Series details: CRDA/65

The Awards Management Information System (AMIS) comprises a relational database whose primary function was to serve as a repository of information related to the administration of the Millennium Awards Scheme; recording core details of each individual project supported by the Scheme. Its main purpose was to provide a Departmental resource that would facilitate the analysis and reporting of data, as generated by the Awards Scheme.

The Millennium Awards Scheme, administered by the Millennium Commission, was launched in October 1996. As the first programme of its kind, the purpose of the Scheme was to allow individuals to benefit directly from the National Lottery by awarding them small grants known as Millennium Awards. The grants ranged between £2,000 and £5,000 and were distributed to any individuals in the UK who were able to satisfy just two key criteria ie the grant had to be used to develop personal skills in order to fulfil a personal goal, and that this goal must have a recognised benefit to the local community. Projects ranged from the setting up of youth groups on inner city estates, to leading neighbourhood clean-up projects and establishing schemes to tackle racism. 1

The Millennium Commission worked with Award Partners who comprised a number of established charities and other non-governmental grant organisations. Under the broader authority of the Commission, each Award Partner operated their own Award Scheme and was responsible for distributing the Millennium Awards. The Commission worked with over 100 Award Partners who offered Awards winners an invaluable source of internal support, knowledge and expertise in order to help see their projects to completion.

Upon successful completion of their project, an Award Winner could then qualify for membership with the Millennium Awards Fellowship. The Fellowship was established to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of Award winners and to encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences. It also provided a means of support for people who wished to continue their projects into the future. A dedicated website was set up to achieve these goals and a regular newsletter provided another forum for networking and sharing information. Previously managed by the Millennium Commission, these resources are now administered by UnLtd. 2

The Millennium Commission was responsible for administering the Millennium Awards Scheme and worked with over 100 established charities and other grant giving organisations known as Award Partners. Each Award Partner managed their own Award Scheme and distributed the Millennium Awards. From its inception until its dissolution on 30 November 2006, the Millennium Commission was dedicated to ensuring that the Awards Scheme became part of its long-term legacy. To this end, the Millennium Commission bestowed a £100 million endowment - the Millennium Awards Trust. UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs - was chosen to act as a Trustee to continue the work of the Millennium Awards Scheme by ensuring that Awards continue to be made available to future generations. For further information on the history of the Millennium Commission, see the Administrative History of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

The database provides details of all the projects supported through the Millennium Awards Scheme which was the first programme of its kind to allow individual people to benefit directly from a National Lottery grant. Projects usually lasted a year and were carried out individually or in informal groups. See the Dataset catalogue for further details of the content of this dataset.

From the first round of Lottery grants distributed in 1996 until the last Award approved in March 2004, the Millennium Awards Scheme gave out a total sum of £92.7 million. 3 During this same period, more than 32,000 successful community projects were undertaken as part of the Millennium Awards Scheme with a standard grant comprising approximately £2,000. It is claimed that the research value of the dataset is apparent in the diverse range and extent of individual grants distributed across the entire voluntary sector and throughout many varied constituencies. The dataset is also said to provide some important case studies/examples of individual projects which can encourage wider learning and exchange.4 The broader Awards Scheme has been recognised for bringing about various benefits to individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages and abilities. 5 For further information, see the Impact Study of Millennium Awards (2004), compiled by Annabel Jackson Associates. 6

Throughout the live administration of this dataset, key users of the data predominantly included the Department itself, particularly the in-house press department; in addition to some external queries for data as submitted by user groups such as researchers, local authorities and Members of Parliament.7

Selected details from the contents of the database were made available online. Users were able to make searches through the Millennium Commission website (http://www.millennium.gov.uk) and view summary details of Awards Schemes, including associated images related to individual projects. These online details were sourced directly from the Department's related 'PROFESA' database, which received regular exported updates from AMIS for such information sharing purposes. See the Millennium Commission: Grants Database (PROFESA) (CRDA/66) within the Series Catalogue.

