Finance Presentation

Apologies

Introduction Jean Hynes – Finance Officer Agata Dabal – Finance Clerk Suzanne Price – Finance Compliance Sam Brant – Senior Finance Officer Ben Hill – Extranet and Cognisoft Support 01952 221 467 – bbofinance@landau.co.uk

Grant holder survey response To date 240 responses received 25% were lead organisations, 75% were partners 24 of the 38 LEP areas were represented within the survey

ESF requirements Ongoing challenges envisaged in the need to meet ESF requirements included: Participant eligibility or evidence gathering (29%) Changes to guidance or requirements (18%) Bureaucracy or paperwork (15%) Initial or ongoing engagement of participants (12%) Project management or co-ordination of communication (11%) Data collection, entry or storage (10%)

First Lottery Submission (Claim) Deadline 14th April Submitted 3am 14th (Long hours leading up to submission) So much work in a short window

What would have made it easier? Right first time Correct Forms More Time Some Partner Claims Received Late Faster Response to Errors from Partners Errors corrected first time Work together we are a partnership

Who’s getting it right first time? The Partners who have asked more questions? The Partners that raise queries, when unsure Partners with robust internal checks (time sheet, expenses etc)

How have we helped? Spent time on telephone with partners Emailed Examples Completed Annex O for partners to use in future Completed 1720 calculations for partners to use in future Made amendments where necessary Our door is always open

Case study – Wem Town Hall I am very grateful for the help and support I have received from the finance team at Landau.  This is the first esf funded project that my organisation has been a part of and I didn’t feel confident in how I was completing the paperwork.  Jean and Aga were incredibly approachable and happy to help with my concerns about getting the finance paperwork correct.  They were able to give me time that fitted in with my schedule at short notice and go through documents in detail, column by column until I was satisfied my understanding was the same as theirs.  I’m sure there will be other months when template documents are updated and I feel confident that I can call the team with any queries for support – Thank you   

Partner visits In June we have visited partners to go through some claims in detail and helped them with what they need to check before submitting. We will be doing more of these in the near future and they are nothing to worry about its just easier to go through things face to face.

RSM Audit Results (1st Quarter Submission) 10% Value Checked Zero Error Rated claim No ineligible expenditure All Paperwork and Forms approved 1720 sheet met the guidelines Carried out by RSM and Big Lottery Fund on site at Landau

RSM Audit Results (1st Quarter Submission) BLF yet to submit a claim to the Managing Authority (DWP) MA submit claim to EU trigger article 127 Once article 127 is triggered all Grant Holders and Delivery Partners are open to audit from the EU or National Audit Office (NAO) Projects Leads and partners will be audited not BLF or MA

Claims timetable 1st July – We receive your claims 2nd July – We pay you if claim received and meets basic checks. 2nd July pm onwards – Start to check claims in more details and return rejected elements. During this time everything must be entered on Annex O and 1720 after being checked. Documents Scanned. NUMBER************** 14th July noon - Claim submitted – Failure means delayed payment 19th July – Make late payments only if claim was received in time to be added to claim and submitted 1st August – Start again 

Any Questions?????