Raising a concern
Raising a concern about an applicant or grantholder
Anyone may raise a concern about an organisation that has applied to us or has received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.
As a custodian of public money, we will always take such concerns very seriously, and we have processes to ensure that they are thoroughly investigated.
This guidance explains how to raise a concern and how we will deal with it.
Who to contact
If you wish to raise any concerns then please contact our Customer Services team on:
Customer.Services@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
What can we consider through this process?
We can only consider concerns about:
- a current application for funding
- alleged breaches of the terms and conditions of a current funding agreement
If you are raising concerns about a decision that we have taken to fund an organisation, we will review the information that you provide and whether it would have affected our decision. However, please note:
- we cannot enter into a discussion about any disagreement you have with a particular funding decision unless it involves a breach of the terms and conditions of the funding
- we cannot become involved with any personal disagreements that you may have with a particular organisation. If your concern is a personal disagreement then you should direct this to the organisation in question
- while we can take action to investigate breaches of a funding agreement, we cannot enforce the law. If your concern involves a breach of the law, you should consider raising the matter with the relevant regulatory body or, in criminal matters, the police
Responding to your concerns
We do not make information about our investigative procedures public. Doing so would allow organisations to circumvent our checks and jeopardise our ability to protect public funds.
It is therefore unlikely that we will be able to give you any information about the progress or outcome of any investigation that we conduct.
Rights to confidentiality
As part of a review of information we may need to contact the organisation that we have funded. In this case we will respect your anonymity. We will honour any specific requests that you make regarding confidentiality.
Similarly, if you work for the organisation that you are raising concerns about, or are a named contact on an application or funding agreement, and you would like us to keep your details confidential, please advise us of this at the time you raise each concern with us. Your request will be respected, even though you may have a contractual duty to advise us of any incident or practice that may jeopardise the success of the project or amount to a misuse of public funds.
If we receive information that suggests individual people may be at risk, we may need to share this information with the police or other appropriate authorities. In these cases, we would still take steps to preserve your confidentiality.