Guidance

Innovation Fund 2023 to 2024: prospectus for Local Resilience Forums (LRF)

Updated 6 September 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

The UK Government Resilience Framework, published in December 2022, represents a step change in the way we think about the safety and security of our nation. It recognises that the world of the 2020s and 2030s is different to the world in which the Civil Contingencies Act was enacted. We need new and innovative approaches to making sure our communities are as resilient as possible, so that the places where we live and work can continue to thrive and prosper despite the mounting challenges of the 21st century.

The Framework holds, at its heart, the role of Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) as champions of resilient communities – communities where local responders, community groups, businesses, charities and local leaders not only prepare for the shocks we might face, but to prevent them from happening in the first place. Resilient communities are those that think creatively to embrace the knowledge and skills of the diverse people and organisations in our society – so that everyone can play their part to make sure that no one is left behind when an emergency happens.

A resilient community doesn’t create itself. It needs investment from those passionate about their local area. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places duties on local responders to plan for emergencies, but the new Framework asks us collectively to go further. It states that investment in resilience is not just the responsibility of LRFs but for the whole of society. Everyone must play their part and understand the risks we all face. A country’s resilience is built on the sum of the actions, choices and investments made by the individuals, organisations, businesses and government which come together to deliver it.

Over the last 2 years we have seen LRFs use the government’s Innovation Fund to match funding from a wide range of partners to create and deliver distinctive, innovative projects that drive real results.

The 2023/24 Innovation Fund will build on the progress made by LRFs over the last 2 years, as well as the valuable work being done across England to promote community resilience plans.

Recent emergencies have shown the power of private and public sector collaboration. But we can do more to work together. Every business has its home in a community. Every community places its trust in local businesses. They are often the first to offer help when emergencies occur. Businesses have resources that can help – talented people, deep experience and expertise, formal and informal networks across the business community and the skills to drive delivery. They are often deeply affected if an emergency impacts jobs, infrastructure or the economic prospects of the local area.

This year, we invite LRFs in England to consider new and innovative ways of bringing more local businesses (including social enterprise) with you – those at the heart of your communities – as collectively we seek to substantially strengthen local resilience by 2030. By creatively engaging those who are heavily invested in the success of their local area we can identify practical, scalable ways of making whole of society resilience more tangible.

This prospectus sets out how LRFs can bid to support the delivery of innovative projects in 2023 to 2024. It also sets out the objectives of the fund, how the fund will be managed, monitored and evaluated.

Section 1: Overview of the LRF Innovation Fund

Aim of the LRF Innovation Fund

The LRF Innovation Fund is a £1.35 million fund (£450,000 per annum over the period 2022/23 to 2024/25) designed to allow LRFs in England to develop and test new and innovative ways of working which partners would not have been able to progress otherwise. Projects should promote effective working within and across boundaries to build resilient communities and encourage a whole of society approach to resilience.

Innovative projects come with an element of risk which may not have made them viable without this funding. Sharing information, lessons and learning across LRFs – whether funded projects are successful or not – is a key component of the programme. We want to see projects which will help inspire others to embrace new and innovative activities.

LRF Innovation Fund 2023 to 2024 – theme

Following feedback from previous years of the Fund, the government has decided to maintain funding bids under a specific theme for the remaining years of the Innovation Fund. This will drive innovation within a certain area, concentrating proposals on specific elements so that LRFs find it easier to work together on bids that deliver their own and government’s priorities.

The theme of the Innovation Fund 2023 to 24 is local businesses as active partners in resilience.

The government’s vision for a whole-of-society approach to resilience, including a fuller integration of private sector into our frameworks, means that everyone recognises their role in the UK’s resilience and takes responsibility to contribute. We want this year’s Innovation Fund to help LRFs boost their community resilience plans and tap into the power of the private sector to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from emergencies.

