Small Charities Challenge Fund Project Completion Report (PCR)

grant holder guidance

Contents

Small Charities Challenge Fund Project Completion Report (PCR) grant holder guidance......... 1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 2
Project Completion Report process ....................................................................................... 2
Templates and guidance ........................................................................................................ 2
Submission ............................................................................................................................. 2
Review and feedback.............................................................................................................. 3
Completing the Project Completion Report (PCR) – a step-by-step guide ................................. 3
1. Grant information ........................................................................................................... 3
2. Beneficiary Data Summary .............................................................................................. 4
3. a) Achievement against outcome targets........................................................................ 4
3.1 Scoring outcomes .................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Means of verification ............................................................................................... 5
3.3 Over/under achievement......................................................................................... 5
3. b) Overall outcome assessment ...................................................................................... 6
4. Achievement against output target................................................................................. 6
5. Understanding project impact ........................................................................................ 6
6. Learning ........................................................................................................................... 7
7. Social Inclusion ................................................................................................................ 8
8. Risk .................................................................................................................................. 8
9. Safeguarding.................................................................................................................... 9
10. Sustainability................................................................................................................ 9
11. Value for money ........................................................................................................ 10
12. Capacity Building ....................................................................................................... 12
13. Fiduciary Management .............................................................................................. 12
13.1 Asset Disposal ........................................................................................................ 12
14. Feedback to fund manager ........................................................................................ 13
15. Project Completion Report checklist ......................................................................... 13

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Introduction
Small Charities Challenge Fund grant holders are required to complete a ‘Project Completion Report’
(PCR) within three months of the end of the project. The process enables grant holders to: evaluate
project performance against objectives, draw conclusions on how interventions have worked, reflect
on lessons learned, and consider recommendations for future programming.

The project completion process is intended to support grant holders to:

Communicate what their UK Aid Direct grant has achieved
Establish a record of project achievement against original outcome and outputs
Draw conclusions and lessons learnt to inform future work
Contribute to learning on emerging results
Check compliance with the terms and conditions of the grant.

Project Completion Report process

This document outlines what the project completion process involves, key requirements and
guidance, alongside a simple checklist for completing the project completion report. The diagram
below illustrates the project completion process:

• Templates and guidance

These will be shared with grant holders three months prior to project end date.
Step One

• Report submission
All documentation is required within three months of the project end date.
Step Two

• Review and feedback

The performance management team will review all documentation and share feedback within 6-8 weeks
Step
following submission.
Three

• Project completion
Step Four A letter will be issued once all aspects of the Project Completion Report (PCR) are signed off.

Templates and guidance

All information and guidance related to project completion reporting (PCR) is available on the UK Aid
Direct website in the grant holder guidance section. Beyond this guidance, links to useful guides and
resources can be found embedded in this document.

Submission

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All documentation for the PCR (including supporting documents) needs to be submitted to your
Performance and Risk Manager, copying ukaiddirect@manniondaniels.com. Please do not upload
these documents to SMILE.

All files should be named and shared, following the convention below:
Grant holder name (or abbreviated name) _name of document_reference
number_MMYYY

Do not PDF any submitted documents. It is also important that files are submitted in the same
format that they originally are shared.

Following submission, the performance management team will conduct an initial review of
submitted documentation to ensure completeness. If there are any missing documents, a member
of the fund management team will be in touch to rectify this.

Review and feedback

The performance management team will conduct a review and assessment of all documentation
submitted. If during this review, there is need for any clarification, your Performance and Risk
Manager will be in touch.

Following the review, a feedback letter will be shared providing a comprehensive, technical and
financial assessment of project achievements.

Completing the Project Completion Report (PCR) – a step-by-step

guide
This provides a step-by-step guide for completing the PCR narrative report covering each section of
the report.

1. Grant information

This section covers the grant overview and must be completed accurately and in full. Note that
section 1.10 ‘Project summary’ should be written after completing the rest of the report to allow for
thorough and holistic reflection of the project achievements. See below for an example ‘Project
summary’.

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Project summary example:

The goal of the project was to reduce alcohol abuse among the youth in Uweco village. Illegal alcohol
abuse by young people was identified as a major problem and was attributed to high dropout rates from
secondary schools among students in the area. To achieve this, the project worked to reduce access to
alcohol and increase parents’ engagement in school activities. We conducted community outreach
activities that emphasised the dangers of alcohol abuse and worked with the relevant authorities to hold
to account any businesses selling alcohol to the youth. We also trained teachers and parents on
parent/family involvement approaches to strengthen the parents’ connection to their children’s school
activities.

