Funding

The Steel Valley Project, which is now known as the Steel Valley and Upper Don Project, is funded by various bodies, including

• the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• the European Social Fund (ESF)
• Single Regeneration Budget (SRB)
• CORUS Engineering Steels (steel conglomerate)
• Sheffield City Council
• Stocksbridge Town Council
• Bradfield Parish Council
• South Yorkshire Forest Partnership
• the Countryside Agency (formerly Countryside Commission)

Funding projected at the start of the financial year 1999-2000 amounted to about £112,000 p.a.

The project turnover was £90,000, with £12,000 in funding provided by the SRB to support ongoing costs.

NB: information on fund providers is available to other DTA Trusts - contact Matt North at the STEP Office, Stocksbridge.

Role of Project Manager

Fund raising and fund management on an ongoing basis forms a major part of the responsibilities of and time spent by the Project Manager.

Matt North has been in post only since July 1999 and has had to spend the majority of his work time in establishing auditable funding management and reporting systems to satisfy the many fund providers, each of which has a different reporting requirement (even when small sums are involved a lengthy procedure has to be gone through). He estimates that in the last 12 months to meet the differing requirements of every funder involved in each scheme has meant that:

• up to 60% of his time is spent in management/financial duties
• leaving only 40% to provide practical supervision and training on the ground, together with developing new projects, despite the administrative support provided by STEP.

Annual expenditure (£112,000 for financial year 1999-2000) has to cover:

• salary costs associated with Project Manager and Project Officer
• equipment, tools , computer for financial management, and contractors
• surplus to ongoing costs is used to provide for materials, lease hire of a vehicle (Sheffield City Council has recently agreed to increase its contribution to provide for this), petrol and insurance
• £5,000 for office space and associated costs in Resource Centre, together with administrative support in the form of a day-to-day line manager (Gess Boothby).

This example has been chosen to show the range of considerations involved in sorting out how best to spend a sum of about £20,000 from SRB sources on local environmental improvements. After much discussion it was decided to use the money from the environmental improvement budget for a combination of capacity building for following years, as well as immediate improvements and works. There was a need to:

Increase the involvement of local people in environmental works

• Identifying the aspects of the local environment that would best receive input from the SRB money.
• Producing finished projects that are of value to the Stocksbridge community.

Build up Project groups to undertake the following tasks

• Development of Public Rights of Way (PROWs) in Stocksbridge area
  
  A comprehensive survey of PROWs based on definitive maps held by the Town Council needs to be carried out in order to identify priority works.
  
  The training of members of existing local interest groups, individuals, youth groups and schools should be considered to develop such a database.
  
  There are several potential benefits of this approach:
  
  • interest would continue after the initial survey is completed, especially if those Public Rights of Way surveyed by such groups are on their 'doorstep'
  • people would also be encouraged to use Public Rights of Way that are not widely used or known
  • Public Rights of Way near schools could be enhanced to encourage use by children and parents on travel to and from school. This can work towards reducing car use around schools, cross-country running as part of P.E. and other aspects of the National Curriculum. After school environment groups as run by Stocksbridge High School can be used to manage such Public Rights of Way.
  • effectively surveyed, enhanced and managed, Public Rights of Way may be used to form the basis of self-guided walks, through leaflets that may be developed to draw in people from outside Stocksbridge. For example, circular walks starting/ending in car parks near local shops, pubs, cafes.
    
• Create, maintain and enhance habitats for wildlife
  
  Such improvements are of benefit to people as sites near or through Public Rights of Way, educational sites near schools or those used for people's recreation. SRB (Single Regeneration Budget) monies can be directed towards such projects where funds are not normally available or used as match funding to enhance the value of the SRB, (for example, pocket nature reserves or school ground wildlife areas).
  
• Build up liaison, training and development work with local groups and schools
  
  Such costs are currently borne by the Project which has limited resources, resulting in a reduction in its other activities such as involvement in other groups or practical projects. It is envisaged that the Project could give more support than at present through supervision, assistance, specific training and support to relevant groups. This could be through the development of support materials, transport, Health and Safety management, supervision and training packages, to enable the development and success of projects outlined above and others not mentioned here. It is hoped that as the skill base develops in such groups, they will become less reliant on the Project, which could then develop other groups or projects.
  