To help generate ideas, DLUHC has set 3 design challenges for LRFs to consider. Whilst bids are welcomed for projects on any aspect under the theme of Local Businesses as Active Partners in Resilience, applicants are strongly encouraged to consider the design challenges when developing their applications. This will help the department and LRFs coordinate and promote joint bids as well as determine the strength of proposals.

Design challenge 1: Engage and inspire your local business community to help prevent, respond to and recover from emergencies that might affect them.

Bids could trial and test new ways of working with local businesses to better understand local risks and the role that businesses can play in preventing, responding to and recovering from emergencies and how they can reduce the impact of emergencies on the economic prosperity of the local area

Applicants may wish to consider:

• testing and trialling new ways of working that champion the UKGRF’s emphasis on preventing emergencies
• especially those which may impact the economic prosperity of the local area
• identifying future risks
• reducing risk through new knowledge or techniques

Design challenge 2: Implement community resilience plans in new and innovative ways, considering recent lessons learned, so that local businesses can more effectively support multi-agency responses when emergencies occur.

Bids could explore solutions to how the private sector can support the implementation of lessons from recent national responses and exercises, build capabilities and work as part of the wider resilience eco-system

Applicants may wish to consider:

• fostering greater collaboration between LRFs and local business during a response, with an enhanced focus on recovering better and faster from incidents
• translate national risks and lessons learned to a local context to better assess likelihood and impact at the local level

Design challenge 3: Empower local business to ‘own’ the resilience of their local area, becoming active members of the resilience community.

Bids could aim to work with local private sector organisations, including under-represented groups, local independent businesses and rural businesses to help a diverse range of businesses play their part in local resilience, including through volunteering

Applicants may wish to consider:

• developing new solutions to how under-represented private-sector organisations can play their part in the resilience of their local area
• promoting opportunities for private sector corporate activity and volunteering on projects central to local resilience activity

LRFs may wish to consult with partners in their region including for example Chambers of Commerce, local branches of the Federation of Small Businesses, other local or specialist business organisations and networks especially those for under-represented groups, Growth Hubs, other organisations with strong business connections such as universities and colleges, local authorities and combined authorities, to utilise their expertise in addressing these issues.

DLUHC will support this by engaging nationally with business representative organisations and other partners and networks.

Applicants may find the National Resilience Standards (NRS) useful as a guide to strengthen their design challenge consideration. The NRS are a set of individual standards for LRFs to consistently identify good practice in their level of readiness.

Section 2: How the fund will operate

All 38 LRFs in England are eligible to apply for Innovation Fund support. Successful applications are likely to focus on projects that demonstrate creative innovations which address the design challenges outlined above.

Our engagement with and feedback from LRFs has highlighted that successful projects from previous years could benefit from a small amount of additional funding to help roll them out (either within a community or across other LRFs), in turn helping to scale-up the impact. Therefore, a small element of the 2023 to 2024 funding will be available to support the wider roll out and/or embedding of successful projects. LRFs are welcome to apply for this subject to the criteria below:

• LRFs can demonstrate strong evidence of meeting or exceeding their desired outcomes of the trial
• the LRF can demonstrate a clear plan to embed or scale-up the project
• the LRF can demonstrate clear support from other LRFs and/or LRF partners to adopt the project into their own structures and practices

We would not consider requests for scale funding where:

• the LRF are requesting additional funding to a previous award because of a delay or cost increase to the project
• the project did not meet it’s expected outcomes due to flaws in the programmes design
• the LRF proposes to change the parameters and outcomes of a previously unsuccessful award

Eligibility to apply for Innovation Funding

The 38 LRFs in England are eligible to apply for a portion of the Innovation Fund. Bids for projects which increase collaboration with and contribute to the work of regional resilience partnerships in Scotland, emergency preparedness groups in Northern Ireland and local resilience forums in Wales, are welcomed, but must be led by an LRF in England.

If LRFs are interested in applying for funding to scale or embed an existing project, the bid will be subject to the conditions listed in section 2.