At the end of the project, police reports revealed that there has been a reduction in incidents reported
on alcohol abuse by the youth – only two cases reported in the last 18 months compared to the baseline
where at least two youth alcohol abuse incidents were reported on a daily basis. Following the training
of the students, the schools also reported improved positive school behaviour and academic
achievement. The parents and family members trained also reported a change in attitude towards
involvement in student’s school activities to enhance positive behaviour in schools.

2. Beneficiary Data Summary

This section relates to the Beneficiary Data Summary, which is a separate excel document containing
total beneficiaries reached, and data disaggregated by gender, age, disability and other key
population characteristics. This template is the same used for six-monthly progress reporting.
Download the Beneficiary Data Summary from SMILE and update the Project Completion Report tab.
Ensure data is provided for the entire duration of the project. Refer to the ‘data summary’ tab to
reflect on data management and collection.

Data management and collection – key considerations

Were you able to collect relevant data to evidence the project achievements?

Reflect on whether the approaches to sampling provided representative information and

evidence

Did the approaches to data disaggregation work effectively? What challenges were
experienced and how were these overcome?

Reflect on the methods used to analyse the data and the extent to which this information has
been used to inform programming. Has this information been shared beyond the project?

3. a) Achievement against outcome targets

This section encourages reflection on achievement of outcome indicators by reviewing performance

against the target for each outcome indicator. When completing, add or delete as necessary to
ensure all outcome indicators in the approved results framework are reported against.

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For each outcome indicator, copy the indicator information from the approved Results Framework.
This includes the indicator title, final milestone target, and achieved figures. For each indicator, grant
holders must provide a self-assessed score, provide evidence of data verification, and explain any
over or under achievement of the target.

3.1 Scoring outcomes

For each indicator, provide a self-assessed score using the below guidance. This will be reviewed and
validated by the performance management team, and it is therefore important to provide robust
evidence of this achievement.

Score Outcome description

A++ Outcome substantially exceeded expectation, where the milestone has been
exceeded by 20% or more
A+ Outcome moderately exceeded expectation, where the milestone has been exceeded
by more than 10% but less than 20%
A Outcome met expectations, where the milestone has been achieved by +/- 10%
B Outcome moderately did not meet expectation, where the milestone has been
underachieved by more than 10% but less than 20%
C Outcome substantially did not meet expectation, where the milestone has been
underachieved by more than 20% or there is insufficient data available

Scoring example: The target was to enrol 50 children into vocational courses to attend training for
a minimum of six months. Data indicates that 48 enrolled however, three dropped out and only 45
attended training for the full six-month period. This outcome would therefore score an ‘A’ - this is
because the 45/50 target achieved is 90%, hence milestone has been achieved by +/- 10%.

3.2 Means of verification

It is essential that achievements are supported by robust and credible data. For each outcome
indicator, outline the data sources used to verify the results presented.

Means of verification example: to evidence that 45 children were enrolled into vocational courses
and attended training for a minimum of six months, enrolment data has been provided alongside
attendance sheets. To evidence the quality of the vocational courses, a feedback survey was
conducted with all students indicating that 80% of students who completed a course felt confident to
access employment opportunities. Furthermore, trainers grade students at the end of the course and
all students completing the course were graded ‘B’ or above.

3.3 Over/under achievement

It is important to reflect on why indicators may be over or under achieved to support future
programming and learning. In this section, provide a brief analysis as illustrated in the example
below.

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Analysis of over/under achievement example: The project enrolled 50 children but three dropped
out due to family commitments. This represents a 10% underachievement. These three children
attended on average 50% of the course. One fell pregnant and was unable to continue, and a further
two experienced changes in family circumstances and were required to stay home. These were all
female students and future programme should consider engaging parents and family members at an
early stage in the project, on the importance of supporting students to complete the course. This could
involve communicating the longer-term benefits of the courses and using role models to share
experience within the community.

3. b) Overall outcome assessment

An overall outcome assessment is required based on the outcome indicator assessments. Reflect on
the progress made for each outcome indicator and assess overall achievement. This should be a
balanced judgement based on findings reported.

4. Achievement against output target

This section requires your Results Framework to be updated to include the ‘achieved’ column. For
each output, outline the achieved data. This should be supported by the information and data
provided in the Beneficiary Data Summary.

