Million Hours Fund

The activities we fund

We'll fund extra hours of youth work.

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.

The extra hours of youth work must help young people to:

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

These extra hours could be used for things like learning, arts, and playing sports. Or for activities like mentoring, and developing social or life skills.

We can only fund eligible areas

We can only fund certain eligible ward areas across England. The eligible wards are based on the local youth population and levels of anti-social behaviour recorded by the police.

You can only apply if your work either:

• is in an eligible ward area
• will benefit young people living in one or more eligible ward areas

We’ll ask you for the name and code number of any wards where your work will take place in the application form.

If your activity is not in an eligible area, but young people who live in an eligible ward will come, give us the details of that ward instead. For example, if you use a venue in another area. Or if you use community spaces like cafes or parks (sometimes called ‘detached’ youth work).

The eligible wards are updated for 2025, based on the latest anti-social behaviour police data. So you must check if your ward is eligible even if you’ve had Million Hours funding before.

See how to check the eligible ward areas for the Million Hours Fund (2025 to 2027).

Criteria for funding

The work you want us to fund must meet all of the following criteria.

You must work with young people at risk of taking part in anti-social behaviour

Specifically young people aged 10 to 18, or up to 25 if they have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

If you apply, we’ll ask you to tell us about the issues with anti-social behaviour in your area. And about how you’ll provide activities and support for young people most at risk.

You must deliver more hours of youth work than you do now

You can deliver new activities, or do more of what you already do.

For example, if you already run an activity on a Wednesday night you could use this funding to run it on a Thursday night too.

In your application we’ll ask you to tell us how many extra hours of youth work you’ll deliver. We’ll also ask when you’ll do it, and how many young people will take part per hour.

For help working out your extra hours of youth work for the Million Hours Fund, see how to work out the numbers we need.

You should involve young people in deciding how your project works

We want to know how you’ll make sure young people have a voice in the work we fund. We’ll prioritise applications from organisations that do this well.

By this we mean:

• young people having a say in what activities you do and how they’re run
• seeking feedback from young people and using it to improve things
• having opportunities for young people to support their peers
• involving young people in how your organisation runs – like helping you plan your work, or joining the board

Your work must be open to as wide a range of young people as possible

This is sometimes known as ‘open access’ youth work. For example, young people should be able to:

• come or go from sessions without telling you in advance
• attend without committing to coming regularly or over a long period
• take part without paying high entry fees
• take part without having an existing level of skill
• take part without following a particular religion or set of beliefs
• access the venue or location you use easily

Easy access to venues includes physical access, such as access for people with disabilities. It also includes practical issues. For example, running activities in a school during the school day may mean only existing pupils can attend.

Your work must be run by trusted adults

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

They must know how you keep people safe, respond to safeguarding incidents and promote a culture of safeguarding within your organisation.

You’ll have to meet our safeguarding expectations for organisations we fund.

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

• youth work outside one of the eligible ward areas and with no young people from eligible areas attending
• youth work for young people under 10 or over 18 (or 25 if they have SEND)
• projects that do not deliver extra hours of youth work
• youth work that is not ‘open access’
• trips away or residentials for young people
• work to deal with anti-social incidents directly, rather than supporting young people in areas with higher rates of anti-social behaviour

Where Million Hours funding comes from

Million Hours funding comes from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and The National Lottery Community Fund (the Fund).

The funding is divided like this:

• £12 million from DCMS, to be spent by 31 March 2026
• £7 million from the Fund, to be spent by 31 March 2027

When you need to spend the money by

Because of the way this funding is divided, most of the funding needs to be spent by 31 March 2026.

If you are applying, you should plan to:

• spend most of the funding by 31 March 2026 (at least 63%)
• run most of your activities by 31 March 2026
• decrease funding and activities after 31 March 2026
• spend all your funding by 31 March 2027

For example, if you have £50,000 you should spend at least £31,500 by 31 March 2026.

You should show how you’ll do this in the budget that you send with your application.

You should not increase how much your organisation is spending until we’ve offered you funding

As we will not be able to fund everyone who applies.

What we can fund

Most of the funding you ask for should be for the direct costs of running extra hours of youth work.