DLUHC strongly encourages bids groups of LRFs (this could be nationally, regionally or groups of LRFs seeking to address similar challenges and opportunities). Such approaches are likely to lead to wider adoption of innovative solutions. Where LRFs propose to work collaboratively, they are expected to develop a partnership agreement with clear governance and roles and responsibilities, setting out how funding will be locally managed through a lead partner.

However, DLUHC will still welcome bids from individual LRFs. We suggest that such bids focus on very specific local issues and circumstances (for example, engaging with businesses in a highly flood-prone community to develop integrated flood management plans).

Case study 1 (regional bids)

Wiltshire and Swindon LRF were successful in their application for Innovation Funding in 2022 to 2023.

The project is a regional bid working with all LRFs in the South West region. It builds on the work undertaken by Lincolnshire LRF in the pilot year of funding, in developing digital dashboards. The platform aims to take disparate datasets on vulnerable people and supporting assets from different organisations and place them on a commonly used platform alongside information on local risk and capacity.

The South West LRFs will take the project to the next level, with supporting governance procedures and processes, so the package can be rolled out to other LRFs more efficiently.

Case study 2 (Consortium of LRFs bid)

South Yorkshire LRF were successful in their application for Innovation Funding in 2022 to 2023.

The bid was made on behalf of a consortium of LRFs including North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humber. The project is designed to refine and develop a prototype app, acting as a single consistent cyber incident risk assessment tool for all agencies across the 4 LRFs. It is designed to help a non-technical user to assess the level of risk, who needs to be involved in a response and what type of resources may be needed.

Phase 1: The bidding window and bid design

DLUHC will support engagement with the business community by engaging key business representative organisations. Combined authorities and local authorities and their Growth Hubs will have established links and knowledge of regional to local business organisations and networks and will be able to assist in making links, particularly with organisations and networks that support under-represented groups.

The formal bidding window will open on Friday 8 September 2023. Applications must be completed and submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 10 November 2023.

DLUHC aims for bids to be assessed and moderated by Thursday 30 November, and winning bids will be announced early in the New Year.

Section 3: Application forms, their contents, scoring criteria and monitoring and evaluation

Making an application

You can apply for Innovation Funding for new bid under the new theme of local businesses as active partner in resilience by filling out this application form. If you wish to apply for funding to scale up or roll out an existing project from previous years, please use this application form.

Because you will submit your bid through an online form, we recommend you write it in a word processing programme first, copying it onto the online form only when you are ready to submit.

Please keep to the word count for each of the sections, excess words will not be considered.

This is a competitive bidding process; bids are more likely to be successful where responses strongly demonstrate the following elements:

• articulates how the LRF and subsequently all LRFs, wider partners and communities can benefit from the initiative (particularly without the burden of enduring costs to them, such as subscriptions for membership)
• best addresses the theme and design challenges detailed in this prospectus
• demonstrates strong collaboration with other LRFs in delivering proposals
• has an effective framework for capturing and sharing learning all LRFs

Questions and criteria for scoring

Funding for a new project under the theme local businesses as active partners in resilience

Question 1 asks you what you want your Innovation Fund project to be known as. Please avoid generic titles such as ‘resilience improvement project’ or ‘business collaboration tool’.

Soring Guidance: This question will not be scored.

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Question 2 allows you to demonstrate why government funding is needed to help you address a specific problem. It gives you the opportunity to give us your evidence about why that problem needs an innovative solution. Your work to address the problem may already be underway – this question allows you to tell us what has been done to date, and how successful your progress has been.

This is also your opportunity to give us some context about the specific problem you’re trying to solve. If you’re submitting a bid alongside other LRFs, for instance, you may wish to expand on why this problem has brought several LRFs together. You may also wish to consider articulating why the absence of a solution is a barrier to LRF(s) achieving your aims, or the government’s wider aims to make the UK a more resilient nation.