5. Understanding project impact

This section requires reflection on the overall impact of the project, considering the intended
objectives and approach to achieve these. In this section, reflect on:

5.1 Change achieved

Based on outcome and output level assessment, has the project achieved what was
intended?

Reflect on the beneficiary data and outline who has benefitted and why

At this final stage of the project, reflect on the change that has been achieved.

5.2 Project approach

Reflect on why the interventions used were selected and consider if they led to the
anticipated change

5.3 Adaptive management

Reflect on what changes to the approach were made during implementation and why

Based on the data now, what changes might be appropriate for future programming.

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6. Learning

Reflection and learning are important to establish how well the project has performed and should
inform future programming. In this section, analyse and reflect on the learnings the project has had
over the implementing period.

Reflect on the key achievements and challenges, and consider what factors contributed to these. It is
important to consider:

Whether activities had the intended outcomes and reflect on any unintended outcomes
there might have been
Operational processes and procedures involving delivery of outputs
Working with certain downstream partners, project teams or other stakeholders
How challenges were mitigated.

6.3 Beneficiary Feedback (BFM)

Learning from beneficiaries through beneficiary feedback mechanisms (BFM) is a key element of
project delivery and adaptive management. Through consistent interaction beneficiary feedback
promotes project relevance and accountability. In this section, describe the ways you have collected
and used feedback providing specific examples and reflecting on how this influenced project impact
and accountability.

BFM example: Through monthly community discussion meetings we sought feedback, not only from
direct beneficiaries of the project, but also the wider community on how the project was progressing.
Originally, these were mass gatherings of all community members, however we found that women
were not very vocal, and feedback was only received from men. As such, we quickly adapted to host
two separate community discussion meetings, one for women and one for men. This led to
significantly more feedback from both groups.

The feedback received was used to adapt the project. For instance, the community suggested that
we consider distributing a new breed of goats -“galla goats” - as opposed to the local breeds.
Following consultation with technical experts, we were advised that “galla goats” perform well in hot
and drought-ridden areas and have higher milk potential over the local breed. We therefore adapted
the project based on this feedback to offer “gall goats” and as a result, reduced the kid mortality rate
in the project from four kids reported in the first three months to none. Beneficiaries also enjoyed
higher milk production from one litre per day to three litres per day per goat.

6.4 Communications
Use this section to share project-specific case studies that exemplify what the project has achieved.
Ensure that the case study is clearly structured, briefly outlining:

What the problem was

How it was addressed

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The results, including any problems encountered and how they were overcome.

Provide images or videos to accompany the case study. Please try to include evidence or statistics on
the impact or the change. Please try to also provide a personal story from beneficiaries which
exemplifies the bigger picture story of the project.

Additional guidance

UK Aid Direct grant holder Communications Handbook on the UK Aid Direct website

7. Social Inclusion

This section should analyse how the project has identified and targeted the most marginalised and
vulnerable beneficiaries during the project life, with emphasis on disability inclusion and gender
equality. It is important to consider:
How the project consulted the most marginalised and vulnerable groups to ensure equal
access to project activities. Please note that access does not only refer to physical access for
individuals with mobility challenges. It is important to consider all forms of marginalisation.
How the project has promoted greater gender equality during the project life
How people with disabilities have engaged in the project and accessed project benefits
(again, please note that access does not only refer to physical access)
How the project has adapted activities or interventions to ensure equal access and
opportunity for the most vulnerable and marginalised populations.

Provide practical examples and reflect on the impact of these strategies to consider how well they
have worked and any unintended outcomes.

Disability inclusion example: We supported families to feel that their children with disabilities were
safe both within the context of the community and the school. We worked closely with the church
and community leaders to challenge attitudes and help breakdown social barriers. For instance, in
Ethiopian culture it is important to drink coffee with people, and a coffee ceremony shows you are a
part of the community. Parents of disabled children were empowered to offer coffee to other
people in their rural communities as a way of helping breakdown social barriers. Through this
approach we were able to target and work with individuals that were not identified before.

8. Risk

This section looks to understand how the project has understood, reported and mitigated against
risk during the project life. This should be written in conjunction with a review and update of both
the project’s Risk Register and Delivery Chain Risk Map.
In the narrative report, outline any key changes to project and delivery chain risks, and how this has
impacted on risk mitigation. Top tips for reviewing the risk register:
Ensure the ‘what’s changed’ column is fully updated, with dates
Review the risk ratings to ensure they remain appropriate and align with FCDO’s likelihood
versus impact matrix (available in the risk register template).

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Reflect on the mitigation strategies and how well these have worked.

