1 An overview of assessment

About this manual

This manual is designed to take staff through the steps involved in assessing applications made under our main grants programmes, from receipt of applications to sending recommendations to Regional advisory Panels and Country Committees.

In order to do this, the chapters of the manual are set out as far as possible in the order that assessment is undertaken. However, some aspects of the process - such as peer review and procedures for dealing with withdrawals, as well as detailed information about financial procedures - have been put into later chapters to make it easier for you to work through the stages common to all applications. In addition, the scoring system, the assessment criteria and worksheets have been included as an appendix to ensure ease of access. Nevertheless, the manual should clearly refer you to other sections or manuals that you will or may need to consult.

as you will be aware, this manual avoids reference to specific grants programmes: it is intended to be applicable to all of them. It will be updated in line with changes in procedures.

Similarly, this manual records policies and procedures that should be followed across all the Board's operating units. Many offices work with further guidance provided by country offices or local management. Wherever possible this manual advises you to refer to local guidance, but it does not include that guidance as a standard component. It does however include a chapter heading where you can keep any such guidance and cross-reference it to standard procedures as necessary.

This version of the manual will be updated in line with agreed procedures. at present, each operating unit has an individual nominated for ordering new copies and co-ordinating dissemination of updates for staff.

Finally, you should note that this manual refers to procedures agreed with internal and external auditors. It is important to note that AMI is however subject to separate certification and that this edition of the manual should not be construed as proof of that certification. Procedures for recording your work on AMI are thus subject to change.

Please also note that this introduction will be updated as necessary to help you keep track of changes.

Steps in the assessment process

1. Check in
   
   Grants staff must ensure that applications are checked in to the system and that all the information we need for assessment has been received. Chapter 2 of this manual takes you through the procedures, which include:
   
   
   • how to enter applications onto the system
   • what to do if the applicant has not provided information we need
   • how to determine whether the application is in the right office, and what to do if it isn't
   • the data we need to capture about an application
   • how to allocate applications to other staff to enable them to begin first assessment.
     
2. First assessment
   
   First assessment is designed to review all applications made to ensure that they are eligible to be considered and that they broadly meet the Board's policies and priorities for funding. This step helps us to ensure that staff spend as much time as possible considering those applications that have some chance of being funded.

   Staff will normally be able to complete first assessment on the basis of information provided on the application form and accompanying documentation. They will refer to specific checks laid out in chapter 3 of this manual and in the reference manual. applications must pass all the checks in order to move on into full assessment, although it is important to note that staff must be sure that the application fails a particular check if they wish to recommend rejecting the application.

   
   If the application appears to fail any of the checks it will be passed to a manager for upward review, which will ensure that all recommended rejections have been treated fairly and in line with the Board's policies. In addition, 20% of applications that pass first assessment will be reviewed by a colleague as part of peer review (see chapter 5), which can also result in changes to recommendations.
   
   
3. Full assessment
   
   All applications that pass first assessment will then be assessed in greater detail. The general process of full assessment is discussed in chapter 4 of this manual. Staff will interview the applicant and gather and review information before awarding scores against specific criteria, which consider:
   
   
   • the organisation,
   • the project, and
   • how well the application meets the programme criteria.

   Information about scoring and the assessment criteria is included in an appendix to this manual, while specific programme priorities appear in the reference manual (and may be supplemented by local guidance).

   Staff will have to write up a report about the application and provide evidence to justify the scores that they have awarded and the overall recommendation they have made about whether the application should be funded or not.

   Once again, full assessments are subject to peer review by colleagues and upward review by managers. Chapters 4 and 5 of this manual provide further guidance about these procedures.

4. Comparative judgement and overview assessment
   
   Before fully assessed applications are passed to country committees or regional advisory panels (in England), they will be reviewed by groups of grants staff to see how well they match similar applications and overall priorities for the programme. Comparative judgement is carried out by staff who have dealt with custom sets (see chapters 2 and 5) of applications, while overview assessment will allow the team as a whole to review the applications and recommendations in order to prepare a portfolio for the regional advisory panel and/or the country committee to consider.

After assessment

Grants staff who assess applications do not decide which will and will not be funded: that is the role of regional advisory panels and country committees. However, they rely on the information recorded and interpreted by staff.

Once the country committees have made their decisions, the Board makes public announcements about successful applications. Because the information included in grants announcements is based on data provided during assessment, information about announcing grants is included in chapter 7 of this manual.

The Board also provides unsuccessful applicants with feedback. This is a new area and is subject to review and further elaboration. In general, however, you are reminded to assume that all information you record about an application will be available to the applicant. As such, you should be confident that you can stand by what you write and the decisions and recommendations that you make.

Successful applicants will be sent a grant offer letter that includes an account of what we propose to fund, what we expect them to achieve, and the conditions under which grants are made. Once decisions have been made, however, your relationship with successful applicants moves into the field of grant management and monitoring. A dedicated manual will shortly give you detailed guidance about how to manage these important aspects of your work. Should you require further information about grant management and monitoring before then, please refer to your manager and to information published on the intranet.

Information and support

The assessment and programme manuals should provide you with most of the guidance you need to undertake all aspects of assessment. These manuals, as well as questions and answers relating to assessment, will be made available to all staff via the intranet. Don't forget that your colleagues and managers will also be able to advise you about most aspects of policy and procedures. Different offices and countries will also produce local guidance to supplement the information available here. The Communications Directorate, based at corporate headquarters in Suffolk Street, will be able to give you further advice about how to record information for grants announcements. They produce the application form and pack, as well as leaflets and press releases and the Board's newsletters. You should contact the IT helpdesk if you have technical problems with the network or programmes that you use in your job. But please try to consider problems locally and to consult any available manuals if this would help resolve the matter more quickly.

Finally, your regional development officer or country policy officer can advise you on specific aspects of policy. If any problems cannot be resolved locally, please contact the corporate policy team, also based in Suffolk Street. We are responsible for overall policy guidance and support and for the production of manuals, including this one. We want to make sure that this manual meets your needs, and we can only rely upon your comments and enquiries to do so.

IT systems used in assessment

The Board makes extensive use of IT systems for grant-making. These systems enable us to:

• process applications
• keep an audit trail of the assessment process
• support RAPs and country committees in choosing which applications to fund
• schedule and control grant payments
• analyse the types of applications received and grants made
• manage the workload of specialist assessors and grants staff

There are two main systems that you will encounter in the assessment process:

1. AMI - the Assessment Management Interface
   
   This system is used by grants staff to control the passage of applications from check-in through to their submission to RAPs or committees and to record the results of all assessments. It contains information about applications made under current grants programmes.
   
   
2. PM - Portfolio Manager
   
   Portfolio Manager is designed to support the decision-making process of RAPs and country committees. It enables these groups to produce a list of grants that matches as best it can the qualitative judgement of grants staff and the corporate and local priorities of the programmes. The information that it contains is transferred directly from AMI at the end of the process. As such, the decision-making process depends on the quality and accuracy of the information you enter into AMI.

Contents - Introduction - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - Appendix: 1 - 2