Scoring guidance: This question is weighted comparatively highly. Government funding needs to be targeted so it makes the most difference. A clear definition of the problem you are trying to solve, alongside the context about what’s been done before, will allow us to focus funding on tackling the most acute problems in the most innovative way possible

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Question 3 allows you to demonstrate how your project will solve the problem you’ve identified. We recommend you refer to the design challenges.

Scoring guidance: This question has the highest weighting. It allows us to consider how your proposal will make a real impact on the problem you identified in question 2. Higher scores will be granted if there is a clear demonstration of that impact, with defined objectives, outputs and outcomes delivered directly by the LRF community (as opposed, for example, a third party supplying a subscription to a service). An answer which details how the project will address one of the design challenges is also more likely to score higher.

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Question 4 asks you about how much funding you require. There is a total of up to £450,000 available for 2023/24, including the embed/scale up portion of the fund. To make the most impact, only a small number of projects can be granted funding. It is unlikely that innovation funding can fund the entirety of a project. This question allows you to demonstrate how you plan to use the funding, and your proposed timeline for doing so. It allows you to give details about how much you think the overall project will cost to deliver, the wider funding and activity that will support delivery, and how you will demonstrate value for money. The department recognises that trailing new projects can take some time to implement. Innovation funding should be spent by the end of the 2024/25 financial year – this question is your opportunity to tell us if this is feasible.

Scoring guidance: This question is weighted so we can measure whether the amount requested can realistically deliver the project outcomes. You will score higher if you can demonstrate whether spend is clear, feasible and sustainable. In addition, a higher score will be awarded if you give details about match funding or additional financial contributions to the overall project cost, as well as a plan which gives details on when you expect to spend your funding.

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Question 5 asks about your intended project plan. Use this opportunity to detail your intended milestones and deliverables. Use bullet points to detail what you intend your project to deliver, and when.

Scoring guidance: This question is weighted according to the viability of the milestones you set out. Answers that will score higher will demonstrate how your project adheres to SMART principles (i.e. your project delivers specific outcomes, is measurable, achievable, realistic and has timed stages).

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Question 6 explores one of the key objectives of the innovation fund – how the outcomes of innovative projects, and the experiences of those who have managed and help deliver them, can be shared with LRFs to inspire further learning or activity. This question therefore allows you to demonstrate how you intend to capture the lessons learned throughout your project’s lifecycle and share it with other organisations.

Scoring guidance: A higher score will be earned if the answer can demonstrate how learning and benefits are shared amongst all 38 LRFs in England, without incurring a financial cost (for example, not via a subscription-based model). The question is designed to measure the effectiveness and inclusiveness of sharing with other LRFs. Successful answers will identify the method, benefits, timeliness, and extent of how learning can be shared.

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Question 7 allows us to quickly filter bids by the number of LRFs who are supporting each one. Most people will only select one answer. However, if you are submitting a bid on behalf of all of the LRFs in your region, you can additionally select this option to let us know.

Question 8 is a way of confirming you have adequate arrangements in place to manage the project, if you are submitting a bid on behalf of more than one LRF.

Funding will be delivered through Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 to an LRFs designated grant recipient. There will only be one lead grant recipient for each project, whether a single LRF or collaborative project. The lead grant recipient will manage funding flows within project partnerships. Where bids are submitted on behalf of more than one LRF, those collaborating must draw-up a partnership agreement, which could include how the funding will be administered.

Scoring guidance: Questions 7 and 8 will be scored together. A higher score will be awarded where a cohort of LRFs are working in partnership on the project. The highest score will be awarded to LRFs who are submitting bids on behalf of their region. A higher score will be awarded to LRFs who demonstrate a clear partnership agreement is in place.

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Questions 9-11 asks for the details of the sponsoring LRF and the senior responsible officer if you are completing the form on behalf of just one LRF.

Questions 12-14 asks for the details of the project lead if you are completing the form on behalf of just one LRF.

Questions 15-17 asks for the details of the sponsoring LRF and the senior responsible officer if you are completing the form on behalf of multiple LRFs.

