New application window opens February 6.

Application window opens on February 6

We expect most clubs are now aware of the ECB County Grants Fund, which commenced in 2021. It aims to support affiliated cricket clubs to create welcoming environments, provide enhanced facilities and playing opportunities for women, girls & disability cricket, and develop environmentally sustainable facilities.

To date, the DCB has supported over twenty clubs across Devon who have successfully received grants. Recent awards to clubs have included energy-saving projects, provision of an off-grid electrical supply, improving clubhouse facilities for women and girls, catering equipment upgrades and replacement of non-turf pitches

These projects are now either completed or in various stages of development:

Woodbury & Newton St Cyres CCBraunton CCWoodbury & Newton St Cyres CC

Conversion of all facility lighting to LED. Est. annual reduction of 1450kWh (£500).

Braunton CC

Installation of commercial-grade catering in the kitchen. Allows the club to provide a much wider hospitality offering to members.

This year's County Grant scheme which is scheduled to run until November, will see the first application window open on Monday 6th February and run for six weeks until Friday 24th March.

Clubs can apply for between £1,000 and £10,000.

For the 2023 County Grant Funding rounds, we will be holding two separate application windows during the year. The strategy is to allow clubs to move forward with non-impacting projects during the playing season or embark on more impacting projects after the season completes. More details on these application windows are provided in the table below.

The revised guidance notes for the County Grants Fund, including the application process stages, levels of funding available and eligibility criteria, are attached here – full ECB guidance notes.

The main change to the process for 2023, is the inclusion within IMS of an Expression of Interest stage (refer to Sect 9.4).  The Process Flow Chart in Sect 14 is also a helpful guide.

In summary:

The fund has three essential themes:

  • Creating Welcoming Environments
  • Providing Enhanced Facilities and Playing Opportunities for Women’s and Girls’ Cricket and/or Disability Cricket
  • Tackling Climate Change

Clubs can apply for between £1,000 and £10,000. 

HOW WILL THE COUNTY GRANTS FUND BE MANAGED IN DEVON?

There are a few key points we would like to make to clubs at this stage:

  1. Eligibility – Each theme has clear eligibility criteria, as laid out in the guidance notes. The key aim of the fund is to help make clubs more welcoming environments for the whole family and community. Where appropriate, clubs who are considering projects which will be able to demonstrate energy saving and/or tackling climate change will be given a priority focus. It's notable that under the Tackling Climate Change theme that e-mowers and rollers are now included.
     
  2. Prioritisation -   Priority will be given to applications from Clubs that are actively engaged with ECB programmes (All Stars, Dynamos, Women’s and Girls’ Cricket and/or Disability Cricket). 
    Through delivering the ECB national programmes, clubs are demonstrating a commitment towards diversifying and expanding their club offers, making them more appealing to a wider demographic.  It is therefore considered a priority that these clubs have facilities which both support and enable effective delivery of the programmes. 
    Additionally, clubs providing evidence to demonstrate that their project has been thoroughly thought out, with wider club consultation, partnership funding and use of the ECB Creating Welcoming Environments resource, will be looked on more favourably.
     
  3. Local management – The County Grants Fund has been set up to be administered locally with autonomy for County Cricket Boards to work with clubs and make decisions on projects that warrant investment. This is welcomed by the DCB as it provides an opportunity to work closely with clubs regarding their projects and overall club development. The DCB are empowered to “support” an application, which then moves to the ECB Case Officer to conduct a final review and make an award offer.
     
  4. Not a replacement for Small Grant Scheme – The County Grants Fund is not a re-badge of the old Small Grants Scheme. The project themes are very different with potentially higher levels of investment. The County Grants Fund will involve more dialogue between each club and the DCB, and will also drive more robust planning to ensure that the investment fits with the wider aspirations of both club and the county. 
     
