FAQs for county councillors

Levelling Up Together focuses on the areas of Gloucestershire which fall within the ten percent ‘most deprived’ in England, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD, 2019).

Whilst the county councillors for these areas are not expected to sign and send in application forms, all applicants must discuss, and obtain support for, their application with the relevant county councillor/s for the area/s they are planning to deliver their initiative/s in and confirm this as part of the application form.

The Levelling Up Together Team will work closely with relevant county councillors to ensure they are aware of any bids submitted for their areas.

The county councillors working in the areas eligible to the scheme listed below, next to the areas they cover:

 All grant money is to be spent in the following areas:

• Podsmead
• Tuffley
• Barton and Tredworth
• Matson and Robinswood
• Moreland
• Kingsholm and Wotton
• Westgate
• Mark's
• Paul's
• Cinderford

Within these areas only, applications are invited from:

• Community or voluntary groups
• Registered Charities
• Community Interest Companies and Social Enterprises
• Town and Parish Councils
• Sports groups and associations
• Schools and Academies
• Religious Groups where the application demonstrates that the project will bring wider community benefit and the primary purpose of the activity is not religious
• Non-public sector organisations where the application demonstrates that the funding will benefit/level up a Gloucestershire community

Please note: businesses are eligible to apply providing they clearly demonstrate how they will evidence a contribution in kind, for example, by match funding.

Schools and academies are eligible to providing they can demonstrate how their initiatives will contribute to achieving the council’s ambition to ‘level up’.

No, they are not eligible to apply to this scheme. We do however encourage the relevant district councils (in the Forest of Dean, Gloucester, and Cheltenham) to support eligible organisations and areas if necessary. The Levelling Up Together Team will share relevant information with the district councils.

The fund was launched on Tuesday 18 October 2022. Applications were accepted from this date until midnight on Sunday 27 November 2022. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their bid by the end of January 2023.

There is an upper limit of £150,000 per bid and no lower limit. Please note that there is no set amount of money allocated per area or County Councillor.

Grants will be awarded in the current financial year 2022/23 for delivery during 2023/24. The grant is not recurring so once all the money has been awarded no further funding will be available.

Application forms are available from the Levelling Up Together webpages.

Applicants should complete the online form. A completed version will be emailed to the Levelling Up Together inbox.

Whilst the county councillors for these areas are not expected to sign and send in application forms, all applicants must discuss, and obtain support for, their application with the relevant county councillor/s for the area/s they are planning to deliver their initiative/s in and confirm this as part of the application form.

It is expected that all applications will be completed electronically, and the Levelling Up Together Team will be on hand to assist applicants with this if needed. In exceptional circumstances hard copies will be accepted.

We will aim to make payments for all grants as soon as possible upon receiving the grant acceptance form. Grants of more than £5k will require more information from the applicant so these may take longer to process.

Timescales will depend on the number of grants that we receive but we will keep applicants informed of the progress of their application.

Whilst there is an upper limit of £150,000 per bid, there is no set amount allocated to an area or a county councillor. Therefore, county councillors can support as many or as few applications as they wish. The Levelling Up Team will be monitoring the spread of applications to ensure there is a fair distribution of funding across the ten areas. It may be that some applications are partly funded to ensure more applicants are receive funding.

An officer panel will appraise all bids in line with a standardised scoring matrix. All recommendations will then go to a decision-making panel who will make the final decisions. ​

Council officers will administer the scheme, process grant applications and keep records of payments on behalf of each area and councillor.

Once organisations have received funding the grant should ideally be spent within 12 months, but the Levelling Up Together Team are willing to work with applicants who wish to deliver over a longer period.

If applicants do not spend all of the money, they have been awarded the relevant councillor/s will be informed and the grantee will be contacted by an officer to understand the reasons for this. Depending on the amount of underspend officers will discuss with the councillor if they are happy for the grantee to retain the remaining funds if assurances can be made that the remainder of the grant will be spent in line with the scheme criteria. 