• Build up tools and resources
  
  The effectiveness of the Project's current work, including the schemes outlined above, would be greatly enhanced with a realistic tool and resource base. At present the tool pool held by the Project is limited and does not hold sufficient specialist tools for effective work with anything other than small groups on simpler tasks. A sufficient resource base would allow the Project to become far more effective and safer in the proposals outlined above. At present there are insufficient funds within the Project to address this critical resource: approximately £2,500 for hand tools and a limited number of power tools such as a Compactor Plate; £1,500 for a trailer of suitable strength and size.

The Stocksbridge Steel Valley and Upper Don Project does act as a facilitator at the present time for all aspects of the above as well as providing training in countryside management, forestry and conservation for local people acting as volunteers or participants on training schemes, such as the Environmental Task Force. However, its current commitments are primarily confined to those schemes that bring in funding for the Projects' continued existence. Investment through the SRB would allow a greater flexibility in the achievements of the Project and bring about cost effective environmental improvements. This could be achieved through using the Steel Valley Project for co-ordination purposes and direct involvement, utilizing the skills and experience of the Projects Officers in such work.

The final Project submission included information on:

Activities

• To support individuals, local groups and schools in their involvement and commitment to their local environment through training and project development.

• Working towards provision and maintenance of local footpaths and public rights of way.

• Maintaining, enhancing and creating habitats for wildlife and local people.

• Developing resources and carrying capacity for the above in the Stocksbridge area.

Need

The Steel Valley Community Partnership Community Audit identified the following as themes for action:

Community Safety - lack of safe footpaths

• Environment
• Health - including mental health
• Training - lack of provision in the area
• Unemployed people - lack of effective opportunities
• Young people - limited facilities and opportunities to be involved.

There is a specialized skills' shortage in the Sheffield area that has restricted the ability of Small, Medium Enterprise's (SME) working in the environmental field to recruit employees (Environmental Consultancy, University of Sheffield 1997).

Impacts and outcomes

Combining the activities outlined here will go towards the continued development of skill base in the local community and provide a route into a career, voluntary or employed, in the environment. This will allow the sustainable development of projects in the Stocksbridge area, involving local people as much as possible in line with Local Agenda 21. SRB moneys will free resources for more effective development of such works e.g. project management and employment of local contractors where necessary.

Outputs

• Community groups, schools and individuals will be provided with more support and resources through SSVUDP staff time, tools and equipment.
• Financial resources for small scale projects can be allocated, giving far more flexibility and may be used for match funding.
• Trainees with SSVUDP will gain experience of working with community groups, as well as broader experience with local based projects.
• Access routes, maintenance of the countryside, furniture installed, habitat and landscape improvements carried out that would not otherwise be resourced.
• Contractor and project management resourced.

If you would like more details about the Expenditure Profile and Leverage needed to support such a project, please talk to Matt North - 0114 2888808.

Comment: The SRB funding was in two parts. The Stocksbridge Futures Partnership (which manages the fund in consultation with the Stocksbridge Community Forum) initially asked for proposals of what could be done with the money potentially on offer. This was an ideas/suggestion stage called "the proposal". The proposal was looked on favourably and the SSVUDP project asked for a detailed submission which took the form of what the Project wanted to do i.e.: - why it wanted to do it - the justification; and what were the aims and outcomes.

The funding was for Year 1 of the SRB, in the last two quarters of the financial year, October to the end of March. Permission was given towards the end of November and the money only came through to spend in the latter half of March, with money having to be spent by 31 March!

As outputs were achieved, the Project was asked to put in a bid for Year 2 of the SRB from a funding stream that has been set up specifically for environmental works.

Lessons learned:

• the bid had to be developed very fast, in a few days. It is a good idea, therefore, to develop a "wish" list of what you need/want in order to take advantage of funding opportunities as they arrive.
• build in achievable targets. People managing such sums are dependent on you doing what you said you would do.
• be aware that the actual money may be available later than you expected. Can you work around this, as it makes a lot of work to spend it all in one go - so prepare before hand, research for materials, contractors and suppliers, draw up lists of what you may wish to purchase, place orders awaiting notices of confirmation. Ensure that invoices are in and dated before the financial completion date. Can you cover costs if you are waiting for money?
• sort out how you record work and check whether it matches what the funder wants, i.e. hours spent, trainee/volunteers' time spent on projects, invoices, etc.
• ask for help. Fund managers and officers can work with you to develop bids and recording systems. They know what they want and want to help you to make their lives easier. Find out if anyone else has done similar work.