Additional guidance

Watch our webinar on YouTube, completing your risk register

What is the difference between the risk register and delivery chain risk map?
The risk register should capture all risks that the project faced across the six Foreign, Commonwealth *
Development Office (FCDO) risk categories: context, fiduciary, reputational, safeguarding, operational,
delivery. These are risks that, if materialised, would have impacted on project implementation. The
delivery chain risk map captures the structure of the delivery chain. For example, the lead grant holder
and any downstream partners delivering project activities. Any risks associated with working with and
delivering with these downstream partners need to be captured in the delivery chain map diagram. These
risks may not have necessarily impacted on the overall delivery of the project, like project level risks

9. Safeguarding

In this section, detail activities conducted during the project life to support compliance with the
enhanced safeguarding standards. FCDO’s enhanced safeguarding standards involve:
Whistleblowing
Risk management
Human Resource
Code of Conduct
Governance and accountability.

For example, policies may have been updated or capacity building support or inductions for new
staff, delivered. This should also include activities with field workers, beneficiaries and other
community members.

Reflect on whether safeguarding policies and strategies worked, or not, and why. If any updates to
the policy have been made during project life, submit this with the report and outline the key
changes that have been made.

Additional guidance

Watch our safeguarding webinar on YouTube

Read FCDO’s safeguarding guidance on the UK Aid Direct website.

10. Sustainability

Sustainability is about how a project has achieved impacts that will continue beyond Foreign,
Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) funding. This section of the narrative is an
opportunity to reflect on this and to assess whether the plan for sustainability has worked during the

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project life. Reflect on what has been done to promote sustainability and provide evidence of how
well these strategies have (or have not) worked.

It is important to specifically consider what has been done and the evidence for the below
approaches to sustainability:
Economic sustainability: how will the project lead to greater economic empowerment and
reduce poverty?
Environmental sustainability: how does the project assess its environmental impact? What
measures have been undertaken to reduce climate impact? What is the impact of the
project on the environment?
Social sustainability: how has the project worked to optimise quality of life? How has the
project affected cultural behaviour change?

Sustainability example: To ensure sustainability, we worked closed with government health care
workers to build up their skills in maternal health and share information from the community on the
need for different services. We trained 100 health care workers in government health facilities on how
to use the methods and tools. We also conducted a survey in the local communities to understand the
challenges with existing service provision, which we then presented to the Chairmen of the county
government who has committed to continue efforts to improve the service.

11. Value for money

Value for money (VfM) is about maximising the impact of each pound spent to improve the lives and
livelihoods of the world’s poorest people. The purpose of addressing VfM at project completion is to
provide clarity on the costs invested in the project against the results achieved. In this section,
conduct a value for money assessment of the project against the ‘4 E’s’ detailed below. It is
important to consider project impact, relevance and validity, and provide examples in the response.

Economy: Spending reasonably

Efficiency: Spending well
Effectiveness: Spending wisely

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Equity: Spending fairly

Value for money (VfM) example:

Economy
Staff and training costs have been the key cost drivers on this project. Through our HR policy, we can
demonstrate that salaries for national staff were competitive for the sector and were also
benchmarked against national and regional scales. We retained our staff throughout the entire
project which has been a key driver of our success. Our local staff maximised delivery quality, and
ensured the programme adapted well to local culture in a challenging environment with knowledge of
the context. Our procurement policy not only ensured that goods and services were of the desired
quality and cost, but also, savings from well-managed procurement were calculated and disseminated
towards project activities. We were able to share data between our projects and could therefore
compare costs and provide economies of scale across the organisation.

Efficiency
With a well-considered strategic vision, annual plans and an established and quality HR policy, we
have been able to operate efficiently as an organisation managing the project. Strong management
information and accounting systems, and a commitment to learn from experience helped the project
to capture data, analyse, learn and share with the wider organisation. As part of the design process, a
realistic budget and work plan were developed which were reviewed on a monthly basis to assess
progress and make appropriate adjustments in consultation with the PRM. Alongside this, the risk
register was reviewed monthly with appropriate risk management processes in place to allow the
identification and mitigation of key risks. For instance, the change in civil servants was noted three
months prior to changes and appropriate actions were taken to ensure key relationships were
maintained such as meeting with other key government personnel and disseminating information
about the project impact more widely within the Ministerial department.