  5. Scale of support – The County Grants Fund has been launched by the ECB as a priority for supporting the recreational game and the ambitions of its Inspiring Generations Strategy. Therefore, there are very positive levels of investment attributed to the fund, however, within the DCB’s annual budget it may not be possible to support every application, with some projects either being deferred to the next funding window, signposted to other sources of funding, or being offered a grant lower than requested. Projects that have been well planned will be considered more favourably than projects that have been rushed. On that basis, it is possible that some applications may be deferred to the next funding window if they are considered to require further development before an award can be offered. 

APPLICATIONS AND DEADLINES FOR 2023 

Applications are now open via the ECB IMS system and the full application process is explained in the County Grant Application Guide. 

We cannot commence any detailed consideration of an application until it has been formally submitted through the ECB Investment Management System (IMS) portal, so clubs are reminded to ensure they are registered on IMS and in a position to start their County Grant application

After the initial Expression of Interest stage, the DCB will advise clubs with viable projects, to complete their application within the IMS portal. This is not an indication that each application will be successful, only that it meets the appropriate criteria for applying.

  1. Applications will be assessed within 15 working days of the application window end date. Over this period clubs will be notified if the project is either ineligible or missing key information. This may result in the application being referred back to clubs for further detail to be uploaded.
     
  2. All applications will then be reviewed by an internal peer review panel. They will be assessed against a developed criteria and alignment with county strategy.
     
  3. With a pre-determined budget, the amount of funding may vary. The amount of grant offered may differ from that requested by the club.
     
  4. If the application is considered viable it will be supported by DCB and forwarded to the ECB Case Officer for final scrutinization and award allocation. An offer decision by ECB can take up to 30 working days.
     
  5. A club will have the opportunity to appeal should they want to contest the panel's decision.  
     
  6. In exceptional circumstances, if a club has a project that needs to be completed on an urgent basis, and can evidence this, then they can contact Devon Cricket to discuss the potential of funds being released early. 

Application

Window

Window Opens

Window Closes

(Application deadline date)

Panel Review and Support Decision Period

1

6th Feb 2023

24th Mar 2023

27th Mar – 14th Apr 2023

2

14th Aug 2023

22nd Sept 2023

25th Sept – 13th Oct 2023

THE NEXT STEPS 

  1. Familiarise yourself with the County Grant Fund guidance notes 
  2. Utilise the ‘Creating Welcoming Environments’ resource, survey and checklist to help develop your project plan (details and links below).  
  3. Define your project need clearly and commence your early stages of obtaining costs.
  4. Identify your club representative who will lead on your project – remember you will need two contacts for the application process.
  5. Consider at an early stage the need for appropriate Planning Permission and Building Regulations as these can be time-consuming processes.
  6. When you consider you have a suitable project, please complete the Expression of Interest stage of the IMS application process. If there is uncertainty then contact Devon Cricket.

CREATING WELCOMING ENVIRONMENTS

To support the launch of the County Grants Fund, the ECB have released a new Creating Welcoming Environments Guide.

The Creating Welcoming Environments document is intended to provide guidance for cricket clubs to help make cricket facilities more inclusive and welcoming to all, by creating better environments for everyone using them and to encourage a more diverse range of people to join cricket clubs and get involved in the game at a recreational level. Club facilities are an important factor in ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, race, faith or disability, feels comfortable within the club environment.  

To assist clubs in assessing where they may need to improve their facilities to make them more welcoming and inclusive, the ECB has developed a couple of self-assessment documents.

ECB Facilities survey

ECB Facilities review checklist

CONTACTS

To discuss any of the above further please contact:

County Grant Fund Enquiries – Nick Goodliffe - nick.goodliffe@devoncricket.co.uk - 07801 178329

Developing Women and Girls' Cricket – Ann-Marie Presswell – ann-marie.presswell@devoncricket.co.uk - 07494 151557

Developing Disability Cricket – Lewis Fountain – lewis.fountain@devoncricket.co.uk - 07960 038945

All Stars and Dynamos Cricket -  Alex Jopling alex.jopling@devoncricket.co.uk - 07507 711595