1 Scheme Overview
Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund provides funding to Facilitation groups to work together to improve and protect the environment.
The Countryside Stewardship (CS) Facilitation Fund supports Facilitators (either individuals or organisations) who work with farmers, foresters, and other land managers to improve and protect the local natural environment through agri-environment schemes, supported by training.
Eligible land for the scheme includes:
- land under existing agri environment and forestry/woodland agreements
- common land
- land that is not currently under agreement.
Successful applicants will be those who can show a partnership or group, working together across holdings, to deliver shared environmental results that could not be achieved by individuals acting on their own.
Groups can consist of farmers, foresters, or land managers in any or no agri-environment scheme. From 2022 group members, if eligible, will be able to join the new environmental land management schemes as they become available.
Applications will be assessed on delivering good value for money in line with domestic strategic priorities.
To qualify for the scheme, your group will need to take on activities that are new to them or, for an existing group, undertake activities which support a new priority for the group. This would include, where required:
- using any new knowledge or expertise provided to operate in a different way. For example, aligning the management activities across different parts of the holdings, to deliver at a landscape scale, rather than a single-farm scale.
Facilitators work with their group members over the course of three years to:
- develop cooperation between the group members
- interpret the CS statements of priorities
- provide guidance to group members when they need help to submit individual (but supporting) CS applications for land management and capital items
- agree the CS priorities that group members plan to take forward across their holdings from the CS statements of priorities
- endorse any CS applications made as per individual scheme rules to show they are consistent with the group’s agreed objectives. Facilitators can claim for up to two hours to endorse CS applications submitted in line with the CS Priorities.
Facilitators will also:
- support group members by using the relevant skills and expertise required to deliver the CS priorities. Where Facilitators are not qualified to provide this, they should purchase (procure) it from others
- suggest, make and keep links with local partnerships and initiatives, as well as Defra delivery bodies, to make sure the group is carrying out work that complements the local actions of these partnerships and initiatives. We will ask you to tell us about this when you make your claim.
- provide information to Natural England and the Rural Payments Agency to show what the group is doing differently through joined up working, and the difference this is making in the delivery of CS priorities.
Group members must have management control of the relevant land parcels for a minimum of three years from the agreement start date. If they do not have full control of the land, they must get written consent from all other parties who have management control of the land to cover the entire period of the Facilitation Fund. For more information, read Section 4 ‘How to Apply’, step 4 ‘Supporting Documents’ and refer to the section on the Group member form.
If your application includes someone who is a tenant of a public body, you’ll need to confirm with their landowner if the land is eligible to be included. They can still become a non-funded group member and receive training, but you will not be able to claim funds for them. Evidence of this will be requested on the Group Member form which must be completed along with the application form.
Countryside Stewardship will not pay for any environmental management that is already required through:
- payment from Exchequer funds
- grant aid from any other public body.
This means that Crown bodies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) are not eligible for the scheme. This includes those that are Trading Funds and those that do not receive funds direct from the Exchequer.
Crown bodies include all government departments and their executive agencies, for example:
- Ministry of Defence
- Forestry Commission.
NDPBs are public bodies that have a role in the processes of national government but are not a government department and are not part of one. These include:
- Environment Agency
- Natural England
- Historic England
- National Forest Company.
Public bodies can work with a group where public land adjoins, or is connected to a group’s area, but the following restrictions will apply:
- their holdings must not be used for the group to fulfil the minimum number or area requirements for Facilitation Funds
- they won’t be eligible for the £500 per member uplift.
Parish councils and former college farms are not considered to be public bodies and are eligible to apply for Countryside Stewardship.
The table below gives details of the eligibility criteria for public bodies.
| Body/Organisation | Eligibility | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Government departments, executive agencies and NDPBs (for example, Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission) | Ineligible | Not applicable |
| Other public bodies (for example, local authorities, National Park authorities and public corporations) | Eligible | Provided the work does not form part of their obligations as a public body |
| Parish Councils and former college farms | Eligible | Not applicable |
| Tenants of eligible public Bodies | Eligible | Ineligible where the work is already a requirement of the tenancy agreement. The public body must countersign the application if the tenant does not have security of tenure |
| Tenants of ineligible public bodies | Eligible | Ineligible where the work is already a requirement of the tenancy agreement. Tenants must have security of tenure for the full term of the agreement, including the durability requirement, as the public body cannot countersign the application. |