Effectiveness
The project design was strong, built on a previous learning, including an independent, high quality
evaluation and reflected our organisational strategy. We had a rolling strategic vision, and the
trustees and management thought carefully about the resource implications of this regularly. Because
of this, the project workplan and budget were realistic, achievable and tied to the resource plans,
meaning we were able to deliver on time, within budget and achieve expected performance. Activities
were adapted, in consultation with the PRM, when needed to respond to changes in context. A
specific example of this was where there was the lack of finance to support women's income
generating activity, which required the approach to be adapted through forming village savings and
loan associations. The learning from this informed the design of a donor-funded 5-year programme to
operate in the Plateau State of Nigeria.

Equity
The project design ensured that all activities contributed to helping marginalised women, either directly
through training and support to improve their income, or indirectly through working with men to
change attitudes. The programme's disability inclusion approach ensured that that women and girls
with disabilities were specifically targeted. We used Washington Group Short Set Questions and
household surveys, triangulated with a participatory rural appraisal approach specifically adapted to
our context, to ensure we were not leaving the most marginalised behind.

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Additional guidance

UK Aid Direct webinar on VfM on YouTube

UK Aid Direct guidance to VfM on UK Aid Direct website.

12. Capacity Building

This section focuses on how organisational capacity has developed or changed over the project life
and how the project has connected with any other UK Aid Direct grant holders or other civil society
organisations during the project period for cross learnings.

It is important to go beyond a description of the capacity building activities delivered and to

consider:

How you measured the effectiveness of the capacity building?

How you demonstrate the impact from the capacity building interventions?
What change has happened because of the capacity building?

Please also consider how the grant has impacted the organisation.

Capacity building example: During the project implementation period we carried out various
trainings for staff on gender and disability inclusion. This was a new training topic for staff members,
and it was interesting to hear their different experiences with gender inequality and disability
inclusion. The team felt able to share their experience and this led to enhanced understanding and
collaboration, both within the team and when working with community members.

13. Fiduciary Management

Alongside the review of technical performance, a financial review will take place. This will involve a
review of cumulative spend to ensure budget threshold tolerances have not been breached and that
there are no significant variances. This does not require any further submissions from grant holders.

In this section of the narrative report, grant holders are required to submit annual audited accounts
and an updated asset inventory.

13.1 Asset Disposal

Any project assets over £500 in value, are considered FCDO assets and at the end of the project
require a disposal plan. Grant holders can request to transfer the assets to the grant holder, delivery
partner or suitable third party. It should not be automatically assumed that project assets will
remain with the local partners after completion of the grant.

Refer to the UK Aid Direct Asset disposal guidance on the UK Aid Direct website for detailed
information. To request asset transfer, grant holders must submit:

Signed asset register (listing all assets valued over £500)

A depreciation policy
Asset transfer letter

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The performance management team will share additional information three months prior to project
completion and request that to support smooth project completion process, grant holders submit
the asset disposal plan and request three months before the project end date, to allow for
submission to FCDO.

13.2 Annual audited accounts

It is a requirement of the grant arrangement to submit audited or independently examined annual
accounts within six months of the organisation's financial year end. If these have not yet been
shared, submit them with this report. If they are not yet ready, note when they will be expected in
the report.

14. Feedback to fund manager

It is useful for the fund manager to receive grant holder feedback to strengthen the support and
guidance provided. Please be honest and provide constructive feedback, suggestions or requests to
the fund management team.

15. Project Completion Report checklist

Document Key information / guidance links

1 Narrative Report (Word Complete the full template and use the checklist to confirm all
document) supporting documents are submitted.

2 Beneficiary Data Summary
(Excel document)
3 Completed results
Framework
4 Case studies and
photographs
5 Updated risk register
6 Updated delivery chain risk
map
7 Safeguarding policy (if
applicable)
8 Updated asset inventory
and disposal plan
9 Most recent annual
audited accounts
Using the project specific version from SMILE. Ensure all data submitted
correlates and is robust.
Using the approved version from SMILE, submit an updated results
framework with the ‘achieved’ section populated for output data.
Submit a minimum of one quality case study.
Download from SMILE and update the risk register, reflecting on the
Project Completion Report (PCR) assessment and findings.
Download from SMILE and update the delivery chain risk map,
reflecting on the PCR assessment and findings.
Submit an updated safeguarding policy if a review has been undertaken
after the previous report review.
Update and submit the asset inventory and disposal plan. This can be
submitted before your PCR.
Submit audited/ independently examined annual accounts within six
months of the organisation's financial year end.

If you have any questions about the completion of your reporting requirements, please contact your
Performance and Risk Manager.

UK Aid Direct