Guidance

Local Youth Transformation Grant - application guidance

Published 9 April 2025

Applies to England

Summary of the Local Youth Transformation Pilot

The Local Youth Transformation (LYT) Pilot aims to support 10 to 12 local authorities to start to rebuild a high-quality offer for young people and the transition back to local youth services leadership. The fund will test ways to best rebuild local authority capability to ensure a local youth offer which addresses the needs of young people and supports government priorities.

Youth policy is devolved and this grant is for activities in England only.

LYT objectives

The objectives of the LYT Pilot are to:

• improve capability in 10 to 12 Local Authorities to improve their local youth offer.  We would expect to see measurable improvement (against a baseline) in at least one area of identified need
• build DCMS’ understanding of the challenges and opportunities LAs face and how LAs can best be supported to build capability and effectively meet their statutory duty  as set out in Section 507B of the Education Act 1996
• ensure longer term sustainability in participating local authorities to deliver their youth services statutory duty by building confidence in meeting their responsibilities and an understanding how youth services can support positive long term outcomes for young people

Pilot timeline

Due to the need for the pilot to be delivered by the end of 2025/26 financial year, delivery at pace is critical, and the provisional timeline for the delivery of the pilot below reflects this.

Key milestones

• Local authorities onboarded: May 2025

• Local authorities assessment of existing provision: June 2025

• Local authorities submit proposed action plans: June to July 2025

• DCMS review of action plans and LA agreements issued: July 2025

• Local authority delivery period: August 2025 to March 2026

• Local authority Action Plan Review: February to March 2026

• Interim evaluation report: December 2026

• Final evaluation report: June 2026

Local authority selection

DCMS will determine local authorities to participate. The 10 to 12 local authorities selected will represent a range of geographical contexts, including urban/rural, and diverse models for delivering youth services, for example, local authority-delivered youth service, commission model, partnership model. DCMS will release more information about the participating local authorities in due course.

Purpose

Delivery partner overview

The £750,000 funding aims to secure a delivery partner that will provide support to local authorities to meet their individual needs by: 

• supporting local authorities and, if applicable, their partners to carry out an assessment of existing provision and needs
• supporting local authorities to identify areas to improve and working with local authorities and, if applicable, their partners to develop individual local authority action plans (to deliver within the pilot timeframe)
• providing a tailored package of advice and support for local authorities and, if applicable, their partners to implement their plans, including producing practical tools and guidance
• providing ongoing support and consultation to local authorities throughout the lifetime of the project to support the implementation of their plans; and
• carrying out a review of the implementation of action plans to review progress made and opportunities for further improvement following completion of the pilot. Using the findings from this, offer guidance and expertise to support local authorities to develop longer term action plans.

The delivery partner will also:

• be involved and participate in fund monitoring and evaluation, collecting data and supporting the work of the evaluation partner; and
• at the end of the pilot, hand over assets and information to DCMS as appropriate

DCMS will be responsible for grant management of and fund payments to local authorities.

Eligibility

Applicants may apply as a single organisation with or without delivery 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 size and scale of the department’s requirement, or wish to bring in additional expertise to meet the department’s required skills and experience for this role. Applicants are responsible for determining the most appropriate approach to delivering their proposal.

Joint approach

The following additional information applies to applicants who put forward a joint approach.

A lead party must be identified that shall submit an application on behalf of all parties to the joint application.

The lead party shall be responsible for all communication with the department during the application and appointment process.

As part of their application, the applicant must submit a structure diagram identifying the roles and relationships between the parties including all relevant companies, their respective parent or ultimate holding companies. The structure should make clear who will be responsible for delivery of the grant and ensure that, as a minimum, the legal obligations and liabilities of the applicant are borne by an entity or entities which satisfy the financial requirements set out in this specification of requirements.

The applicant must submit written confirmation from each party that they authorise the lead party organisation to act on their behalf in relation to this grant competition.

To be eligible to apply for the role of delivery partner for the LYT pilot, you must:

• be a registered company, private company, or Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE). As a grant, you must be able to demonstrate that the project is not for profit.
• have a robust safeguarding policy
• have organisational capability in programme or project management
• have experience of the youth sector landscape
• have experience of working with, and providing support/guidance to, local authorities to drive service improvements
• have expertise in incorporating youth voice within project design and/or delivery
• have the capacity to deliver support to local authorities across England
• have the technical expertise, capacity and knowledge to meet the objectives of the Local Youth Transformation Pilot
• have appropriate financial management systems and processes to account for Local Youth Transformation Pilot grant expenditure accurately and transparently

Your organisation 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 have received and reviewed at least 2 references
• If you have been funded by another part of government, we will seek feedback from that department
• You are not already receiving funding for this project, meaning your project is funded twice
• 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 two years or similar documentation.

Note: if 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.

Funding

Availability

This grant will provide resource funding only to be utilised in the Financial Year 2025/26. DCMS will cover administration costs between 2 to 6% of the total funding awarded.

The maximum grant length for the delivery support partner is 1 year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). 

All funds awarded must be spent by 31 March 2026.