Questions 18-20 asks for the details of the project lead if you are completing the form on behalf of multiple LRFs (this might be someone different from the project SRO).

Question 21 asks you to list all of the other LRFs who are sponsoring this bid.

Question 22 asks you to confirm that the Chairs of the LRFs you have listed have agreed to sponsor this bid and have agreed the terms of the related partnership agreement.

Question 23 this is where you can give more information if you were unable to confirm question 22.

Question 24 acts as the official authorisation to submit a bid on behalf of the LRFs. It asks for confirmation that the Senior Responsible Officer has reviewed the answers to questions 1 to 23 and is happy for them to be submitted to DLUHC as a formal bid for innovation funding.

Scoring Guidance: Questions 9-24 will not be scored.

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Funding to scale up or roll out an existing project

Question 1 is asking what financial year did the project receive Innovation Funding, the pilot year in 2021/22 or year 1 on 2022/23?

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored.

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Question 2 asks you to submit the name of your project, as it was on your original bid.

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored.

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Question 3 asks you what the lead LRF of the project is.

Scoring Guidance: This question will not be scored.

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Question 4 asks how much funding you are requesting and what activities it will be used to fund.

Scoring guidance: This question will be scored and weighted. Question 4 asks you about how much funding you require. There is a small portion of the total £450k available for the embed / scale up portion of the fund. To make the most impact, only a small number of bids can be granted funding. This question allows you to demonstrate what activities you will use the funding for. It allows you to give details about how much you think the overall project will cost to deliver, the wider funding and activity that will support delivery, and how you will demonstrate value for money. The funding should be spent by the end of the 2024/25 financial year – this question is your opportunity to tell us if this is feasible.

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Question 5 asks the LRF to demonstrate strong evidence of meeting or exceeding the desired outcomes of the project.

Scoring guidance: Question 5 will be scored and weighted. It carries the highest weighting. It asks for details of the action the LRF took to meet its own objectives and outcomes, including resolving issues in rolling out the trial and keeping the project on track, what the impact of the outcomes has been on the problem they identified and what the benefit of embedding or scaling the project will be.

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Question 6 asks how the project will be embedded or scaled?

Scoring guidance: Question 6 is scored and weighted and carries a comparative higher weighting to the other questions. It asks about the timeline and project plan in place for the roll out or scale up. Answers will score higher should they demonstrate how your project adheres to SMART principles. You may wish to use bullet points to list your milestone dates and deliverables for clarity.

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Question 7 checks whether a ways of working partnership agreement in place between the lead and partner LRFs?

Scoring guidance: Question 7 is scored and weighted. It is a way of confirming you have adequate arrangements in place to manage the project, if there is more than 1 LRF involved. If there isn’t more than 1 LRF involved, please select N/A. Funding will be delivered through Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 to an LRFs designated grant recipient. There will only be one lead grant recipient for each project, whether a single LRF or collaborative project. The lead grant recipient will manage funding flows within project partnerships. A higher score will be awarded where a bid can demonstrate a clear partnership agreement, which we recommend includes how the funding will be administered.

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Question 8 asks how many LRFs were involved/supported the project during the initial trial?

Question 9 asks you to demonstrate clear support from other LRFs and partners who wish to adopt the project into their own structures and practices.

Scoring guidance: Question 8 and 9 will be scored together, and are weighted. A higher score will be awarded where a cohort of LRFs are working in partnership on the project.

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Question 10 asks for details of what kind of support the project has from other LRFs.

Scoring guidance: This question is scored and weighted. Please name the LRFs who will be involved in the scale up or roll out. A higher score will be awarded where an LRF can demonstrate partner LRFs who wish to adopt the project into their own processes, as opposed to those who are just showing an interest, and why they wish to do so.

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Question 11 asks about whether any progress has been made on the project since the trial ended.

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored. Set out what progress has been made on continuing the project since the funding and trial ended. This question is not scored as we are not expecting progress to be made on some projects due to lack of funding and/or resource within the LRF.

