
  beneficiary as case study- including distance
  travelled.
• 1 member of staff to attend 2/3 capacity building
  workshops.

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Contact

• We are here to help during the application
  process. Please contact us if you need any help
  at all.
• Sophie Thompson sophie_thompson_at_blackcountryconsor
  tium.co.uk
• 01384 471116