Adventures Away From Home Fund
This page provides guidance on the application process to become the delivery partner for the Adventures Away From Home Fund.
Summary of grant funding
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) intends to provide a circa £1.5 million grant to an organisation or consortium of organisations to act as a delivery partner for the Adventures Away From Home Fund up to 31 March 2024.
The fund aims to provide bursaries for up to 7,500 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.
The final selection of a delivery partner will be made by a panel appointed by DCMS, using the assessment criteria set out in the Assessment section.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 Wednesday 18 October 2023
Purpose
Fund overview
The outdoor learning sector provides numerous benefits for young people, which is why the government has announced ‘adventures away from home’ as a key component of the National Youth Guarantee. This fund will deliver bursaries for approximately 7,500 young people aged 11-18 and up to age 25 for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who are experiencing hardship or are otherwise vulnerable, and are therefore underrepresented in the sector.
Two of the biggest concerns for young people are their mental health and their desire to have something to do in their local area. Whilst the outdoor sector provides worthwhile opportunities for young people, there are barriers to attendance which disproportionately affect certain groups of young people. Attendance can be hindered by the cost of activities and by their physical accessibility. Increasing costs of living are impacting parents and carers with 20% reporting they are unable to afford after school clubs.
Outdoor learning has been shown to increase young people’s attainment in schools and their attitudes towards learning. As such, attending outdoor youth services could reduce the risk of negative future outcomes for young people, all of which require more costly intervention later on (for example, mental health issues, becoming NEET, and serious youth violence).
Fund objectives:
Objectives of this fund to be achieved by March 2024 are:
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Provide bursaries for up to 7,500 young people:
• Bursaries will cover the cost of residentials and/or transport costs.
• Bursaries will be granted to groups who are underrepresented in the sector, such as young people living in poverty, young people with SEND, young carers and looked after young people, girls and young women, BAME (British, Asian and Minority Ethnic) young people, those with English as an Additional Language, those in the secure estate and those with poor academic attainment.
• Young people must be 11-18, or up to 25 for young people with SEND. -
Provide outdoor experiences which can include activities focused on arts and/or sports.
Delivery partner role
DCMS is seeking to appoint a single organisation or joint delivery body to support the delivery of the fund
The value of this grant is approximately £1.5 million (inclusive of irreclaimable VAT) until March 2024. This is inclusive of administrative costs (up to 6% of the total grant) for the delivery partner to deliver the fund. We anticipate the majority of this will be used for onward grants through a limited competition to organisations with the capability and interest to deliver bursaries to eligible young people.
Acting as the delivery partner does not exclude organisations from delivering aspects of the project directly, for example at organisation-owned activity centres. Applicants must demonstrate how they will ensure any direct delivery represents value for money.
The delivery partner will:
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identify and provide grants to outdoor learning organisations to distribute bursaries and deliver the outdoor experiences
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support the grant recipients to make connections with organisations such as youth groups, schools or Local Authorities to identify eligible young people
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encourage sharing best practice and learnings between grant recipients
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provide regular reports to DCMS on delivery progress
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conduct an evaluation in collaboration with DCMS, including through collection of monitoring data and working with grant recipients
Timetable for delivery
Due to the need for the full circa £1.5 million of funding to be delivered by the end of the 2023/24 financial year, delivery at pace is critical.
Organisation eligibility
Applicants may apply as a single organisation with or without 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 department’s requirements, 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.
Delivery partner requirements:
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Knowledge and experience of working with outdoor learning organisations
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Sufficient staff capacity and capabilities to deliver this project in the timeframe set out.
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Experience of grant management of a similar monetary value (circa £1.5 million) — strong financial management processes, such as fraud risk assessments, fraud, bribery and corruption due diligence, and experience managing counter-fraud processes.
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Experience of working with young people and incorporating youth voices into the development of projects or programmes.
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Experience of delivering evaluations including collecting and sharing of data from grant recipients.
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Experience of local partnership development (desirable).
Your organisation (or joint delivery body) will also need to pass our due diligence checks:
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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.
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We receive and are able to review at least 2 references.
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If you have been funded by another part of government, we obtain feedback from that department.
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Trustees are not related and there is no indication of fraud.
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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.
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You are able to provide an annual report and audited or certified accounts, covering the last 2 years or similar documentation. Please note: in the event 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.
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You are able to provide details of your organisation/joint delivery body’s approach to equality and diversity and safeguarding policy.
Funding
Availability
The Adventures Away From Home Fund is a £1.5 million fund available in the financial year 23/24.
All funds awarded must be spent within the allocated financial year. The fund must be completed by 31 March 2024, with any unspent funds returned to DCMS.
Usage
The Adventures Away From Home funding must be spent to provide bursaries to up to 7,500 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities. We anticipate the majority of onward grants to cover staffing costs. There is no capital spend.