We can fund:

• staff salaries to deliver this work
• volunteer costs to deliver this work
• training costs
• other direct costs to deliver youth work, like materials, equipment and food
• the cost of reporting back to us about your funding

We can also fund overheads

This could include things like part of your rent or insurance. Or part of a salary for someone not directly involved in this work. Like a senior manager or an office admin worker.

For example, delivering these extra hours of youth work could end up being a quarter of the work your organisation does. In that case, we might fund a quarter of your overheads for that time.

This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. Find out how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

What we cannot fund

We cannot fund:

• things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now (retrospective costs)
• buying a vehicle
• buying land
• building works, maintenance, or refurbishment
• activities that unreasonably benefit particular individuals, rather than the wider community
• projects where political activities are the main purpose, or that support or oppose a specific political party
• lobbying activities
• religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
• loan repayments
• fundraising activities
• services that you have a statutory duty to provide
• activities that make profits for private gain
• VAT reclaimable from HMRC
• contributions in kind
• partnership set up costs
• entertaining
• statutory fines or penalties

How to apply

Apply online Continue online application

You can see a full list of questions from the application form.

If you need help, or have any communication needs

You can contact us if you have any communication support needs. We’re happy to talk about other ways for you to tell us about your idea. For example, by completing a PDF version of the form, or sending us a recording instead of the longer text answers.

When to apply by

The final deadline for applications is midday on Wednesday 22 October 2025.

If more organisations apply than we expect we may have to stop accepting applications before then. So you should apply as soon as you are ready, instead of waiting until the deadline.

How long it takes to get funding

It may take up to 16 weeks (4 months) to get a decision from us.

We may not be able to fund everyone who applies. So you should not increase how much your organisation is spending until we’ve offered you funding.

Involving young people in your application form

We’d love to hear from any young people you currently work with. You could ask them to complete the relevant section of the application form.

What information you need to apply

In the application form we’ll ask about your organisation, the work you want to do, and the contacts we should keep in touch with. You can see a full list of questions from the application form.

What we’ll ask about the work you want to do

We’ll ask about:

• where your project will take place – including the names and code numbers of the eligible ward areas you support
• what you'd like to do
• how many extra hours of youth work you’ll provide (see our guidance on how to work out the numbers we need)
• how you’ll meet all the funding criteria listed in 'what we’ll fund'
• how this work fits in with other local activities
• how your work involves young people
• why you’re the right organisation to do this work

We ask you to upload your proposed budget using our template

We need to see a budget that tells us how much money you’re asking for, with a breakdown of what costs this will cover. You should use our budget table template (Excel spreadsheet, 15 KB).

Once you've filled it in, save it as a PDF file, JPEG image or PNG image. Then upload it to your application form.

We ask you to upload your organisation’s most recent accounts

You’ll also need to upload these as a PDF file, JPEG image or PNG image.

We also want to know the date your accounts wrap up each year and how much income you have.

If you do not have annual accounts because you’re a new organisation (less than 15 months old), that’s ok. We can still accept your application. But we’ll ask you for a projection of your income and spending over the next 12 months.

We’ll ask you about your current safeguarding policy

You need to have a safeguarding policy for working with children and young people, or adults at risk.

You do not need to send this with your application.

But we will:

• ask about your policy in the application
• ask you to send us a copy if we’re going to offer you funding

Your safeguarding policy must be:

• proportionate and relevant to your organisation’s activities
• agreed by your trustees or other governing body
• reviewed regularly

Your staff and trustees must be trained on its contents.

The NSPCC have lots of advice about setting and following good safeguarding policies. You can also find safeguarding resources on the NCVO website.

If your application is successful, you’re agreeing that you have a policy in place which explains how young people will be kept safe. For the lifetime of the project, you’ll need to meet our expectations on safeguarding children and adults at risk. If there is a safeguarding incident, we have the right to inform DCMS of the incident - but we’ll not provide them with any personal data.

Terms and conditions

You can read the terms and conditions.

Because we are a public body, we need to make sure that our funding to you complies with subsidy control rules. There is nothing you need to do, and we’ll only contact you if we need more information.

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

Check our privacy notice - this explains what personal data we'll collect and how and why we’ll use this data as part of the Million Hours Fund.

To find out how we use the personal data you give us you can read our data protection statement.