In line with the collective desire to reduce the overall levels of administration and maximise funding for the sector, VANL took the decision last year to, coordinate the locality work in house and manage the locality consortia and LAF funding within the Community Solutions team effective April 2026. As we get closer to implementation of the new arrangement we have received a number of questions. We would like to share these and our responses to provide clarity as to what is changing and what is staying the same in the coming months:
Q1. How is recruitment of the West and East consortium leads progressing?
A1. We are pleased to share that both of these roles along with the Consortium administration team support role have now been filled and will be introduced to the consortia they will be supporting soon. We are excited to see what they bring to their respective consortia
Q2. How much funding will each consortium have in their budget in the coming financial year?
A2. We have one final meeting remaining for this financial year (this being Airdrie Consortium 27th March) and once this meeting has been completed we will know what remains in this year’s pot, be able to add this to next years overall budget and then use this figure to calculate the budgets for each locality.
What we can confirm at this point however is the amount organisations will be able to apply for per application will be returning to £5,000 this coming year.
Q3. When will the next consortia meeting be in my locality?
A3. We have just allocated the community anchor organisation development fund and will be announcing the 6 successful organisations very soon. These 6 organisations will provide venues for the consortia meetings and as such we will finalising dates based on the availability of their venues in the coming weeks. Once these dates are finalised we will share them with the consortia members.
Q4. I have completed an application for LAF Funding, do I still send this to the locality hosts?
A4. No, we are currently in a transitional period and as such the locality hosts are not the point of contact for LAF applications. As such, until the new individuals are in their new posts within the community solutions team, please send all LAF applications to either gordon.watson@vanl.co.uk or marta.Szczepanska@vanl.co.uk .
Q5. I’m an existing member of the consortia/I’m new to the consortia/I want to re-join the consortia; do I need to complete a form to join the consortia for the coming year?
A5. Yes, you do, our consortium membership form can be found here, this form will let us know the best way for us to contact you as a member of the group and helps us have a clear picture of the representation across each of the consortia. Please complete this and return it to either gordon.watson@vanl.co.uk or marta.Szczepanska@vanl.co.uk
Q6. What is changing?
A6. VANL will coordinate the locality work in house and manage the locality consortia and LAF funding within the Community Solutions team. This means LAF funding support and consortia administration and facilitation will be delivered by VANL staff rather than the previous locality hosts. The only other potential changes will come from our annual LAF and Consortia review which will be held in April.
Q7. What is staying as it currently is?
A7. The consortia process. Everything out with the above will stay exactly as it is, meetings will still be held every 6 weeks, members will still receive all applications and decisions will still be made by consortia members exclusively.
Q8. Will the new Community Solutions model mean that more funding will be made available for investment in the CVS.
A8. Yes, and this is one of the main reasons for the change in approach. Even though there is no increase in funding VANL receives from UHSCNL, an additional 60k will be made available to LAF and over 100k will be added to the Thematic Funds being made available.
With all of this said we would like to invite all current members and anyone who is interested in becoming a member of their local consortia to our 2026/2027 Consortium Launch event in April, which will cover:
- What is changing and what is staying the same in more detail
- What the Roles and Responsibilities within your consortium are, reinforcing how the consortium process works
- Introducing the newly funded community anchor organisations and the community anchor organisations network
- The LAF/Consortium consultation where attendees can have their say on the review of the LAF guidance, application and the consortia process
- The release of Consortia/Drop in dates as well as LAF Budgets for each locality
More details on how to sign up to this event will be released in the coming weeks.
