ESFVON
European Social Fund Voluntary Organisations Northern

ESF OBJECTIVE 3
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Latest news!
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3rd Application Round - Results

The 3rd application round under Objective 3, for which bids had to be submitted by 29 July 2001 has now been completed following the meeting of the Regional Committee on 6 September when applications were endorsed.

A total of 78 applications were made from all sectors with 25 applications being from the voluntary sector.

The 16 successful voluntary sector applications were for a total ESF of £2,572,069, cross the following Measures:

Policy Field 1Measure 2£597,385
Policy Field 2Measure 1£1,484,992
Policy Field 2Measure 2£1,203,458
Policy Field 3Measure 1£ 269,265
Policy Field 4Measure 2£ 16,969

The results of voluntary sector applications are as follows:

Policy Field 1 - Measure 2
5 applications4 approved1 failed minimum quality
Policy Field 2 - Measure 1
2 applications1 approved1 failed minimum quality
Policy Field 2 - Measure 2
13 applications9 approved1 withdrawn
3 failed minimum quality
Policy Field 3 - Measure 1
4 applications1 approved1 failed minimum quality
2 rejected
Policy Field 4 - Measure 2
1 application1 approved

ESFVON has given further assistance to projects which failed minimum quality, or which were rejected, to assist them in the resubmission of their applications.

4th Application Round - Latest position

The closing date for the submission of bids under the 4th application round was 28 September 2001. A total of 66 applications were received by Government Office for the North East, of which 24 were from the voluntary sector.

The scoring and appraisal of the applications will be undertaken during the week commencing 15 October 2001.

5th Application Round - Next deadline

The closing date for the submission of bids under the 5th application round will be 30 November 2001.

At the time of writing, the amount of resources which will be available under each of the Policy Fields and Measures has yet to be confirmed.

General Statements of Expenditure - a new requirement!

The General Statement of Expenditure (GSE) - which in the past has been submitted with Final Claims - has been revised for the new 2000 - 2006 Objective 3 Programme.

Applicant organisations and Public Match Funders are now required to complete a GSE as a formal declaration of expenditure at 12 monthly intervals throughout the life of the project. Copies of the GSE have been sent by Government Office for the North East to projects.

For projects of 12 months or less

If your project lasts for 12 months or less, the GSE should cover the entire life of the project and should be sent to Government Office for the North East by the applicant with the Project Closure Report (formerly the Project Final Claim).

For projects of 12 months or more

If your project last for over 12 months, a GSE will be required at 12 monthly intervals and at Project Closure Report stage.

12 Month Audits - a reminder!

A further requirement under the new 2000 - 2006 Objective 3 Programme, is for all projects awarded more than £20,000 to undertake a 12 month audit*. Details of this requirement, and what is involved, was set out in your contract with Government Office for the North East confirming the offer of ESF to you.

A copy of the audit is required to be sent to Government Office within 3 months, so a project which commenced on 1 July 2000 should have submitted an audit by 30 September 2001.

*Projects which have been successful with extension bids up to 30 June 2002 will still require a 12 month audit as set out above. However, at the end of the original application (which in most cases is 31 December 2001) whilst you need to complete a Project Closure Report you will not need to undertake another audit. You will however, need to undertake a further 12 month audit at 30 June 2002 when you will be completing a Project Closure Report for the your extension bid.

Project Closure Reports - disks circulated

All projects that were successful under the first application round last year have been sent a CD and Guidance for the completion of a Project Closure Report (PCR). Copies will be forwarded to approved projects from later rounds, in due course.

The Project Closure Report, similar to what was previously known as the Final Claim, must be completed and returned to Government Office for the North East within 3 months of the end of the project. Thus, projects which have an end date of 31 December 2001 must return a PCR by 31 March 2001.

ESFVON are planning a number of sessions on the completion of Project Closure Reports but if there is any information you require in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact ESFVON.

Global Grants - progress

Global Grants are part of the ESF Programme 2000 - 2006 and focus on activities that support social inclusion.

They are to be introduced shortly to make ESF resources available more easily to small voluntary and community organisations (including individuals) which are often well placed to respond to social exclusion but not necessarily well equipped to deal with the demands placed on mainstream applications.

Organisations wanting a small grant of up to £10,000, will get a short application form to submit and, if successful, will not have to find the match funding as is usually the case for ESF applicants.

Global Grants in the North East region are to be administered by the Learning and Skills Councils for Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Durham and Tees Valley.

ESFVON will be seeking to ensure that organisations are fully aware of the funding opportunities under Global Grants and will publicise their availability and criteria, as soon as information is available.

Collection of ESF data

For those organisations currently running ESF Objective 3 projects there will, over the next few months, be two data collection exercises.

Monitoring of beneficiaries and outcomes

The first exercise will involve the European Social Fund Division (ESFD) asking projects that are likely to submit interim claims between October and December 2001 to complete a Monitoring Form which will provide data needed to give the European Commission a picture of how well ESF is being delivered. The information you will be asked to provide is basically an update on the target groups and outcomes information that you were asked to estimate in your application for support.

The European Secretariat at Government Office for the North East (GONE) will be sending out a booklet to projects over the next few weeks, asking projects to return the booklet to GONE before it is sent to ESFD.

Leaver's Survey

The European Social Fund Division is also about to start work on the 2001 ESF Leavers Survey. This is a principal way of evaluating the success of the ESF Programme and the survey will gather information on the characteristics of those helped by ESF, their outcomes on leaving the project, and their views on the support they received.

The survey is being undertaken by The National Centre for Social Research and will be approaching a sample of projects to ask for the names and addresses of leavers. If projects are selected to take part in the survey, you will receive a letter from the National Centre in December.

Last Updated: 28 October 2001

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