Usage

The Local Youth Transformation Pilot grant funding must be used to support participating local authorities to transition back to local leadership and build back lost capability on youth provision.

The funding may be spent on the following activities:

• staff costs, where they directly relate to the programme activity i.e. salaries, employer’s national insurance contributions, and employer’s contributions to any occupational pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme
• travel and subsistence 
• communication and marketing (subject to cabinet office controls)
• costs associated with production of resources, for example production costs of guidance, toolkits and/or running workshops, seminars, training
• administration costs related to delivering the project between 2 to 6%

This is not an exhaustive list but an indication of eligible spend. We may consider funding other types of activities as long as they are not listed as ineligible below.

The funds may not be used for:

• academic research 
• advocacy and lobbying
• appeals
• arts 
• campaigning
• 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 for has already been received
• fees for professional fundraisers
• individuals
• party political organisations
• pension costs outside of employer’s contributions to occupational pension schemes for staff working on the project
• 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
• schools, colleges and hospitals
• services run by statutory or public authorities - we will not support frontline delivery for local authorities to meet their statutory duty for youth services
• staff redundancy or redeployment costs, unless part of a fixed term contract, associated with this project
• vehicles
• work delivered outside of England

Financial requirements

Note: The DCMS financial year runs 1 April to 31 March. If successful, payment requests and budget must fit the DCMS financial year.

Payments will be made quarterly and in arrears. You will need to provide a breakdown of actual, eligible expenditure in order to make a claim. We will only pay out the amount you can evidence as spent.

Variations between proposed drawdown amounts and actual drawdown requests across quarters of the same financial year will be accepted, with explanation and justification. However, we will not be able to vary funds across financial years. Any funds not drawn down by the end of the financial year will become unavailable.

DCMS makes payments in arrears and only pays in advance by exception. If you wish to be paid in advance, you will be asked to explain and justify your reasons in your application, this includes ensuring that your request fits with one or more of the ‘payment in advance’ criteria outlined in the application form. Your request will be considered as part of the assessment process. If your application and request to be paid in advance are approved, you will be expected to provide quarterly reconciliation details for the duration of your project detailing any underspend against funds received. You will be required to reconcile any underspend before further funding is released. You will also be required to complete a formal Financial Reconciliation Statement (FRS) form at the end of the financial year.

Whether paid in arrears or in advance, you must be able to transparently report on a quarterly basis and provide evidence of expenditure of the use of the Local Youth Transformation Pilot grant. The Local Youth Transformation Pilot grant must be shown as restricted funds in your accounts and you must be able to identify separately the value and purpose of the grant in your audited accounts. You will be asked to describe the financial management systems and processes you will put in place to ensure you can achieve this in your application.

Grant monitoring and reporting

DCMS is committed to robust monitoring and evaluation of grant funding, proportionate to the size and length of the grant.

Successful applicants are expected to:

• attend monthly monitoring meetings to provide an update on project progress and expenditure, outlining any risks and mitigating actions taken

• attend a Quarterly Project Board and provide papers to evidence progress, provide a finance update and to declare any risks or mitigating actions. DCMS will provide a template for returns.

• work with the independent evaluation partner and/or DCMS to support delivery of the evaluation and collection of relevant data for the overarching process evaluation and monitoring of impact

Evaluation

DCMS will separately commission an independent evaluation for the Local Youth Transformation Pilot. Successful applicants must work together with the appointed evaluator.

The evaluation will likely include both process evaluation and monitoring of local authority action plans implementation to understand the impact and delivery of the pilot, its impact on local authorities capability to meet the Statutory Duty as set out in 507B of the Education Act 1996, and capture valuable lessons learnt. We expect that the evaluation will utilise data and evidence collected/generated by the successful applicants.

We expect the delivery partner to provide DCMS and the evaluation partner with data from the initial assessment of local authority provision and the follow up review. The follow up review will be used to support the local authorities to develop longer term action plans for 2026/27 and beyond. The delivery partner will need to take part in evaluation activities such as interviews and workshops and support the evaluation partner to collect and utilise programme data. Specific requirements will be discussed in more detail during mobilisation.

Application process

Timeline

The timeline below is indicative and subject to change. 

Grant opens for applications: 9 April 2025

Clarification Workshop: 2 to 3pm 15 April 2025

Clarification questions deadline: 11:59pm 17 April 2025

Publication of clarification questions: 23 April 2025

Deadline for applications: 11:59pm 7 May 2025

Application assessment: 8 to 12 May 2025

Notification of grant awards: w/c 12 May 2025

Submitting your application

Use the application documents:

• Local Youth Transformation Grant - application guidance (this document)
• Local Youth Transformation Grant- application form
• DCMS standard terms and conditions of grants

Applications for this grant fund must be submitted by 11:59pm Wednesday 7 May 2025 to youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk.

Use the email subject line ‘Grant Application - [Organisation Name] - Delivery Partner - Local Youth Transformation Pilot.’

Any applications received after the closing date will not be assessed.

You will not be contacted for clarification or further information. It is your responsibility to ensure your application is concise, fully completed and that you supply all necessary supporting documentation.