DCMS is happy to receive clarification questions up to 23:59 6 October 2023 on any additional activities that may be permissible and are not specifically prohibited below:
The funds may not be used for:
- academic research
- advocacy and lobbying
- appeals
- campaigning and awareness raising
- 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 has already been received
- fees for professional fundraisers
- individuals
- party political organisations
- pension costs
- 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
- services run by statutory or public authorities outside the scope of this project
- staff redundancy or redeployment costs
- vehicles
- work delivered outside of England
Financial requirements
Please note: The DCMS financial year runs 1 April to 31 March. If successful, drawdown requests and budgets 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 Adventures Away From Home Fund. The Adventures Away From Home Fund 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:
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provide regular financial and performance monitoring data returns for the grant funding period. DCMS will provide a template for returns
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attend quarterly monitoring meetings to report on the progress of grant awards (based on the monitoring returns) and update on risks/slippage on spend
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attend informal catch-up meetings with DMCS project leads
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work with DCMS to support design of the evaluation and collection of relevant data for the overarching process and impact evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation
DCMS is interested in understanding how the grantholder has achieved the objectives of the fund through an evaluation. It will be the responsibility of the grantholders to undertake the evaluation.
The grant holder will be expected to agree the objectives and research questions of the evaluation with DCMS. The grant holder will be expected to work with local delivery organisations to design data collection and collect a range of quantitative and qualitative data from all coordinating organisations for the evaluation. The exact nature of this data will need to be agreed between DCMS and the grant holder but is expected to include the following:
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demographic information on the gender, age, ethnicity and disability at minimum
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baseline and follow-up data on young people, baseline taken at the start of the day trip/residential and follow-up at the end of the day trip/residential
Costs for delivering the evaluation should be factored into your budget.
Application timeline
The below timeline is indicative and subject to change.
Competition opens for applications: Wednesday 20 September 2023
Clarification Workshop: 10:00-11:00 Friday 29 September 2023
Clarification questions deadline: Friday 6 October 2023
Publication of clarification questions: Wednesday 11 October 2023
Deadline for applications: Wednesday 18 October 2023
Application Assessment: 23 to 27 October 2023
Notification of grant awards: w/c 30 October 2023
Clarification questions
Please see below the clarification questions (with answers) received by DCMS:
How to apply
Please follow the below steps to apply:
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Ensure you have fully read the guidance above.
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Complete the application form
Applications for this grant fund must be submitted by 23:59 Wednesday 18 October 2023 to nicky.waters@dcms.gov.ukand isabel.raine@dcms.gov.uk with the subject line:
Grant Application - [Organisation Name] - Adventures Away From Home Fund.
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.
Assessment
Evaluation criteria
A panel will assess the bids. Please 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.
Initial sift
We will review your application to check that the information in the body of the application meets the eligibility checklist.
Individual evaluation of eligible bids
We will then 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.
| Measure | Weighting % | Questions related |
|---|---|---|
| Project Proposal: Applicants must be able to clearly explain the project or projects to be completed by 31 March 2024 and how they have or will involve young people in the co-design of the project. | 20 | |
| Project Delivery: Applicants must demonstrate the organisation’s capacity and capability to deliver the project(s) set out through a clear plan which will result in providing bursaries for up to 7,500 young people | 35 | |
| Benefit: Applicants must demonstrate how this project will benefit young people, the wider community and/or their organisation | 20 | |
| Monitoring, data and evaluation: Applications must include outcomes to be measured (number of beneficiaries etc), agree to regular monitoring of KPIs, and set out how they will share lessons learned. Applicants must outline how they intend to support with evaluating the project | 10 | |
| Financial Management: Applicants must set out the financial management systems and processes that will be used to ensure Adventures Away From Home Fund grant expenditure is accounted for accurately and transparently. The Applicant should also set out the organisational approach to managing Fraud. | 15 | |
| Total | 100 |
Delivery partner requirements
- Knowledge and experience of working with outdoor learning organisations
- Sufficient staff capacity and capabilities to deliver this project in the timeframe set out
- Experience of grant management of a similar monetary value (circa £1.5 million) — strong financial management processes, such as fraud risk assessments, fraud, bribery and corruption due diligence, and experience managing counter-fraud processes
- Experience of working with young people and incorporating youth voices into the development of projects or programmes
- Experience of delivering evaluations including collecting and sharing of data from grant recipients
- Experience of local partnership development (desirable)
Moderation of scores
Scores will be moderated and an overall score given to each bid.
Due diligence
All successful applicants 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.
Final confirmation
Upon successful completion of due diligence, we will issue the final confirmation of the successful applicants.
Grant award
Acceptance of funding
DCMS will aim to notify all successful applicants w/c 30 October 2023.
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:
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grant money will not be paid until we have received your written acceptance of the terms and conditions attached to your grant offer
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you must acknowledge you have received our grant in your annual report and accounts covering the period of the project
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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
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when the grant ends, the Outdoors Learning Bursaries Fund does not have a commitment to provide any further funding for the project
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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 DCMS draft terms and conditions for grant agreements. The terms and conditions are non negotiable. Submitting a proposal means acceptance of these. You should not seek to amend the terms and conditions.
Unsuccessful applications
We will inform all unsuccessful applicants during w/c 30 October 2023. We will issue written feedback.
Please note that the decision will be final.
Updates to this page
Last updated 17 October 2023 + show all updates
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Updated clarification questions document.
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Added clarification questions.
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First published.