Ceri Doyle, director of strategy, performance and learning at the Big Lottery Fund, has said there is a debate within the organisation on its long-held principle of ‘additionality’, that is of ensuring funding goes to projects which do not carry out the core work of government.

Doyle, who was speaking yesterday at Action Planning’s Funding Your Future conference, said that while statute decrees that BIG funding must be additional to public sector funding, the funder faced a challenge as it was increasingly receiving applications for grants previously provided by local authorities or the health service.

She said that BIG would need to create a policy on this and communicate it to its stakeholders.

This is not the first time this issue has arisen at BIG. In 2010, BIG's board examined its policy on additionality, considering whether it was still fit for purpose in a tighter economic environment.

And in 2011, the Directory of Social Change raised concerns that the additionality principle had been watered down in its proposed new policy direction. At the time, Jay Kennedy, head of policy at DSC, said that the Lottery funding should not “displace, substitute or replace” government funding and that this needs to be made clearer in the policy document.

Elsewhere, Doyle also told delegates at the Action Planning conference yesterday that in the future BIG would look to invest in projects around mental health in adolescence; abuse of older people; asset-based approaches to community regeneration, and the environment.

She also advised that charities seeking funding should consult their beneficiaries as they know best what is needed in their community.