Recommendation 19

HM Government Accepted in Part

The 12 National Lottery Distributors welcome the Committee’s focus on grant acknowledgement and agree it is vitally important that National Lottery funding is recognised and understood. The National Lottery Forum has strong governance in place to ensure the Distributors work together, including a Grant Acknowledgment Working Group where colleagues from all Distributors meet regularly to share best practice. In addition, the National Lottery Promotions Unit (NLPU) is a joint venture between the operator, DCMS and the Distributors. It raises positive public awareness of National Lottery funding, thereby contributing to the overall brand health of The National Lottery. The Distributors have a strong commitment to grant acknowledgement which broadly falls into three categories: • Requirements of grant holders: Distributors contractually oblige grant holders to acknowledge their National Lottery Funding. This includes using the correct branding across their projects, sports kits, films, and events and referencing the National Lottery in marketing materials, press, social media, and interviews. • Support for grant holders: Distributors provide brand guidance and toolkits to grant holders. They also regularly engage with grant holders to provide advice, for example UK Sport works with every Olympic and Paralympic sport to ensure that the Chair, CEO, performance team, communications team and athletes understand the role that the National Lottery players play as well as the impact of National Lottery funding. • Media and communications: Distributors work closely with grant holders in planning the announcement of their grant and acknowledging their grant 6 National Lottery Distributors’ Response to the Committee’s Fourth Report through planned press activity. Examples of press activity include UK Sport requiring athletes to make themselves available for three media appearances per year, and the British Film Institute producing videos from talent to thank National Lottery players. The Distributors have taken on the committee’s recommendation to consider how they might more effectively ensure that recipients of funding ensure that those benefiting from funding are aware of the source of their funding. They have committed to the following changes: The National Lottery Community Fund is updating branding training to support a greater focus on brand management. It is also focusing on its £1 million + grant holders to maximise grant acknowledgement. For existing £1 million + grant holders, funding colleagues are being supported to ensure that branding and acknowledgement of funding become a regular part of their post-award grant conversations. All new £1m+ grant holders will now be provided a communications protocol spelling out the expectations over the lifetime of their award including launch comms, annual comms ‘moments’, and impact case studies. The National Lottery Heritage Fund (Heritage Fund) will ensure that changes to its application forms reflect acknowledgment recommendations. It will also explore digital training for grant recipients to support with acknowledgement questions. The Heritage Fund will also continue with regular training to staff on brand acknowledgement to ensure all relevant Heritage Fund staff are able to lead conversations about grant acknowledgement with grant recipients. Arts Council England (ACE) is currently reviewing its grant terms and conditions to introduce scaled requirements for National Lottery Project Grants grant acknowledgement. ACE is also looking at how best to strengthen ongoing relationships with grant recipients once they receive funding, and this could include introducing consequences for non- compliance. ACE will review and refresh the toolkits it provides to support recipients, including giving examples of ways to promote and celebrate The National Lottery. Arts Council Wales (ACW) is currently working through its investment review and in April 2024 it will announce a new group of multi-year funded organisations. This will align with a new Corporate Strategy and a re-branding exercise. Through this work ACW will increase the profile of both the organisation and of its funders, principally National Lottery and the Welsh Government. ACW be introducing new monitoring reports to ensure that organisations have fulfilled the branding ask–namely to prominently display the National Lottery logo both physically and digitally, and to secure media and social media coverage for their funded projects. Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI) intends to focus on ten of its most significant National Lottery funded clients in the 2023/24 financial year, directly requesting a communications and acknowledgment plan from each on how they will increase acknowledgement of the funding they receive. This will include how they plan to engage with their audiences and improve their messaging on The National Lottery. National Lottery Distributors’ Response to the Committee’s Fourth Report 7 Creative Sco