Managing your Million Hours funding

Congratulations on getting funding from the Million Hours Fund.

Here’s what happens next

You should get your first payment within two weeks of our email confirming the funding

This is the email we sent to confirm we got your signed offer letter and terms and conditions and any other documents we’d asked for. You can also find your payment schedule in the email. We’ve used the most recent budget table you sent us to schedule your payments.

When the funding arrives in your account, you can start spending it on the activities you told us about in your application.

You can only use this funding for costs incurred to 31 March 2026

If you have any questions, or you do not want the funding any more, email us at MillionHoursFund@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

Let people know about your funding and the amazing work you’re doing in your community thanks to this funding.

Spread the word through social media

Remembering to tag the Government and us:

• X (formerly known as Twitter): @DCMS and @TNLComFund
• Facebook: @dcmsgovuk and @TNLCommunityFund
• Instagram: @dcmsgovuk and @tnlcommunityfund
• LinkedIn: Department for Culture, Media and Sport and The National Lottery Community Fund

When talking about and writing posts about your project, you should thank the Government and use our full name too.

For example, you might post something like:

‘Funding from the Million Hours Fund has helped us to (write about what it’s helped you to do here). Thanks to the Government and The National Lottery Community Fund for making this possible.’

Sharing news about your project with your community can be a great way to keep them involved and engaged.

You could issue a press release to local media

If you write a press release, you should include this text to describe your funding:

‘The Million Hours Fund is a £22 million jointly funded initiative from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK. The programme funds organisations to provide positive activities for young people in areas with high levels of antisocial behaviour.’

Use the Million Hours Fund logo to help you promote your project and tell people about your funding

Find out how to use the Million Hours Fund logo when promoting your project.

You should use this logo on anything you promote around the funding awarded to you.

You should keep telling everyone about the difference your project is making throughout the life of your funding.

As part of your application you told us the difference you wanted to make with this funding. We expect you to monitor and record your progress towards meeting your aims so you can tell us about it.

Record the number of people involved in your project and how your project is progressing

We’ll ask you to tell us:

• the number of hours of youth work delivered with this funding
• the number of young people who attended the youth work delivered with this funding (including how many are new to your service, and how and where any new attendees heard about it.)
• the amount of time staff and volunteers spent delivering the additional hours of youth work (and whether you have recruited any new staff or volunteers)
• what you’ve done in the reporting period
• what you’ll do in the next reporting period
• what money you’ve spent.

So make sure you keep records, as we may ask to see them.

Keep accurate and full records of the things you spend your funding on

And track how these match with the costs you asked for in your application.

This will help you manage your budget effectively. We will ask you to report on how you spent your grant and if you have any grant unspent.

We may ask to see evidence of how you’ve spent the funding

This could include:

• bank statements
• original paper or electronic receipts
• invoices
• payroll documents.

You only need to send us this evidence if we ask for it

We could ask to see it at any time during the project, or for up to seven years after it has finished. You should make sure that you keep your records and evidence safely for this time.

DCMS may also carry out assurance checks to make sure that you’ve spent your funding in accordance with our grant agreement with you. The supplier that DCMS choose to undertake assurance checks may contact you about this after your grant has been made or spent, and we may provide the supplier with your contact details for this purpose.

You’ll find your reporting schedule in the email we sent you confirming your funding. Your funding officer will email you to let you know when a report is due, and they will send you a progress report for you to complete. You can see an example of what we'll ask in a progress report.

You must also send us an additional progress report by 15 April 2024 which includes information from the start of your grant to 31 March 2024. Your Funding Officer will confirm the dates you need to report back to us by when they contact you to set up your grant.

We do not expect things to always go exactly to plan, and changes can be a positive thing for your project. You might learn new things that mean you have to change the way you work.

Changes that we need to know about before you make them

You should tell us in advance if you:

• do anything that goes against your terms and conditions (for example, your organisation merges with another organisation)
• want to change your senior or main contact
• want to change your bank account
• want to change your budget
• want to change your project delivery (including how, when or what it delivers)
• want to change your organisation - for example:
  • you want to change your organisation type (maybe you’re a charity and you’re planning on becoming an incorporated company)
  • you want to change your governing document
  • you want to change your organisation’s name.

If you find out about any of these changes you must email us at MillionHoursFund@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

The terms and conditions of your funding give more information on what you must do if you want to make changes.

You must spend your funding by 31 March 2026.

When your project ends, you need to complete the end of grant report which includes your final spend table

We’ll ask for:

• the number of hours of youth work delivered with this funding
• the number of young people who attended the youth work (including how many were new to your service, and how and where any new attendees heard about it.)
• the amount of time staff and volunteers spent delivering this project (including any new staff or volunteers)
• what you’ve done over the life of the project
• how you spent the funding and if you have any funding left

So make sure you keep records, as we may ask to see them.

We’ll get in touch and ask you to complete an end of grant report.

You must send us your end of grant report within four weeks of your project ending and no later than 28 April 2026

You should send your completed end of grant report with your final grant spend figures by email to MillionHoursFund@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

We will ask you to return any of the funding you have not spent

We’ll contact you to let you know how to do this.

Evaluation of your work

DCMS and The National Lottery Community Fund (the Fund) have appointed RSM UK Consulting LLP (RSM) to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of this funding. You may receive emails from RSM and we would like you to engage positively with them. In particular, Liam Kearney-Fitzgerald (Liam.Fitzgerald@rsmuk.com) and Ella Cowin (Ella.Cowin@rsmuk.com) may email you.

We expect your organisation to take part in the evaluation if you are contacted. This could include involvement in things such as:

• surveys
• interviews
• focus groups.

These may be with staff and volunteers (if applicable) from your organisation, and young people if they are willing to take part. In these surveys, interviews and focus groups, the evaluator will collect information about the outcomes that young people and others have experienced. The evaluator may require your support to gain consent from parents of young people under the age of 16.

The evaluation may also involve the collection of monitoring data. We will share the details of the evaluation requirements as soon as we can. This could include the type of activities delivered and how many hours of each.

You must adhere to the terms and conditions of your grant

You can read the terms and conditions. We might have also included some additional terms and conditions for your project. If we did, they will be in your grant offer letter.

Our funding to you must comply with Subsidy Control rules

As a public body, we need to make sure that our funding to you complies with Subsidy Control rules. As long as you tell us in advance about any changes you want to make, there’s nothing you need to do. We’ll only contact you if we need more information.

If you’ll be working with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You must comply with our safeguarding expectations. You need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe and we will ask to see this policy.

National Youth Agency Website: Youth Work One

National Youth Agency Safeguarding and Risk Management Hub

Centre for Youth Impact: evaluation and monitoring tools

We do checks on the information you give us

As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us. Learn more about our checks.

What happens to your data

Our privacy notice explains what personal data we will collect when you apply to the Million Hours Fund, and how and why we’ll use it.

To find out more about how we handle personal data you give us you can also read our data protection statement.

The National Lottery Community Fund cares about our environment and we are always striving to manage our environmental impact. We encourage and support projects and communities to do the same. Learn more about how you can make your project or event more environmentally sustainable and perhaps save money at the same time in our guidance on reducing your environmental footprint.

You can contact us.