Countryside stewardship facilitation fund: manual for agreements starting on 1 june 2022 - 10 monitoring progress, evidence and record keeping - guidance

10 MONITORING PROGRESS, EVIDENCE AND RECORD KEEPING You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section as these are mandatory for all Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund

Agreement holders. We are required to make sure that Countryside Stewardship and the Facilitation Fund are properly controlled in order to protect public money. To support this, we will

undertake administrative checks and site visits to monitor your (Facilitator’s) compliance with the rules governing your agreements. We can undertake three main checks: * administrative

record checks * agreement monitoring checks * site visits. You must allow us (or our authorised representatives or auditors) to access your land or premises to carry out site visits. Other

UK public authorities may also visit you. You must help and co-operate with any person carrying out a site visit. Any refusal to do so or obstruction will be treated as a breach of your

terms and conditions, and you may face recovery of funds, suspension, or termination of your agreement. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD CHECKS We’ll check all stages of the application and claim

processes, including your application form, claim forms and where appropriate, the nature and quality of any supporting evidence, such as receipts and assessment forms. This is to make sure

that you meet eligibility requirements at the application stage, and that your forms and records match up throughout the agreement period. If you do not provide records when asked, or there

are discrepancies, we will treat this as a breach of your agreement. It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on this to support your claim. AGREEMENT MONITORING

CHECKS As part of the administrative checks on claims, we select a percentage of claims to carry out follow-up checks of Facilitator records. Therefore, we may ask you to send us copies of

records for us to check. SITE VISITS Each year, we will carry out site visits on a number of agreements to make sure environmental aims are being delivered and scheme requirements have been

met. You must follow the requirements set out in your agreement and keep any records that are necessary to support your claim. If we find any discrepancies during the site visit, we may have

to apply reductions to your grant funds. 10.1 WHEN EVIDENCE IS REQUIRED You must obtain and keep evidence to show that you’ve carried out all the requirements of your agreement to support

your claim or to support a site visit. You must also keep evidence that you are eligible for the scheme. Your evidence must show that: * you are eligible for the scheme * the activities

funded under your agreement are appropriate * the funded activity is taking or has taken place. We need you to do this so that we can show that public money is being spent effectively and is

delivering the intended results. You must keep any required evidence and supporting documents and have them available on request. 10.2 EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR APPLICATION You must keep

evidence to show that you, the business, the land, and all consumable items are eligible. You may have to show this if you are chosen for a site visit. Some of your evidence including

references, maps and group member forms must be submitted with your application. Other supporting evidence such as your group agreement should be kept by you as we may ask to see it as part

of our checks. You should keep copies of all supporting documents for the duration of your agreement and for seven years following the end date of your agreement. For more information, read

the ‘Terms and Conditions’ at Section 15. Read Step 4 ‘Supporting documents’ in Section 4 ‘How to Apply’ of this manual for the supporting evidence you need to have in order to support your

application. 10.3 DURING THE AGREEMENT PERIOD You may also need to supply evidence to show that you have carried out required actions such as: * to support a claim. Where relevant,

information will be sent with the claim form covering letter. For more information, read Section 10.5 ‘Evidence in support of a claim’. * during or after an administrative check, an

inspection, or other checks. 10.4 AFTER THE AGREEMENT PERIOD The ‘Terms and Conditions’ at Section 15 state that you must keep all invoices, receipts, accounts, and any other relevant

documents relating to the expenditure of grant funds for at least seven years from the end of your agreement. If we find that the eligibility criteria are no longer being met, your agreement

may end, and funds may be recovered. 10.5 EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF A CLAIM Each claim for payment will require evidence of the progress made against each delivery milestone. All applicants in

receipt of funds should provide invoices, timesheets, and payslips, accompanied by completed BACs runs (if applicable) and bank statements. Bank statements must show that payment of

expenses linked to those invoices occurred on a date prior to the date of your claim. You must have this evidence in support of each and every item you claim grant funds for. If we find any

evidence missing from your claim, we will contact you. You will be given 10 working days to submit this information to us. If it is not received, we will remove the associated funds from

your claim. Members will need to complete an evaluation form after each session held with a Facilitator to give feedback on the value of the session. We may request copies of these

evaluation sheets. 10.5.1 EVIDENCE OF SPEND You must give evidence of all spending you’re planning to claim for. Some examples of evidence include: * invoices - where copies of, or

electronic invoices are provided in support of your claim, the original invoice must be kept for evidence purposes. We may request to see a sample of your invoices to compare against copies

you’ve provided during site visits. Invoices must also be provided as evidence of overhead expenditure, such as bills for heating, lighting, room hire, refreshments, stamps, consumables etc.

* breakdown of travel & subsistence * receipts * signed Facilitation Fund timesheets (you must use the template available on GOV.UK) evidencing: * duration * dates * issues covered *

time spent on preparation * details of costs * staff costs, with separate calculations for each staff member where appropriate * payslips (where Facilitator and/or staff are employed by a

company) * receipts from any sub-contractors, including evidence they were selected in a fair and open way and were the best value for money. 10.5.2 BANK STATEMENTS AS EVIDENCE OF PAYMENT

Proof of payments should be from bank statements or certified copies of bank statements. This means evidence that is clearly and directly generated from your bank’s own system. Acceptable

evidence includes screen shots from an online account with necessary payment details and showing the bank logos. Key elements that should appear on the bank statement, whether online or hard

copy are: * bank’s name and logo * account holder name * sort code * transaction date * transaction type (including payee ref/cheque no) * transaction amount * date bank evidence generated.

We’ll also accept a printed report from a banking system that despite not clearly showing it has been generated by a banking system, can be verified by your bank. 10.5.3 PAY SLIPS Pay slips

and BACS evidence must be provided alongside bank statements. Pay slips must contain sufficient detail to link the payment to your other payment evidence, although sensitive personal

information should always be redacted (covered up). We will accept P60s as evidence for salary payments. If the person remains employed for a project under the same terms in a subsequent

year, you can use a P60 from a previous year if verified at the end of the year. Proof of payment for national insurance contributions, pension contributions and income tax must also be

supplied. If payslips are generated from an organisation in a general electronic format i.e. without a logo or other branded and identifiable features, they can still be accepted as

supporting evidence. However, they must be formally verified by us as an official payslip during site visits. It is important that the evidence you supply is from a system that cannot be

manipulated or falsified. Excel spreadsheets and screenshots of payroll information for example, are considered open to manipulation and will therefore not be accepted. 10.6 ANNUAL REPORT As

Facilitator, you must provide an annual report which draws on the quarterly reports. This report should identify what is being done differently and the effect this is having on the ground.

Natural England use this information in case studies for monitoring and evaluation purposes. 10.7 PUBLICITY The ‘Terms and Conditions’ at Section 15 require you to comply with all

instructions, the scheme manual and any guidance relating to acknowledging and publicising the support provided. This includes using any materials or templates which are provided for this

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