BIG INTERVIEW: A hand on the purse strings - Nick Stuart, chairman, John Lyon's Charity

Education is the particular priority, with recipients ranging from theatre groups to school counselling services, to scholarships and bursaries.

And education is a subject close to the heart of the charity's chairman, Nick Stuart, who up until 2001 was director of lifelong learning at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Stuart is keen to pay tribute to the "canny" Lyon and stresses that his charity has an important role to play for London's youth - even 425 years after it was founded.

"The charity provides a lot of support to voluntary bodies such as youth clubs to help them build capacity," he says.

John Lyon's Charity was founded to maintain the Harrow and Edgware Roads.

For the past 10 years, with the Charity Commission's say-so, it has become a grant-giver, doling out money to groups for the benefit of young people in nine London boroughs. Working with the borough councils depends on developing a strong point of contact with each authority, which can help decide on projects in most need of help.

There's a clear difference between what organisations like this should be funding and those that councils should cough up for. "We should be looking for projects with a little bit of risk," says Stuart. "Local authorities and the government can't take those risks with taxpayers' money. But we're not interested in substituting our money for where the government should be putting it in."

Stuart is also better placed than most to give an opinion on Connexions.

He was one of the key figures in introducing the advice service for young people, and was even on the panel that selected Anne Weinstock as its chief executive.

"In that trite phrase, the idea behind Connexions was 'joined-up government'," he says. "It was an attempt to bring greater focus into work with young people, encompassing careers advice, youth service work, drug advice, and so on. I admire how it involves young people, even including them in the selection process for staff."

Stuart concedes it's difficult to measure how many young people Connexions has "saved", but he is sure that it is on the right lines, despite the "slow process" of developing the partnerships.

He keeps an interested eye on Connexions' progress but has plenty of other things to occupy his time since retirement from the civil service in 2001. His other roles include board membership of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and Ufi/Learndirect and vice-presidency at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.

But he admits there's quite a difference between managing 1,200 people at the DfES and just managing himself.

By most definitions, John Lyon's Charity is rich, with total funds of a little more than 114m logged on 31 March. And, says Stuart, it's weathered the downturn in the stock market better than most.

Despite this wealth, the number of projects coming forward for grants in the youth work field has declined as a proportion of the charity's overall work. "It's a mystery why," says Stuart. So he is keen to receive more applications from projects in the nine boroughs (see panel and www.johnlyonscharity.org .uk), but the projects must be "very clear about what they want to do".

He adds: "Grant-givers need well thought out proposals and indications that voluntary bodies know where they are going."

FYI

John Lyon gives grants in nine London boroughs

- Harrow Sports East: 1m for school sports

- Young Men's Initiative, Camden: 70,000

- Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: 60,000 for access programme for schools in Brent and Ealing

- Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children: 10,000 for bursaries

- Howard League for Penal Reform: 10,000 for citizenship and crime projects in schools

- Child Psychotherapy Trust: 6,000 for counselling

- The other five boroughs are Barnet, Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and the Cities of Westminster and London.