Organisation eligibilityEligibility

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, partnershippartnership, 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.

Joint application

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.

Delivery partner requirements

Funding

Availability

The Adventures Away From Home Fund is a £1.5£4.7 million fund available in the financial year 23/24.

2025/26. All funds awarded must be spent withinby the31 allocatedMarch financial2026, year.with Theany fundunspent mustfunds returned to DCMS. This grant will provide resource funding only. Up to 6% of the total grant can be completedclaimed byfor 31administrative Marchcosts 2024,for the delivery partner to deliver the fund.

Administrative costs are in-direct project costs associated with anydelivering unspentthe fundsfund returnedobjectives. toThese DCMS.costs support the overall business operations and include things like rent, utilities, administrative staff, senior oversight, and office supplies etc.

Usage

The Adventures Away From Home funding must be spent to provide bursaries tofor up to 7,50027,600 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.

The Wefunding anticipatemay be spent on the majorityfollowing ofactivities:

• staff onwardcosts, grantswhere they directly relate to coverthe staffingprogramme costs.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)

• Outdoor learning experiences, this could be for adventure activities, or activities focused on nature, arts and/or sports.

• Bursaries for transport, food and other reasonable costs to remove barriers to attending/travelling to activity centres. 

• administration costs related to delivering the project between up 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. There is no capital spend.

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 - other than employer pension contributions for staff directly employed on the project

• projects outside our funding priorities

• promotion of religious beliefs

• purchase of buildings or venues

• rapid response to emergency situationsemergencies

• 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 from 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‘payments 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 projectproject, 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. grant. 

Successful applicants are expected to:

• provide regular financial and performance monitoring data returns for the grant funding period. DCMS will provide a template for returns

• attend quarterly monitoring meetings to report on the progress of grant awards (based on the monitoring returns) and update on risks/slippage on spend

• attend informal catch-up meetings with DMCS project leads

• work with DCMS to support the design of the evaluation and collection of relevant data for the overarching process and impact evaluation

Monitoring and evaluationEvaluation

DCMS is interested in understanding how the grantholdergrant holder has achieved the objectives of the fund through an evaluation. It will be the responsibility of the grantholdersdelivery partner to undertake thean internal evaluation.

The grantexact holdernature of this data will need to be agreed between DCMS and the delivery partner, but is expected to agreeinclude the objectivesfollowing:

• collecting demographic information on the gender, age, ethnicity, and researchdisability questionsat ofminimum

• monitoring the evaluationfeedback withof DCMS.the Theyoung grantpeople holdertaking willpart bein expectedthe toprograms, workas withwell localas deliveryfeedback organisationsfrom tothe designsupervisors dataabout collectiontheir andprofessional collectdevelopment as a rangeresult of quantitativethe program. 

• develop a monitoring and qualitativeevaluation dataframework building on findings of previous AAFH evaluations (e.g. filling knowledge gaps from allprevious coordinatingevaluations). 

• elements organisationsof fora process evaluation, recording case studies from the evaluation.outdoor Thelearning exactcentres natureto understand the learning journeys of thisindividuals datawho willparticipated. needResearch questions to be agreed betweenwith DCMSdelivery partner and theDCMS.

• learning grantfocused holderaround butestablishing iswhat expectedbarriers toexist includestopping theyoung following:people from participating in outdoor learning. 

  • demographicto informationhighlight onkey learnings from this phase of the gender,programme, age,along ethnicitywith andany disabilitycontinuous atimprovements minimummade since the previous phase. 

  • baselinepeer reviewed and follow-upquality dataassured onpublication youngof people,the baselinereport takenby at the startdelivery ofpartner(s) themselves, but with the daypotential trip/residentialfor andDCMS follow-upto atpublish theon endgov.uk ofas thewell day(details trip/residentialto be agreed). 

  CostsThe forevaluation deliveringwill not have a separate budget as it is being conducted by the evaluationdelivery shouldpartner(s) internally - it will be factoredincorporated into yourthe up to 6% admin budget. DCMS will review and sign off the final monitoring and evaluation plans (a monitoring and evaluation framework) and the reports from the evaluations.

  How to apply

  Application timeline

  The below timeline below is indicative and subject to change.

