The activities we’re funding

The activities we’re funding with this money

We are funding extra hours of youth work that will help young people to have:

• improved emotional wellbeing
• improved life and practical skills
• access to trusted relationships with adults and feel safer

By 'youth work' we mean an activity that improves young people's well-being through education or leisure, supported by a voluntary relationship with a trusted adult. This can include detached youth work.

These extra hours could be used for learning, arts, playing sports, or developing life skills.

We are only funding projects that:

• benefit young people aged 11 to 18, or up to 25 for young people with SEND
• take place in or benefit young people living in eligible areas
• effectively engage with young people at risk of anti-social behaviour
• deliver extra youth work hours (not existing provision)
• take place outside of school hours and are available on a regular basis
• deliver youth work that is open access
• demonstrate youth voice within the activities
• are run by trusted adults, such as qualified youth workers, youth support workers or experienced volunteers

We’re only funding projects in eligible areas

The work we’re funding must take place in, or benefit young people living in one or more of these eligible local areas (OpenDocument Spreadsheet, 9.5 MB). In this link, the first tab shows the eligible local wards, and the second tab shows postcodes within those eligible local wards.

The eligible areas are based on youth population and Police information on numbers of incidents of antisocial behaviour.

We want to make sure that this funding reaches a wide range of communities in the eligible areas across England. So we consider this in our decision making as well as the strength of individual applications

If the young people are coming from an eligible area to an ineligible area

We can fund projects where young people come from an eligible area to a project in an ineligible area.

The activities must benefit young people

The activities we fund will benefit young people aged 11 to 18 and up to 25 for young people with SEND.

Youth services we’re funding must effectively engage with young people at risk of anti-social behaviour

We’re funding projects that help create better outcomes for young people who may be at a higher risk of anti-social behaviour. We asked organisations that applied to tell us about the issues with anti-social behaviour in their area and how their activities will support young people most at risk.

This funding is not for dealing with anti-social incidents

This funding is to provide positive activities and support for young people at risk of anti-social behaviour. We've prioritised projects that show a strong focus on engaging with young people at risk of this.

We’re funding youth services that are ‘open access’ and run by trusted adults

These might be qualified youth workers or youth support workers, or experienced volunteers.

By ‘open access’ we mean young people can attend without previously organising attendance, and leave when they choose.

And there are no other barriers to participation such as the need to:

• pay high entry fees
• commit to longer-term attendance
• have an existing level of ability in a skill
• follow a certain religion or set of beliefs

We’re funding organisations that involve young people in their project

We’re funding projects that ensure that young people have a voice in the service. By this we mean:

• young people having a say in what and how activities are run
• how they’ll seek feedback from young people and use it to make things better
• opportunities for young people to support their peers
• young people’s participation at every level

We’re funding organisations to deliver extra hours of youth work, not what they’re already doing

Such as running extra hours, extra services or additional days.

The numbers we asked for and how to work them out

We asked for the:

• extra hours you’re going to run
• number of young people you think will attend

Working out extra hours

When working out the extra hours of youth work, we asked you to give us the total number of extra hours. For example, if your service will be running for 63 weeks and you want to add an extra 3 hours per week, this would be:

63 x 3 = 189

189 extra hours.

We also asked you how regularly you’ll be running these extra hours, such as weekly or fortnightly

These hours are just the hours when young people are attending or are engaged and should not have included any staff time for preparation.

Working out numbers of young people

These are the number of young people you think will attend per hour of extra youth work (this could be regular attendees or one-off attendees).

Young people most at risk of anti-social behaviour

We want to ensure as many young people benefit from this funding as possible. So, we’ll prioritise funding that benefits as many young people at risk of antisocial behaviour as possible.

If you're providing positive activities that reach young people most at risk of anti-social behaviour, your numbers may be lower than standard open access youth work. We'll factor this into our assessment.

Evaluation

If you’re funded we’ll ask you to report back to us regularly and take part in an evaluation

You could include costs for monitoring and reporting in your budget.

If we offer you funding we’ll ask you to report back to us by 31 March 2024, and then every 6 months or more frequently if needed, until your funding ends. We’ll give you more details on what is required if you’re funded.

We’ll ask you to give updates on the number of:

• hours of youth work you’ve delivered
• young people who attended the youth work (including how many are new to your service)

With DCMS, we’ll also appoint an independent contractor to evaluate this funding. If you get funding we’ll expect your organisation to take part in the evaluation. It will include things like:

• surveys
• interviews
• focus groups

These may be with staff and volunteers from your organisation and young people if they are willing to take part.