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Question 12 is asking about any unspent funds from the trial of your project. Please state the figure. If all funding was spent during the trial please state £0. If you do have funding left over from the trial, please state how it will be included in the roll out or scale up.

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored.

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Question 13 is asking if you are requesting additional funding to a previous award because of a delay or cost increase to the project.

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored, however if you select ‘yes’ you will not be eligible for roll out or scale up funding.

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Question 14 is asking whether the original project failed to meet it’s expected outcomes due to flaws in the design?

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored, however if you select ‘yes’ you will not be eligible for roll out or scale up funding.

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Question 15 is asking whether the LRF is proposing to change the parameters and outcomes of a previously unsuccessful bid that did not receive funding.

Scoring guidance: This question will not be scored, however if you select ‘yes’ you will not be eligible for roll out or scale up funding.

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Questions 16-19 are asking for the contact details of the lead Senior Responsible Owner and the working level project lead.

Question 20 asks you to confirm your SRO has seen the proposal and has given their authorisation to submit. Please enter their name and date of approval.

Scoring guidance: Questions 16-20 will not be scored.

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2022/23 funded projects

The following is the list of projects there were funded in the 2022 to 2023 round of funding, under the theme of Digital, Data and Technology.

County Durham and Darlington LRF

Community Resilience Data, Learning and Action

The project will develop existing products and bring together data on who is willing to volunteer to assist communities in an emergency, with the skills they have and ensure they have the training and resources they need to be able to assist.

Greater Manchester LRF

Project Unity - The Community Supply Chain Platform.

An online platform enabling LRFs to create, unify and lead an ecosystem of “community supply chains”, optimising Voluntary and Community Sector specialist services before, during and after any emergency, anywhere in the UK, matching what responders need with what support organisations have.

It will also match donations and spontaneous offers of help with people and businesses affected by emergencies. The platform is a single inbox for physical donations and offers of in-kind help, e.g. labour and expertise. It can broadcast to the public what donations are required, optimising donations and reducing wastage and future management.

Wiltshire and Swindon LRF

Southwest LRFs Data collaboration and mapping solution

Builds on work undertaken by Lincolnshire LRF to develop digital dashboards which takes disparate datasets on vulnerable people and supporting assets from different organisations and places them on a commonly used platform alongside information on local risk and capacity. The funding will take the project to the next level, with supporting governance procedures and processes so the package can be rolled out to LRFs nationwide.

South Yorkshire LRF

Cyber App

Refining and developing a prototype app, acting as a single consistent cyber incident risk assessment tool for all agencies across 4 LRFs. It will, in plain English, help a non-technical user assess the level of risk to the organisation and indicate who needs to be involved in the response and what type of resources will need to be accessed both internally.

Norfolk LRF

Vulnerable People integration Project

The project will a create a central point to gather and share data on vulnerable people’s Key Vulnerability Factors enabling the identification, matching and prioritisation of people who in the event of a future incident would be made most vulnerable based upon the type of emergency/major incident. Depending on the incident, responders will be able to identify vulnerable people who are at:

• immediate risk to life/harm within 24hrs
• significant risk to life/harm within 24hrs to 48hrs
• risk to life/harm after 48hrs
• increasing level of risk after 72hrs

Lancashire LRF

Community Based Communication Hubs

The project will make resilient communications equipment available to Community Emergency Support Groups, in effect enabling the creation of ‘community control rooms’ to aid LRFs implement ‘warning and informing’ priorities and situational awareness in emergencies. It will also enable the development of a tool to help these groups to audit their equipment and ensure its resilience.

South Yorkshire LRF

ACT in a Box

The project will produce a digital counter terrorism testing and exercising product that can be deployed by LRFs to local community groups, businesses and their employees with very little impact on LRF resources. The product will be accessible to all LRFs, which allows standardisation of the quality and quantity of this aspect of community engagement.

This project was partially funded by the Innovation Fund.