The only instance where a government official may contact you is where the level of funding you have requested cannot be met and a lesser amount is being offered. In this case, you will be invited to consider a lesser amount and may be requested to submit a summary of activities, outputs, outcomes and budget (realigned to fit the revised funding on offer) for consideration. If contacted under these circumstances, please note that the time frame for providing your initial response may be very short.

Assessment

Evaluation criteria

A panel will assess the bids. Assume that assessors have no or limited background knowledge of your organisation, its aims and what it does. It is therefore important that your application is as clear, concise and unambiguous as possible.

1. Initial sift

We will review your application to check that the information in the body of the application meets the eligibility checklist.

2. Assessment and moderation of eligible bids

We will score eligible bids in line with our key criteria.

The table below sets out what we are looking for, the weighting in the bid evaluation, and the questions we will use to make our assessment. If necessary, shortlisted applicants may be asked to attend an interview. In this instance, we will provide guidance to applicants on the interview process.

Measure	Weighting %	Questions related
Project overview: Applicants must be able to clearly explain the project to be completed by 31 March 2026 and how they will provide support to local authorities to meet the outcomes set out for this fund, including supporting local authorities to engage with the evaluation and to involve young people and youth voice throughout the pilot.	25	2.1 2.2
Project delivery: Applicants must demonstrate the organisation’s capacity and capability to deliver the project set out in 2.1, including a list of all activities and associated outputs and information relating to staffing.	40	3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
Legacy and sustainability: Applicants must outline what measures they will put in place to ensure outcomes and outputs remain sustainable once funding has finished, including how they will ensure knowledge sharing to support a potential future rollout.	15	4.1
Monitoring and evaluation: Applicants must outline their data collection processes, including how they will monitor relationships with and support for local authorities, and reporting to DCMS. Applicants should also consider how they will support local authorities to engage with the evaluation and how they will share lessons learned across the local authorities and DCMS. Applicants will share their relevant experience working with evaluation suppliers. DCMS will appoint an evaluation supplier and the grant recipients will be expected to work with them to complete an evaluation proportional to the size and length of the fund.	10	5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4
Project finances: Applicants must detail the project costs and set out the financial management systems and processes that will be used to ensure Local Youth Transformation Pilot grant expenditure is accounted for accurately and transparently. The Applicant should also set out the organisational approach to managing Fraud. Applicants must provide a working budget for their project. The applicant submitting the lowest price will serve as a benchmark, with applicants receiving marks on a pro-rata basis from the lowest to the highest price.	10	6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8
Equality and diversity statement: Applicants must set out how the project operates within an equal opportunities and diversity framework, and share details of arrangements for safeguarding young people participating in this project (if applicable).	Unscored	7.1, 7.2
n/a	Total: 100	n/a

Each question response will be evaluated and marked on a scale of 0 to 4 where:

0 –Serious concerns: for example, does not meet requirements, and/or raises serious concerns

1 – Minor concerns: for example, meets some requirements but with gaps and/or some minor concerns

2 – Adequate confidence: for example, meets most/all requirements, but lacks sufficient detail or evidence in some areas

3 – Good confidence: for example, meets all requirements and provides a detailed response but lacks evidence in minor areas

4 – Excellent confidence: for example, meets all requirements, provides a detailed response and evidence which demonstrates a particularly strong understanding of the requirements

3. Due diligence

The successful applicant will be subject to comprehensive due diligence reviews and other database searches, including fraud risk indicators. The relevant documentation is expected to be provided alongside your application form. A checklist is provided in the application form.

Grant award

Acceptance of funding

DCMS will aim to notify the successful applicant w/c 12 May 2025.

Your grant offer letter will set out the level of funding and any additional conditions that apply specifically to your grant. The letter will also set out what the grant is for and the payment schedule. Once we have awarded a grant, we will ask you for regular financial and performance monitoring reports and a final project report at the end of the funding term.

Please note:

• grant money will not be paid until we have received your written acceptance of the terms and conditions attached to your grant offer
• you must acknowledge you have received our grant in your annual report and accounts covering the period of the project
• if there is any breach of the terms and conditions, or your organisation ceases to operate before the grant has been spent, grant monies may have to be repaid
• when the grant ends, Local Youth Transformation Pilot does not have a commitment to provide any further funding for the project
• anyone found to be acting dishonestly in making an application for funding or spending the grant will be reported to the police and may be liable for prosecution

Grant terms and conditions

See the DCMS draft terms and conditions

The terms and conditions are non negotiable. Submitting a proposal means acceptance of the terms. You should not seek to amend the terms and conditions.

Unsuccessful applications

We will inform all unsuccessful applicants by 23 May 2025. 

Please note that the decision will be final.

Advice and support

All available information and guidance relating to this grant funding is contained above and in the application form. 

DCMS will hold a clarification meeting at 2 to 3pm on Tuesday 15 April 2025 via Google Meets. If you would like to attend please contact youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk.

Clarification questions may be sent to youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk up until 11:59pm 17 April 2025, after which no more will be responded to.

All clarification questions will be anonymised and made public so that all potential applicants are able to access any additional information.

As the application process is competitive, we are unable to provide support in completing the application.