If a large amount of the grant has not been spent then this may be reclaimed by the council after discussion with the relevant councillor.

In recognition of how challenging the past year has been for the Voluntary and Community Sector a flexible approach to grant giving will be taken, but there will be some things we can’t fund, such as:

• Sole Traders
• For profit activities
• Funding individuals
• Overseas holidays

Please contact the Levelling Up Together Team at levellinguptogether@gloucestershire.gov.uk if you wish to discuss a proposed grant.

Any decision must pay due regard to the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. Information on these duties can be accessed on the equality duties pages.

To measure impact and understand who the beneficiaries are for each project, grantees will be expected to collate and submit information on who participates in their projects. Further information about feedback, learning and evaluation will be discussed and agreed with successful applicants.

The application form and accompanying guidelines outline how the funding can be spent, the responsibilities of grantees and the processes that will be used to allocate funding.

The Councillor’s Code of Conduct sets out general obligations on an individual councillor regarding their role and conduct when acting as a member of the council.  County councillors will need to adhere to this code.

To ensure that the scheme is transparent we will make information about which projects have been funded publicly available on the council website.

All expenditure from county council funds is considered to be information that is available to the public. Therefore, details of any spending made from the fund will be provided to any internal or external enquirer upon request.

A range of information is available to county councillors around population, health deprivation and more is available through Inform Gloucestershire.

Information on electoral division wards can be found on the Inform profiles page.

Information is also held by local neighbourhood projects, parish and town councils, district councils and other organisations. County councillors are encouraged to work collaboratively with these partners both to assess need in their area and to avoid duplication and prevent the double-funding of projects.

All interested parties (including prospective applicants) are welcome to email levellinguptogether@gloucestershire.gov.uk to discuss any queries they may have. It is encouraged that contact is made before applications are submitted to avoid potential delays.

The Levelling Up Together Fund will close to applications at midnight on Sunday 27 November 2022.

In December 2022, a panel of Officers with expertise across the relevant topic areas (including education, employment, skills and training, and the voluntary and community sector) will meet to appraise the bids using a standardised scoring matrix. Recommendations will then be made to the Decision-Making Panel who will meet in January 2023. The Decision-Making Panel comprises the Director of Public Health, the Cabinet Member for Public Health and Communities and the Director of Corporate Resources. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their bid by the end of January 2023.

Whilst it is necessary for bids to be supported by the relevant County Councillor/s, support from the relevant county councillor/s does not guarantee an application will be successful.

Prospective applicants are asked to engage with the relevant county councillor/s to discuss, and request support for, their application and evidence this in their application form. We will closely with prospective applicants to support applications and liaise with the relevant county councillors to ensure they are aware of the applications submitted from their areas.

Whilst there is an upper limit on how much each application can request (£150,000), there is no set amount of money allocated per area or per county councillor. As such, support from the relevant county councillor/s does not guarantee an application will be successful.

The Levelling Up Together grant scheme is time-limited and will close to applications at midnight on Sunday 27 November 2022, and all bids will be assessed soon after, with all applicants being notified of the outcome of their bid by the end of January 2023.

Whilst there is an upper limit on how much each application can request (£150,000), there is no set amount of money allocated per area or per county councillor. Despite this, we will request that prospective applicants engage with their county councillor to discuss, and request support for, their application and evidence this in their application form. We plan to work closely with prospective applicants to support applications and liaise with county councillors to ensure they are aware of the applications submitted from their areas.

Please note support from the relevant county councillor/s does not guarantee an application will be successful.

Yes, a county councillor can support more than one application, and providing no one application requests more than the maximum amount per bid (£150,000), a county councillor may support multiple bids which collectively total more than £150,000. This is because, whilst we would like to see a good spread of quality applications across the eligible areas, there is no set amount of money allocated per area or per county councillor.

In addition to this, the bids will be appraised by a panel of officers, with the final decisions being made by the Decision-Making Panel. It is therefore worth noting that while it is a necessary as part of the application form, support from the relevant county councillor/s does not guarantee an application will be successful.