The transfer to NDAD comprised the final set of AMIS data, prior to the Scheme being taken over by the successor body, UnLtd. Note that only one final grant figure was awaiting further amendment when the Millennium Commission disbanded (30 November 2006) and was therefore not recorded in the system nor reflected as part of the final database. For further details, see the section on 'Constraints on the reliability of the data' within the Dataset catalogue.

One-off transfer. No further accruals expected.

The Awards Database and related dataset documentation are public records under the Public Records Acts, 1958 and 1967. The National Archives has assigned the dataset and documentation the series reference RT1.

The Millennium Commission Awards Database and its related documentation are open to the public, apart from certain fields containing personal data defined within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998 (e.g. monitoring information on individual Award recipients). Under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act, these fields will remain closed for 93 years, as calculated from the date of birth of the youngest award recipient. They will be open to the public in 2098. See Links to dataset catalogues for details.

The Awards Database and most of the dataset documentation are Crown Copyright. Copies may be made for private study and research purposes only. Some documentation is subject to private copyright residing with Computercraft, the suppliers of "First Point Systems" contact management database software. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, for further details.

The data is subject to registration under the Data Protection Act,1998. Subject access is permitted in the event of a request - the procedure for which is managed by The National Archives.

The language of the materials is English.

A number of items of dataset documentation have been transferred to NDAD, further details are available in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue.

See the Millennium Commission: Grants Database (PROFESA) (CRDA/66) within the Series Catalogue. It includes overriding summary data relating to Millennium Awards Schemes, Millennium Projects and Millennium Festivals funded by the Millennium Commission using National Lottery funds.

Also see details of a related series, the National Lottery Awards Database, within the Series Catalogue for CRDA/39.

The National Archives holds records of the Millennium Commission in series MM, including Minutes and papers from 1994 in MM1; a copy of the website in MM2; and case files from 1993 in MM5.

The National Archives has taken an archive snapshot of the Millennium Commission website, since other Millennium Commission material was transferred to TNA prior to the ending of the Commission in November 2006. The website snapshot is available via the UK Web Archiving Consortium, reference PI 15128.

Lottery Monitor (http://www.lottery-monitor.com/index.html) is a key independent source of information on UK lottery funding issues and the only newsletter of its kind. Editorial covers strategies, policy and funding trends. Provides up-to-date information regarding funding programmes and initiatives; lottery statistics and supporting data to improve funding success; information on development opportunities; case examples of the success and failure of other organisations. The Monitor provides an annual analysis of lottery funding versus deprivation levels which revelas the extent to which the distributors use their funds to help correct disadvantage and social exclusion in society.

The Millennium Commission produced numerous publications about their work which were held online at http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/publications.html. Their collection includes, for example: impact studies; the Commission's annual reports; and copies of Starpeople Magazine (which profiles some of the projects Millennium Award winners have achieved). Following the dissolution of the Millennium Commission, UnLtd will assume responsibility for administering the the Fellowship website, www.starpeople.org.uk, and will also issue a quarterly magazine.

Millennium Awards Impact studies 2001-2003 (http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/publications.html): In 2001, the Millennium Commission appointed an independent research firm, Annabel Jackson Associates, to carry out a study into the social impact of Millennium Awards.

When the dataset was transferred to NDAD in 2004, the Awards Database was available to members of the Awards department and Communications department of the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) via networked PCs linked to a server (this was Dell Power Edge running MS Windows 2000). Limited access was also provided to the IS team of the DCMS.

The Awards Database operated within a client server environment of Dell Optiplex, running MS Windows 2000 Professional. The server environment comprised Dell Power Edge running MS Windows 2000.

The Awards Database was developed as a client server application and held within a software package called "First Point of Contact". First Point is a contact management package that uses Microsoft Access. The dataset operated using two Microsoft Access (97) databases linked together. One of the databases stored the application, whilst the other stored the data.

