Managing the Lottery: evaluation of the first four years and lessons for local authorities

Abstract

There has been a rapid 'learning curve' amongst local authorities over the past four years in the development of policy and practice in the National Lottery. Initially, there was speculation about the extent to which it might enable new partnerships and improve existing ones; how it might work to develop new programmes and how these might co-ordinate with those already underway; and whether there would be strategic planning frameworks for the evolution of programmes, or whether there would be an ad hoc approach. In the first two years, distributors and local authorities attempted to develop workable compromises within the remits of the legislation and interpretations of guidelines. Problems over the mechanisms of applications, and the variations in guidelines and support and guidance between distributors, strained the capacity of local authorities to deal with the consequent confusion and contradictions. The People's Lottery White Paper of July 1997 recognized the problems of distributors but feedback from local authorities consulted suggested that there are still grave concerns about the efficacy of changes for them in the future.