Unease is growing across the UK about the scope of a consultation process currently taking place to establish priorities for the Big Lottery Fund. Although the consultation period is not due to conclude until September 30, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has issued a ?position paper? in which it sets out three all-encompassing priorities for the distribution of the Big Lottery funds, to which even applications for so-called ?open? grants will have to comply. Community Learning and Creating Opportunity, Promoting Community Safety and Cohesion, and Promoting Well-being will be the core themes at the heart of the new Fund, creating a constraint that is vigorously opposed by some.
The Directory for Social Change described its concerns, not as being about these specific themes and priorities, but about the ?unexpectedly naked seizure of control by government of what was once a stream of independent charitable funding?. The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) has called for the suspension of the consultation process, stating that the original aim of the Community Fund was to tackle poverty and disadvantage, which in its view ?has been lost in the three themes proposed for the Big Lottery Fund?. NICVA is also calling for a Northern Ireland Board to decide upon themes and priorities for Northern Ireland. Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said ?We want a Big Lottery Fund spending good cause money on community needs. Not a Big New Opportunities Fund following political priorities.?
The Big Lottery Fund was established following a review of Lottery distributors in the UK, which recommended the merger of the former New Opportunities Fund ? which previously funded programmes determined for it by the Government ? and the Community Fund, which developed its own programmes to help those at greatest disadvantage in the community. The new distributor was formed amidst protests that the merger would lead to a depletion of funding for charitable activity that did not reflect political priorities, and that the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would lose their influence over priorities and strategies. To contribute to the consultation, go to http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/consultation