The AMIS database operated using two Microsoft Access databases linked together. One of the databases stored the application, whilst the other stored the data. Both databases were stored on the network drive, but users had a copy of the application stored locally on the hard drive of their desktop PC.

The System Administrator had access to the server copies of the application database in order to make adjustments to the system. In the event that an adjustment was made to the system, then it was necessary for users to copy the database from the server to their C drive.

The AMIS system was accessible to all members of the Awards department as well as members of the Communications department within the Millennium Commission. Limited access was also provided to the IS team.

Data input onto AMIS occurred via the FP application form screen. For further details on data capture and validation, see How data was originally captured and validated.

Specific details on how key records were created, processed and updated within the system, including procedures for processing individual award applications (ie pre-panel processing), are contained within the AMIS User Guide held in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/65/DD/1/1.

The AMIS database operated using two Microsoft Access databases linked together with one of the databases storing the application, whilst the other stored the data. The FPDATA access file has 126 tables, 9 queries, 1 report and 1 macro. The FPAPP access file has 252 tables, 1033 queries, 252 forms, 347 reports, 82 macros and 7 modules.

While all front-end and back-end data from the original AMIS system is permanently preserved by NDAD, only a selection of application data is being made available via the online catalogue. For further details, see the 'Digital processing and conversion' section within the CRDA/65/DS/1 dataset catalogue: Links to dataset catalogues.

In the FPDATA file, 37 tables are empty. In the FPAPP file, 101 tables are merely direct links to the FPDATA database. Many tables in the accession have apparently been generated by users running a query on the FPDATA, and then saving the results as a table in the FPAPP side.

AMIS 2.0 was a bespoke database built in MS Access v2.0. It was replaced by AMIS 3.0 in March 2000 and data transfer was arranged by Computercraft, the designers of First Point.

The Awards Database was dynamic, in the sense that updated information about the status of an award scheme could be entered on the system via the regular updates received by DCMS from the Award Partners thereby overwriting data previously received.

Data was input via the FP application form screen. This included a radio button with options to locate a person/or organisation as well as command buttons with the following options: mailing lists; reports; projects; more options [eg addresses; audit alert list; award amounts update; awards panel results; cashflow check; cashflow unlocking etc]. Overall, the data input module comprised a number of Access forms based upon the core functions available within the contact mangement system. The interface also provided access to lookup selection lists. In addition to data entry forms, the application provided components for data querying, reporting (bespoke reports; List reports and Statistical/Financial reports) and the ability to activate macros.

All information regarding Award partners and Award schemes was entered into AMIS via the application database within two weeks of Commission approval for the Scheme being given, with the exception of a full breakdown of the approved budget. Data was input from information submitted by partner organisations. Information on individuals was validated via the production of reports and monthly data cleaning exercises.

For further information on data capture and validation, see the "Procedures for the Management of Award Scheme Data" within the AMIS User Guide (Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/65/DD/1/1, page 1).

Details of the content and transformation validation checks performed by NDAD staff on the Awards dataset are contained in the catalogues of individual datasets: see Links to dataset catalogues.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. Millennium Commission website (http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/how_we_work.html), consulted on 29 September 2004.

2. Ibid.

3. Annabel Jackson Associates, 'Impact Study of Millennium Awards - To the Millennium Commission', Millennium Commission Publications - Millennium Commission website, (2004) (http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/publications.html), consulted on 16 February 2007 (p. 10).

4. Note of communication from the Millennium Commission to NDAD on 27 September 2004.

5. Millennium Commission, 'Starpeople Magazine' [The Millennium Commission Magazine], Millennium Commission Publications - Millennium Commission website, Issue 18 (Spring 2004) (http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/magazine.html), consulted on 16 February 2007 (pp. 16-17).

6. Annabel Jackson Associates, 'Impact Study of Millennium Awards - To the Millennium Commission', Millennium Commission Publications - Millennium Commission website, (2004) (http://www.millennium.gov.uk/about/publications.html), consulted on 16 February 2007.

7. Note of communication from the Millennium Commission to NDAD on 27 September 2004.