Department For Culture Media Sport
Summary of grant funding
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) intends to provide a circa 1.5 million grant to an organisation or consortium of organisations to act as a delivery partner for the Adventures Away From Home Fund up to 31 March 2024.
The fund aims to provide bursaries for up to 7,500 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.
The final selection of a delivery partner will be made by a panel appointed by DCMS, using the assessment criteria set out in the Assessment section.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 Wednesday 18 October 2023
Purpose
Fund overview
The outdoor learning sector provides numerous benefits for young people, which is why the government has announced adventures away from home as a key component of the National Youth Guarantee. This fund will deliver bursaries for approximately 7,500 young people aged 11-18 and up to age 25 for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who are experiencing hardship or are otherwise vulnerable, and are therefore underrepresented in the sector.
Two of the biggest concerns for young people are their mental health and their desire to have something to do in their local area. Whilst the outdoor sector provides worthwhile opportunities for young people, there are barriers to attendance which disproportionately affect certain groups of young people. Attendance can be hindered by the cost of activities and by their physical accessibility. Increasing costs of living are impacting parents and carers with 20% reporting they are unable to afford after school clubs.
Outdoor learning has been shown to increase young peoples attainment in schools and their attitudes towards learning. As such, attending outdoor youth services could reduce the risk of negative future outcomes for young people, all of which require more costly intervention later on (for example, mental health issues, becoming NEET, and serious youth violence).
Fund objectives:
Objectives of this fund to be achieved by March 2024 are:
Provide bursaries for up to 7,500 young people:
Bursaries will cover the cost of residentials and/or transport costs.
Bursaries will be granted to groups who are underrepresented in the sector, such as young people living in poverty, young people with SEND, young carers and looked after young people, girls and young women, BAME (British, Asian and Minority Ethnic) young people, those with English as an Additional Language, those in the secure estate and those with poor academic attainment.
Young people must be 11-18, or up to 25 for young people with SEND.Provide outdoor experiences which can include activities focused on arts and/or sports.
Delivery partner role
DCMS is seeking to appoint a single organisation or joint delivery body to support the delivery of the fund
The value of this grant is approximately 1.5 million (inclusive of irreclaimable VAT) until March 2024. This is inclusive of administrative costs (up to 6% of the total grant) for the delivery partner to deliver the fund. We anticipate the majority of this will be used for onward grants through a limited competition to organisations with the capability and interest to deliver bursaries to eligible young people.
Acting as the delivery partner does not exclude organisations from delivering aspects of the project directly, for example at organisation-owned activity centres. Applicants must demonstrate how they will ensure any direct delivery represents value for money.
The delivery partner will:
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identify and provide grants to outdoor learning organisations to distribute bursaries and deliver the outdoor experiences
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support the grant recipients to make connections with organisations such as youth groups, schools or Local Authorities to identify eligible young people
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encourage sharing best practice and learnings between grant recipients
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provide regular reports to DCMS on delivery progress
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conduct an evaluation in collaboration with DCMS, including through collection of monitoring data and working with grant recipients
Timetable for delivery
Due to the need for the full circa 1.5 million of funding to be delivered by the end of the 2023/24 financial year, delivery at pace is critical.
Organisation eligibility
Applicants may apply as a single organisation with or without partners, or may alternatively submit a joint application (for example, as a consortium, joint venture, unincorporated association, partnership or otherwise). This may, for example, apply to entities who feel that alone they do not have the capacity or capability to address the departments requirements, or wish to bring in additional expertise to meet the departments required skills and experience for this role. Applicants are responsible for determining the most appropriate approach to delivering their proposal.
Delivery partner requirements:
Knowledge and experience of working with outdoor learning organisations
Sufficient staff capacity and capabilities to deliver this project in the timeframe set out.
Experience of grant management of a similar monetary value (circa 1.5 million) strong financial management processes, such as fraud risk assessments, fraud, bribery and corruption due diligence, and experience managing counter-fraud processes.
Experience of working with young people and incorporating youth voices into the development of projects or programmes.
Experience of delivering evaluations including collecting and sharing of data from grant recipients.
Experience of local partnership development (desirable).
Your organisation (or joint delivery body) will also need to pass our due diligence checks:
The grant award does not exceed 50% of your annual income, as an example: if an organisation applied for a 500,000 grant, the collective annual turnover needs to be 1,000,000 or more in order that the grant is not more than 50% of the annual turnover/income.
We receive and are able to review at least 2 references.
If you have been funded by another part of government, we obtain feedback from that department.
Trustees are not related and there is no indication of fraud.
Where multiple organisations are located at the same postcode, there is no indication of fraud if you do have the same postcode as other organisations you will be asked to provide an explanation.
You are able to provide an annual report and audited or certified accounts, covering the last 2 years or similar documentation. Please note: in the event your last financial year end was more than 6 months ago we may request further accounting information at a later date as part of the due diligence process.
You are able to provide details of your organisation/joint delivery bodys approach to equality and diversity and safeguarding policy.
Funding
Availability
The Adventures Away From Home Fund is a 1.5 million fund available in the financial year 23/24.
All funds awarded must be spent within the allocated financial year. The fund must be completed by 31 March 2024, with any unspent funds returned to DCMS.
Usage
The Adventures Away From Home funding must be spent to provide bursaries to up to 7,500 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities. We anticipate the majority of onward grants to cover staffing costs. There is no capital spend.
DCMS is happy to receive clarification questions up to 23:59 6 October 2023 on any additional activities that may be permissible and are not specifically prohibited below:
The funds may not be used for:
- academic research
- advocacy and lobbying
- appeals
- campaigning and awareness raising
- capital expenditure
- core costs - other than for those that can be evidenced as directly related to the project outlined in the application
- contributions to reserves
- costs for which funding has already been received
- fees for professional fundraisers
- individuals
- party political organisations
- pension costs
- projects outside our funding priorities
- promotion of religious beliefs
- purchase of buildings or venues
- rapid response to emergency situations
- repayment of debts or loans
- retrospective funding, where expenditure has been incurred prior to the grant award date
- services run by statutory or public authorities outside the scope of this project
- staff redundancy or redeployment costs
- vehicles
- wor