Community Council FAQs

All applications are submitted to SCBF. On receipt of the application, the administration officer carries out due diligence (checking group’s constitution, accounts, application meets objective of the fund etc), removes applicants’ personal data then sends application to community council for a decision. The community council will then be asked to complete a feedback form stating whether they support the application for funding and return it to SCBF. The grant offer or grant rejection will be undertaken by SCBF administration.

It is the aim of SCBF to respond to applicants with a decision within 8 weeks of receiving an application. If no decision is notified to SCBF by the community council within 10 weeks of receiving the feedback form from the administration officer, SCBF will assume the decision on the application is ‘No Award’ unless the community council has kept in touch with SCBF to advise of any delay when considering an application. This would be fairer to the applicant and in line with the 8-week turnaround detailed in the CGS guidance.

Yes, but you must advise SCBF administration that you wish to do so. It would also be advisable to publicise this information to your local community groups.

Yes. A community council can apply for a Tier 1 or Tier 2 grant using the same online application form used by other applicants. The SCBF officers will consider any application under £25,000 from a community council. If there is any potential conflict of interest, with an officer also being a member of the community council applying for a grant, then another director will take part in the decision. All applications from a community councils over £25,000 will be considered by the SCBF management committee.

Yes, applicants will only be permitted to apply to a maximum of 3 community councils. You will be advised if they have applied to more than one community council and details of how the application has been split and the reasoning for this will also be provided. Applications which cover more than 3 community councils will be directed to Tier 3. Tier 3 applications are considered exclusively by SCBF.

Feedback during the AGS from community councils and applicants was that Shetland-wide applications caused issues in decision-making. SCBF therefore decided to remove them from the applications considered by community councils and deal with them centrally.

SCBF administration will send you an application summary spreadsheet each time you are sent a new application to consider. This summary will detail previous applications, funding awarded and will have a running balance. If there are applications pending for your community council, this information will also be passed on to you.

Yes, that would be their choice. It is up to each community council to decide how to use its funding allocation and how to decide on which applications to support. We would ask that you discuss this with SCBF before launching any event.

For SCBF the arrangements for a participatory budgeting event are no different from dealing with any other application. All applications come to SCBF for checking - the feedback form with details is sent to the community council which then organises its PB event. Once the decisions are made on which projects to support and with how much funding the completed feedback form for each project is returned to SCBF.

Applicants can still apply to your area, but SCBF cannot send the details to you until the forms are signed. This is due to restrictions surrounding data sharing.

Yes, however, this would be relevant and appropriate to the size of grant awarded. SCBF would discuss what publicity is appropriate with the successful applicant. An individual in receipt of a grant would not be expected to supply a photograph or their name for example.

Community councils will be given the name of the group applying but not the name of the individual completing the application or any of their contact details. This is due to an individual’s privacy rights under GDPR. The exception to this is when it is an individual making an application and not a group. In that case, you will be given their name but not contact information.

Following due diligence, the administration officer will check through the application to ensure it contains as much information as possible and request clarity if any area hasn’t been completed fully. If you still have questions, direct them to the administration officer who will ask the applicant on your behalf.

Yes you could. We are aware that you are all volunteers and making contact takes up time, the administration officer is there to assist with this.

Direct them to the admin officer initially, she can then keep track with them and offer some low level guidance on applying. She will also be able to direct them to VAS or SCIO if required.

SCBF will provide all the support it can to assist community councils. Also, SSE Renewables has extensive experience of how funds are managed in Scotland - and mistakes that have been made - and you can access this valuable resource of knowledge by contacting SCBF administration. The main point is do not feel rushed to spend the allocation, making ‘good funding’ decisions is more important.

SCBF who will then share that information with community councils.

Both SCBF and community councils. There is standard comms which will be used for the launch of the fund. If you find that there isn’t much uptake in your area then the admin officer can help with further promotion.

Yes. Once the scheme is fully underway SCBF will review how it is operating and consult community councils for ideas on what changes may be needed.

There is not simple answer to this question. A 'declaration of interest' is sometimes referred to a 'conflict of interest' - is there a conflict (or connection) between your direct or indirect personal interests and a grant application. Another possible way of considering what to do is the 'objectivity test'. Ask yourself what a member of the public might reasonably think if you didn't declare an interest in an application. Would they think you acted properly? The Orkney code of conduct explains the 'test' in the link below.

You could ask your fellow community councillors if they think you should declare an interest or not You could ask your local community worker or Michael Duncan, the council's Community Council Liaison Officer. SCBF cannot give hard and fast advice to what "an interest" is or when a declaration of interest should be made. At the end of the day, it is up to the individual community councillor to decide what they believe is the right thing to do.

Further details can be found by selecting ‘Declarations of Interest’ beneath ‘Information for community councils’ on the Community Grant Scheme page.