Assets Collaboration Programme Wales Phase 3 (ACPW3): guidance for applicants

Ystadau Cymru is an important part of the Welsh Government’s strategic approach to managing land and property assets. Collaboration is a key behaviour in the Welsh Government’s own asset management policy and Ystadau Cymru continues to play a key part as the strategic lead in supporting and promoting the benefits of collaborative asset management across the public sector in Wales.

The focus on Well-being goals is set out in the Programme for Government for the 6^th Senedd. Key Areas where Ystadau Cymru and their partners can make a positive contribution to Ministers’ priorities include:

• Provide effective, high quality and sustainable healthcare.
  • co-location of services through development and repurposing surplus buildings to create community hubs.
  • investment in the provision of integrated health and social care centres
     
• Embedding our response to the climate and nature emergency
  • supporting the development of remote working hubs
  • supporting the circular economy to reduce waste.
  • using our assets to support regional transport plans, social enterprise and the foundational economy.
  • investing in our assets to work towards zero carbon.
  • stopping and reversing the damage to our natural environment by supporting the creation of community woodlands
  • support the improvement of the built environment by repurposing our surplus assets and creating more community green space in our town centres.
  • ensuring our public buildings and areas are accessible and safe
     
• Reducing educational inequalities
  • improving the quality and carbon efficiency of our education estate
     
• Building a Stronger Greener Economy as we make progress towards decarbonisation
  • support the foundational economy by backing local businesses, supply chains and jobs.
  • invest in world class sports facilities
  • making our cities towns and villages even better places to live and work, supporting both our 30% target for remote working and our 45% target for journeys by sustainable modes by 2040.
     
• Reducing inequality in all of its forms
  • promoting fairness and social justice in our capital investment planning and procurement.
     
• Make our cities, towns and villages even better places in which to live and work
  • Supporting the release of public land to build 20,000 new low carbon social homes for rent
  • Explore where services and contracts can sustainably and affordably be brought back into a strengthened public sector
• Our work for 2022-2025 is supported by the Assets Collaboration Programme Wales (ACPW3) which will provide revenue and capital grant funds to support these priorities, with a focus on:
• Improving the sustainability of the public estate in Wales; and
• Removing the barriers to collaboration

The ACPW3 grant is aimed at supporting collaboration between Welsh Public Sector organisations (Third Sector organisations should be collaborative partners only and cannot apply for this funding).

Your Project must involve public sector land or property assets and either remove some of the barriers to collaboration or contribute to the delivery of a sustainable future public sector estate.

Projects that contribute to the following will be particularly welcome:

• Decarbonisation of buildings and other public assets
• Improving biodiversity using public assets
• Improving environmental sustainability using public assets
• Generating or supporting economic growth or resilience using public assets
• Creating social value using public assets
• Innovation using public assets.

Grant applications are welcome for up to £75,000 (revenue) and of up to £250,000 for capital projects.

Applications should be made using the grant application form. 

Projects must involve publicly owned assets and the project must be completed within the 2024-25 financial year (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025).

Successful application(s) will be presented to the Minister for Finance and Local Government recommending approval for funding.

Parties to the project must provide a copy of their relevant collaboration agreements and they must be in place before applying for the grant.

You are required to identify outputs arising from your application, which will form part of the Grant Offer Letter. As part of our grant monitoring processes, we will require you to report to us the project outputs achieved from time to time. You will be required to obtain and retain the evidence to verify those reported outputs, which we may from time-to-time request to see. 

The Purposes of this Grant Award will not require the processing of any personal data on behalf of Welsh Government. If you consider that processing of personal data on Welsh Government’s behalf will be required, you will notify, and provide details to, the Welsh Government Official so that provision for compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations can be made.

You must comply with any further written instructions from us in respect of processing on our behalf.

The Welsh Government grants privacy notice explains how we handle any personal data in respect of your grant application or your request for grant funding.

Projects must be managed and procured in a complaint manner.

Goods, services and consultancy, research or works necessary for the delivery of a project must be properly procured and care must be taken to ensure that all procurement exercises are fair, open and are:

• undertaken in a manner that is ethical, sustainable, accountable and compliant with procedural, legal and international obligations;
• achieve continuing improvement in value for money, based upon the whole life cost and quality of goods and services; and
• help to improve the competitiveness of suppliers;

The procurement of both specialist design services and appropriate delivery agents should be undertaken in line with your organisation’s standard procurement policies and procedures.  Contracts over the OJEU thresholds need to comply with European Procurement Directives.  Procurement should also be aligned with the  Wales Procurement Policy Statement.

The use of existing framework agreements is acceptable provided they were awarded appropriately.
Expenditure that is incurred on goods, services and consultancy, research or works that has not been procured in accordance with this guidance will be ineligible for support.

Local Authorities must adopt their own compliance procedures in relation to procurement and for third party delivery ensure that third party/partner organisations follow robust and compliant procurement processes.

Applicants will undertake the appropriate procurement exercise prior to making an application to the Welsh Government. The Welsh Government will require evidence of the procurement process during the appraisal of an application.

The tender documents, including a tender report, should be submitted with your application.

(Please note the following is for useful guidance only and the applicant must undertake its own investigation into Subsidy Control or State Aid and make an assessment of its own- and third-party projects) 

The UK are functioning under the interim UK Subsidy regime, having left the EU.

As any public assistance could be classed as Subsidy, applicants are asked to consider and indicate in the application form whether the project constitutes a Subsidy and give the reasons why, taking into account the UK Subsidy rules.

A helpful background to the UK's new subsidies commitments is available in the  summary guide to awarding subsidies (on GOV.UK).

Applications should be made using the grant application form. 

The panel members will consider each grant application form or business case against the panel member checklist and complete the assessment using an individual scoring matrix.

The grant offer letter (see Annex 4) is to be completed and sent following approval from the Minister for Finance and Local Government. Applicant(s) are required to sign a copy signalling agreement to the terms and conditions and return to the Ystadau Cymru mailbox YstadauCymru@gov.wales . The letter must be signed by an authorised signatory of the Lead Body and Joint Partner(s) (by the Joint  Partner(s) in acknowledgement only).

In the case of a Local Authority, college or university, fire service, police authority, all payments are made directly through PayGrants (Grant Manager: Clare Phillips and RSO: Richard Baker).

There will be no payment in advance and suitable evidence of costs defrayed e.g. invoices/staff costs/equipment etc. or other such evidence as required, will be needed when and subject to submitting a claim for payment – the evidence required will be set out in the Appendices to the Grant Offer Letter.