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Enabling limits sheet

Ses­sion 2

Cairngorms 2030 Com­munit­ies Fund Panel

What’s fixed and what’s flexible

This sheet sets out the bound­ar­ies for your decision-mak­ing. Some things are fixed by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund, the Park Author­ity, or leg­al require­ments. Everything else is yours to shape.

Fixed: these things can’t change

  1. Total budget: £1 million
  2. Con­nec­tion to Cairngorms 2030: the fund must sup­port the four themes
    1. Empower­ing communities
    2. Trans­form­ing transport
    3. Restor­ing and enhan­cing landscapes
    4. Improv­ing people’s health and wellbeing
  3. The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund has con­di­tions that must be met
  4. Leg­al and com­pli­ance oblig­a­tions: eli­gib­il­ity rules, safe­guard­ing, accountability
  5. Dead­line: all grants must be paid by 30 Septem­ber 2028
  6. The Park Author­ity remains the account­able body for the funding
  7. At least 10% of the total value of grants must be linked to equal­ity, diversity and inclusion.
  8. The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund must be acknow­ledged in the fund­ing, in line with their guidance.

Yours to decide

  1. Fund object­ives and how they deliv­er the Cairngorms 2030 vision
  2. Types of pro­jects and activ­it­ies to prioritise
  3. Grant sizes and range (min­im­um and max­im­um amounts)
  4. Wheth­er to have one fund or sev­er­al pots
  5. Eli­gib­il­ity cri­ter­ia: who can apply (with­in NLHF rules)
  6. Applic­a­tion and assess­ment process
  7. How fund­ing decisions are made and by who
  8. How to ensure the fund is access­ible, fair and transparent
  9. Mon­it­or­ing and report­ing requirements
  10. How many rounds of fund­ing, and how long pro­jects can run
  11. Wheth­er match fund­ing is required
  12. What suc­cess looks like and how impact is shared.

Things that can­not be fun­ded include:

Assets out­side the Nation­al Park, exist­ing staff costs (unless full cost recov­ery), repairs to private homes, polit­ic­al or faith causes, recov­er­able VAT, arti­fi­cial grass, plants.

Things to keep in mind as you design

Geo­graphy

  • Fund­ing must have demon­strable bene­fit to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and those who live in it
  • Applic­a­tions from out­side the Park bound­ary must show clear bene­fit for Nation­al Park communities
  • Assets or build­ings out­side the Park can­not be funded

Grant scale and administration

  • Grant sizes should reflect the needs and capa­city of the com­munit­ies you’re try­ing to reach
  • The Park Author­ity can­not admin­is­ter an unlim­ited volume of very small grants. This is a prac­tic­al con­straint to factor into your design
  • Lar­ger stra­tegic pro­jects may have a longer lead-in time and might not be ready to apply until later in the fund­ing cycle

Decision-mak­ing and accountability

  • The decision-mak­ing pro­cess must recog­nise the Park Authority’s role as the account­able body
  • For goods or ser­vices over £10,000, at least three com­pet­it­ive quotes are required
  • For goods or ser­vices over £50,000, com­pet­it­ive ten­der­ing evid­ence must be provided
  • Cash pay­ments can­not be made
  • Any profit from a pro­ject must be rein­ves­ted in Nation­al Park communities