Cultural Development Strategic Fund Guidance Notes

Cultural Development Strategic Fund: Guidance Notes on the scheme

Please read these Guidance Notes carefully before completing the application form.

You should contact the Cultural Development Strategic Fund to seek advice and guidance before applying.The team can be reached by email at: or by phone on:01245 244615

Essex County Council’s vision

Essex means business. We want to be a vibrant place where every individual and community has the opportunity to grow and reach their potential and play a part in our county’s success.

Essex County Council (“ECC”) is dedicated to improving Essex and the lives of our residents. Our ambition is to deliver the best quality of life in Britain. We will achieve this by providing high-quality, targeted services that deliver real value for money.

Key Priorities:

As we deliver this vision over the coming years, our key priorities for Essex will be:

  • enabling every individual to achieve their ambitions by supporting a world-class education and skills offer in the county
  • securing the highways, infrastructure and environment to enable businesses to grow
  • improving public health and wellbeing
  • protecting and safeguarding vulnerable people
  • giving people a greater say and role in building safer and stronger communities

Essex County Council Cultural Development:

The cultural scene in Essex makes it a great place to live, work and visit. ECC Cultural Development plays a fundamental role in enabling creative and heritage activities across the county, and has built a reputation for innovative work and best practice. Cultural Development acts as a catalyst for cultural activity to bring social, educational and economic benefits. This is achieved through partnerships, local enterprise, targeted commissions and community engagement. Sectors range from tourism, regeneration and health, to youth offending, early years and older people. Projects take place in care homes, hospitals, museums, libraries, schools, parks and town centres. Hundreds of volunteers give unpaid hours to support art trails, festivals and many different, diverse events across the county.

When we assess your application, we will take account of the outcomes that your project will achieve. Although it is unlikely that your project will meetall key ECC priorities, as a minimum we expect it to achieve at least one.

Essex County Council Cultural Development Strategic Fund:

The Cultural Development Strategic Fund offers grants of £2,500 and aboveto cultural organisations of all types based in, or working in, the administrative boundaries of ECC to undertake outcome-focused commissions meeting ECC priorities.

Examples of eligible organisations could be:

  • Charities or trusts
  • Community interest companies
  • Social enterprises
  • Public sector organisations
  • Private sector organisations
  • Organisations that are part of a local authority’s direct provision will be considered on a case by case basis.

Grants will not be made for the purposes of:

  • The promotion of faith
  • The promotion of political ideals
  • The reinstatement of reserve funds
  • Retrospective payments

In order to be eligible for grant funding, your organisation should:

  • be properly constituted
  • have been operating for at least three years
  • be financially viable
  • have demonstrated its ability to manage its work effectively
  • demonstrate effective policies in equal opportunities, health and safety, equality and diversity, children and vulnerable adults protection

Additionally, you will need to show that your cultural organisation produces work that:

  • Is of significant benefit to the people of Essex living within the County Council area
  • Is recognised by others to be of local/national/regional significance
  • Has a track record, or the capacity to innovate, take on new developments and make a unique contribution to the cultural infrastructure of the county
  • Has the ability to disseminate good practice beyond the organisation to other practitioners and relevant partners
  • Contributes towards the fulfillment of the aim of the ECC Corporate Plan and its priorities – as detailed above

The organisation should be able to provide evidence of having produced work of quality that is appropriate for its intended audience/participants. This quality should be reflected in the organisation’s cultural, educational and outreach activity; marketing strategy and plans for audience/participant development; financial management;human resource management.

Making an application:

There are three stages to the application process:

  • Initial telephone conversation with theCultural Development Team to assess basic eligibility and suitability for the scheme.
  • Face to face interview to discuss application proposal in detail
  • Approval to submit application for support

Please note that applying for a grant does not guarantee the receipt of funding.

Grant Awards:

Awards funding will be committed for a period of one financial year.

Successful applicants will normally receive 75% of the amount awarded in an initial payment with the remaining 25% being paid on delivery of progress report and project update information at the 6 month stage.

How your application will be assessed:

An Assessment Board will decide theoutcome of applications. Decisions will be made within 8 weeks of the closing date for grants. Applicants will be informed in writing whether they have been successful or not and any special conditions that might have been attached to the grant will be included.

Decisions about grants will be made within available resources.

Essex County Council reserves the right to withdraw a grant in whole or in part, even after notification of approval, in appropriate circumstances (if, for example, circumstances have fundamentally changed from those indicated in the application or the authority receives further information which fundamentally alters the value or appropriateness of the project). The organisation must inform Essex County Council of any changes in circumstances that may affect its operational abilities e.g. administration/receivership, loss of expected funding, changes to the organisation’s aims and/or constitution.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Successful applicants will be expected to evaluate the overall impact of the grant and demonstrate how they have met Essex County Council priorities.

Appeals:

Appeals against decisions made by the Cultural Grant Assessment Board should be made in writing within 21 days of the applicant being informed of a grant decision. The Appeals Panel will convene to review whether to uphold or reject the appeal within available resources. All decisions made will be final. There will be no further right of appeal.

You may not canvass members or officers concerning your application.

You are advised to read the checklist at the end of the application form to ensure that you have completed all the necessary stages prior to posting. We will unfortunately, be unable to return supporting materials. You are advised to keep a copy of yourapplication for your own records.

Send your completed application form to:

Cultural Development Strategic Fund

Essex County Council Cultural Development

Essex Record Office

Wharf Road

Chelmsford

Essex CM2 6YT

Applications can be made in writing or emailed.

For further guidance or advice on applications, please contact Cultural Development at or by phone at 01245 244617