Managing Your Grants for the Arts Award Online

Managing your Grants for the Arts award online

Contents

1 1. 1 Grants for the Arts awards and our online system

All Grants for the Arts awards made to applicants who applied after 27 January 2015 are managed online through Grantium, our online grant management system. Grantholders use the online system to accept their grant, submit reports and information to meet payment conditions, and to request payments.

Each stage of managing your grant online involves a ‘step’ on the system. This guidance explains each step and directs grantholders to system guidance for each stage.

2. 2 Offer letter acknowledgement

The ‘Offer letter acknowledgement step’ on the system is where you receive our decision, read your Offer letter and the terms and conditions for your grant, and accept (or decline) our offer.

For guidance on how to log into the system and accept your grant, please read our guidance document How to acknowledge a decision.

Read your Offer letter carefully. This will tell you what to do next, and how we will make your grant payments. Read your payment schedule carefully and be aware of any conditions we have added to your payments. You will need to provide evidence to meet your payment conditions before we can make the payment they are attached to. For more information read the Payment conditions section of this guidance.

If your application was for over £15,000 your appraisal report will be available to view on the screen following your offer letter. (This is only available for applications over £15,000.)

2.1 Accepting your grant

The grant offer can only be accepted by someone authorised to do so. Who is authorised depends on whether you applied as an individual or an organisation.

If you applied as an Individual: 2 You can only accept the grant offer if you are the named applicant, have power of attorney from the named applicant, or are a support worker who has been authorised to use the system on an applicant’s behalf. You cannot accept a grant on behalf of another individual under any other circumstances. If you are a User linked to an individual applicant (for example to help work on their application form) you cannot accept a grant on behalf of that named applicant; they must accept the grant themselves. This is because this Offer letter acknowledgement step forms our grant agreement with the applicant; it is the equivalent of signing a paper grant agreement.

If you applied as an Organisation: You can only accept the grant offer if you are authorised to accept a grant from us on behalf of your organisation. This is known as having ‘delegated authority’. You should check that you have authority to accept a grant on behalf of your organisation before you complete this step. This is because this Offer letter acknowledgement step forms our grant agreement with the applicant organisation; it is the equivalent of signing a paper grant agreement.

2.2 Bank details requirements

Download the Bank details form by clicking the download icon on the attachments screen of the Offer letter acknowledgement. You will need to print this form, fill it in and post it to us in hardcopy. We cannot accept bank details electronically; for security reasons, bank details must not be held on our online system. Read our Bank details and GFTA guidance and form for more information. 2.3 Understanding the Terms and Conditions

You will also need to download a copy of our Terms and Conditions by clicking the download icon on the attachments screen of the Offer letter acknowledgement. These terms and conditions set out the legal relationship between Arts Council England and recipients of the Arts Council's grant funding. You can save a copy or print a copy for your reference.

2.4 Submitting the Offer letter acknowledgement step

Once you have submitted your Offer letter acknowledgement step to us we will review this within five working days. 3 If we have any queries about your acceptance (for example, a different person has tried to accept a grant on someone’s behalf) we will email you and explain what you need to do to resolve the issue. We will usually send the Offer letter step back to you to amend and resubmit.

Once we have reviewed your Offer letter acknowledgement we will send you a notification email to let you know that your initial (first) payment request is ready to be completed.

3. 3 Submitting payment conditions

Grants for the Arts payments are conditional on us receiving and approving any additional monitoring information (or ‘payment conditions’) we have asked for. Payment conditions are listed in the payment schedule in your offer letter.

Our Payment conditions information sheet sets out some guidance on the most common payment conditions we use on Grants for the Arts payments, when and why we might add a payment condition, and what we would expect to receive from a grantholder in order to meet the condition.

Payment conditions must be submitted online via the attachments section of the relevant payment request step (as explained in section four of this document). Please do not send any information to meet payment conditions by email or post as we will not be able to accept information submitted in this way, and this could delay your payment.

4. 4 Claiming your grant payments

You will need to submit a payment request to claim each of the payments in your payment schedule, in addition to any conditions or reports we have requested.

Please read our information sheet How to claim a payment for technical step-by- step guidance on how to do this using the online system.

4.1 Claiming your first (initial) payment

4 Your initial payment request will be available in your Front Office after we have reviewed and approved your Offer letter acceptance. This will usually be around five working days after you submitted your Offer letter acceptance to us.

Initial (first) payment request This step will include space for you to upload evidence to meet any payment conditions we have set. For more information on how to submit a payment request read our guidance document How to claim a payment.

4.2 Claiming your interim payment (where applicable)

For grants over £15,000 (and certain grants of £15,000 or under) you will first need to submit an Interim activity report, then make your Interim payment request.

Interim activity report If you need to submit an Interim activity report the ‘interim activity report step’ will be available in your Front Office four weeks before your submission due date (as listed on the payment schedule on your offer letter). Your Interim payment request will be available two weeks before your submission due date.

The Interim Activity report form is pre-populated with information from your original application but you may still find it useful to refer to the submitted application and any changes you have agreed with us when you complete the report.

Your Interim report should include an evaluation of your activity to date. You’ll need to give an outline of the activity delivered to date, a summary of progress against the activity plan, describe any Issues/challenges encountered, and the action taken to overcome them. You will also need to provide a breakdown of your income and expenditure to date.

You can upload up to three optional attachments with your report to give an idea of the activity to date.

Please read our information sheet How to submit a report for technical step-by- step guidance on how to do this using the online system.

Interim payment request Once you have submitted your Interim activity report, you can then submit your interim payment request. This will include space to upload any interim payment

5 conditions that we have set. For more information on how to submit a payment request read our guidance document How to claim a payment.

4.3 Claiming your final payment

For all grants you will have to submit a Final activity report form before you make your final payment request.

Final activity report Your Final activity report will be available in your Front office four weeks before your project end date (as listed on the payment schedule on your offer letter). Your Final payment request will be available two weeks before your submission due date.

The Final activity report form is pre-populated with information from your original application but you may still find it useful to refer to the submitted application and any changes you have agreed with us when you complete the report.

Your Final activity report should include an evaluation of your activity. You’ll need to give an outline of the activity delivered - what you achieved, compared with the original aims of the activity, you’ll need to tell us what you learned, and how the activity has helped you or your organisation to develop, and tell us about any longer term impact the activity has had. You will also need to tell us how many people benefited from your activity, and the number of new products/commissions, performance/exhibition days or sessions for education, training or participation.

You will also need to provide a breakdown of your final project income and expenditure. Please note you will not be able to delete any of your original expenditure lines, but you will be able to change the amount spent to zero pounds. If you add an additional budget line in error, set the amount to zero.

Underspends If you have not spent all the income you received, or if your activity has made a profit, your final budget in the Activity report form will show that income is greater than expenditure. In this instance we may ask you to return the unspent amount to us. Please read our Information sheet Final income and expenditure for Grants for the Arts activities for more information.

6 If you applied for touring activity you will need to complete a final tour schedule.

You can upload up to three optional attachments with your report to give an idea of the activity to date. You can attach a full evaluation report if you wish.

Please read our information sheet How to submit a report for technical step-by- step guidance on how to do this using the online system.

Final payment request Once you have submitted your Final Activity report, you can then submit your final payment request. This will include space to upload any final payment conditions that we have set. For more information on how to submit a payment request read our guidance document How to claim a payment.

5. 5 Contact us

Phone: 0845 300 6200, 0161 934 4317 Textphone: 0161 934 4428 Email: [email protected] Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk Post: Arts Council England - Grants for the Arts, The Hive, 49 Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN