National Lottery Heritage Fund – shaping its strategy

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has provided an update on the feedback it received through its strategy engagement and what this means for how it supports the UK’s heritage.

Over the summer, more than 4,400 people had their say on its ambitious new strategy through surveys, conversations, workshops and research commissioned from consultants BritainThinks.

This has provided a clear picture of the views and first-hand experiences of a representative cross section of the public and the breadth of the UK heritage sector.

What you said

Key themes

Four themes emerged strongly from the questions about what you want to be prioritised in funding:

  • Conserving, protecting and saving heritage, ensuring it is relevant and adaptable for current and future generations.
  • Responding to the climate and nature crises and championing environmental sustainability across all types of heritage. Helping heritage adapt to and mitigate the impacts of the crises and supporting nature’s recovery.
  • Inclusion, diversity and accessibility across all types of heritage, workforce, leadership and audiences.
  • Financial resilience and the need for longer term funding and income diversification.

National Lottery Heritage Fund’s role

You said it could do even more to support the UK’s heritage sector by:

  • facilitating networking, collaboration and multi-agency partnerships
  • creating a system to share knowledge and best practice between organisations and projects
  • supporting capacity building, volunteer and staff training and development, as well as longer-term funding

How you challenged NLHF

When asked about its six draft objectives, you were broadly supportive, but felt strongly that:

  • the climate and nature crises, and environmental sustainability more broadly, were missing
  • ‘heritage is for everyone’ was not as strong as its current position for heritage to be ‘inclusive’
  • the objectives needed to be more assertive, clearer and objectives that overlapped should be simplified

Invaluable insight

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:

“We are grateful to everyone who shared their opinions with us. The responses exceeded our expectations in both number and the passion they demonstrated.

“It has reinforced what a powerful connection we all have to heritage and why the work we all do is so important.

“We’ve heard what you told us and are using your invaluable insight to shape our new strategy. We are committed to ensuring our vision is grounded in the views and experiences of those who run and benefit from the heritage projects we fund.”

What happens next

The new 10-year strategy will be launched early next year. It will outline NLHF’s vision for the UK’s heritage over the next decade.

Further detail about what will be funded and how investments will be targeted will come in spring 2023 when the first three-year delivery plan is launched.

In the meantime, you should continue to apply for funding using the current guidance and outcomes.

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