The Big Lottery Fund has denied that its recent grants to Citizens Advice Bureaux and Home-start charities breach the additionality principle that prohibits the lottery from funding services that the government has a statutory responsibility to provide.
After BIG announced last week that nearly £54m had been awarded to 108 CABs from the Advice Services Fund, New Philanthropy Capital chief executive Dan Corry tweeted: “Good to see @BigLotteryFund helping @CitizensAdvice … but is the role of the Lottery to substitute for govt cuts?”
Speaking to civilsociety.co.uk afterwards, Corry (pictured) added: “Is the Big Lottery starting to fund things that in the past the government funded?
“We all know advice services are under massive pressure and it’s quite possibly the case that a lot of Lottery players would probably rather the Lottery funded Citizens Advice Bureaux than some innovative experimental new thing, but nevertheless are we starting to get Big Lottery substitution for mainstream government funding of core public services?”
Corry suggested the potential breach of additionality was a more acute issue for BIG than other funders because it concerns money given by members of the public, and so any reinterpretation of the principle should only happen after a public debate.
Recently, BIG’s director of learning and programmes Ceri Doyle told a conference that the funder was engaged in an internal debate about the efficacy of the additionality principle in the current financial climate.
Practice but not concept under review
But a spokeswoman for BIG told civilsociety.co.uk this week: “We are not reviewing the concept of additionality, although we constantly keep our practice under review.
“The concept of ‘additionality’ cannot be absolute,” she said. “Circumstances change and the Big Lottery Fund needs to be aware of and responsive to this. BIG’s funding and activities do not take place in isolation and we need to be realistic about the interdependence of our funded projects with other initiatives and funders.”
But she insisted that BIG “does not pay for activities that are statutory obligations”.
Grants made to achieve specific outcomes
Awards are made to achieve specific outcomes, she said, and in the case of CABs “these outcomes have a strong connection to BIG’s mission to improve the lives of people and communities most in need”.
She added: “BIG has a long history of funding CABs, and other voluntary sector advice agencies. BIG made 44 awards under its 2007 Advice Plus programme directly to CABs. It also makes regular awards to local CABs under its Reaching Communities programme and under the recent Improving Financial Confidence programme.”
Asked about the nine Home-Start grants, which total just over £3m, the spokeswoman said: “Any grants for Home-Starts are made to achieve specific outcomes, for projects which are not a statutory obligation.”