  Competition opens for applications: Wednesday 2025 SeptemberJune 20232025

  Clarification Workshop:workshop: 10:00-11:001 Fridayto 292pm SeptemberTuesday 20231 July 2025

  Clarification questions deadline: Friday23:59 6Thursday October3 2023July 2025

  Publication of clarification questions: WednesdayTuesday 118 OctoberJuly 20232025

  Deadline forof applications:the Wednesdayapplication: 1823:59 OctoberTuesday 202315 July 2025

  Application Assessment:assessment: 23Wednesday 16 July to 27Tuesday October22 2023July 2025

  Notification of grant awards: w/cweek 30commencing October11 2023

  ClarificationAugust questions

  Please see below the clarification questions (with answers) received by DCMS:2025

  

  Adventures Away from Home: clarification questions

  PDF, 103 KB, 5 pages

  How to apply

  PleaseFollow follow the below steps below to apply:

  1. EnsureMake sure you have fully read the guidance above.on this page.

  2. Read DCMS’sDCMS’s standard terms and conditions of grants.

  3. Complete the application formform.

  Adventures Away From Home ApplicationFund: Formapplication form

  ODT, 30150 KB

  This file is in an OpenDocument format

  Applications for this grant fund must be submitted byby  23:59 WednesdayTuesday 1815 OctoberJuly 20232025 to nicky.waters@dcms.gov.ukyouthrevenue@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 completedcompleted, and that you supply all the 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. You 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. Please assume that assessors have no or limited background knowledge of your organisation, its aimsaims, and what it does. It is therefore important that your application is as clear, conciseconcise, 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. Applicants must set out how they intend to provide outdoor learning opportunities for 27,000 young people using the grant funding available.

  Individual

  Assessment evaluationand moderation of eligible bids

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

  The table below setsoutlines out what we are looking for, the weighting in the bid evaluation, and the questions we will use to make our assessment.

  |Measure|Weighting

  Experience of delivering evaluations including collecting and sharing of data from grant recipients

  Experience of local partnership development (desirable)

  Measure	Weighting %|Questions%	Questions related|related
  | - | - | - | |Project Proposal:proposal: Applicants must be able to clearly explain the project or projects to be completed by 31 March 20242026 and how they have or will involve young people in the co-design of the project.|20||project.	30%	2.1, 2.2
  |Project Delivery: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 toto  supportevaluate with evaluating the project |10||project.	15%	4.1,4.2,4.3
  |FinancialProject Management:finances: Applicants must set out the financial management systems and processes that will be used to ensure the Adventures Away From Home Fund grant expenditure is accounted for accurately and transparently. TheApplicants Applicant should also set out thetheir organisational approach to managing Fraud.fraud.	15%	5.1, |15|| |Total|100|| Delivery5.2, partner5.3, requirements Knowledge5.4, and5.5, experience5.6, of5.7, working5.8
  Equality with outdoor learning organisations Sufficient staff capacity and capabilitiesdiversity tostatement deliverApplicants thismust project in the timeframe set out Experience ofhow grantthe managementproject ofoperates awithin similaran monetaryequal valueopportunities (circa £1.5 million) — strong financial management processes, such as fraud risk assessments, fraud, bribery and corruptiondiversity dueframework, diligence, and experienceshare managingdetails counter-fraud processes Experience of workingarrangements withfor safeguarding young people andparticipating incorporatingin youththis voicesproject.	Unscored	6.1, into the development of projects or programmes6.2
  Total	100%	n/a

  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/cby 30the Octoberweek 2023.commencing 11 August 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 offeroffer.

  • you must acknowledge you have received our grant in your annual report and accounts covering the period of the projectproject.

  • 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 repaidrepaid.

  • when the grant ends, the OutdoorsAdventures LearningAway Bursariesfrom Home Fund does not have a commitment to provide any further funding for the projectproject.

  • 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 prosecutionprosecution.

  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 duringweek w/ccommencing 3011 OctoberAugust 2023.2025. We will issue written feedback.

  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 from 1 to 2pm on Tuesday 1 July 2025 via Google Meet. If you would like to attend, please contact youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk. 

  Clarification questions may be sent to youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk up until 23:59 Thursday 3 July, 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.