VANEL has been the Locally Trusted Organisation (LTO) for Big Local North Cleethorpes throughout.
When? 2012-2025
Who? VANEL (Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire), local registered charity based in Cleethorpes
A definition of a LTO from Local Trust – the organisation running Big Local nationally…
A locally trusted organisation (LTO) is the organisation chosen by a Big Local partnership to administer and account for the distribution of the funding, and/or deliver activities or services on behalf of the Big Local partnership.
When the Big Local North Cleethorpes partnership was being established back in 2012 and a new committee was being established, VANEL (Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire) was in place as the LTO for the partnership. VANEL has remained as the LTO throughout the programme right up until closure in early 2025.
As a partnership committee, Big Local North Cleethorpes cannot do various things such as enter into contracts, buy insurance, open bank accounts and so on. So the LTO – VANEL – does these things on behalf of the committee. Over the years the Big Local funds have been released by Local Trust to VANEL who holds the money on behalf of the committee and spends it and accounts for in as directed by the partnership.
VANEL also has employed staff on behalf of Big Local – for example the Development Workers, and makes purchasing arrangements; leases on equipment; takes out insurance policies and so forth. In all cases the decisions are made by the partnership committee, but VANEL has to work alongside the Big Local team to help things to happen.
Luckily the relationship over the past decade or more between Big Local North Cleethorpes and VANEL has been effective and productive. That’s certainly not been the case all across the country with Big Local’s – some have had complex or strained relationships with their LTO organisations. Some have even had to change LTO’s due to problems. However, we’re proud that in North Cleethorpes the relationship has been strong and has helped Big Local North Cleethorpes operate effectively.
Big Local North Cleethorpes and the LTO have to undergo ongoing reviews with Local Trust and are regularly audited and assessed both on a financial basis and also on a delivery basis. In all cases, VANEL and the LTO role have held up well, and in early 2024 Big Local North Cleethorpes was able to formally exit the relationship with the national Local Trust programme as a mark of endorsement that the programme was being managed well and drawn to a close well.
The primary team at VANEL have been Paula Grant, Chief Officer and Richard Wendel-Jones who as Finance Officer has overseen the funding throughout the life of the Big Local programme.
Development Workers Karl Elliott and John Mooney have been employees of VANEL throughout.
VANEL are proud of the role that we’ve successfully taken working with and alongside Big Local North Cleethorpes over the years. The relationship has been strong and worked well for us all and we remain impressed with the work that the Big Local partnership committee have led on and that the team at VANEL have been able to support.
Additional information
VANEL website: www.vanel.org.uk
Local Trust https://localtrust.org.uk/big-local/