Overview

The £500 million Better Futures Fund (BFF) will support up to 200,000 children, young people and their families over the next 10 years. It will do this by bringing together government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors and philanthropists, to deliver place-based solutions to complex social problems across England.

The funding will primarily be for the commissioning of Social Outcomes Partnerships (SOPs), with government payments tied to the achievement of measurable improvements in people’s lives, such as school attainment, improved youth employment, and reduced youth reoffending.

The fund will aim to raise upfunding tofrom anlocal additionalgovernment, £500philanthropists millionand inother matchoutcome fundingpayers foron outcomestop over the full duration of the programme,government’s workingfunding withon partnersa including1:1 localmatch governmentbasis, commissionerswhilst and philanthropists. It will also bringleveraging in additionalmillions of upfront funding from social investors creatingto totalsupport organisations to deliver. This would create potential funding of up to £1 billion. We are committed to a 10-year funding lifecycle, ensuring funding is accessible for the duration of the programme.

The BFF will fund projects which support the government’s ambitions to tackle the structural and root causes of poverty for children, young people and their families - projects that reduce the short or longer term impacts of poverty on the life chances and outcomes for children.  

The outcomes the fund will look to deliver are currently being determined. The specific metrics will be decided in local places, aligned to local needs, but will be guided by an overarching set of outcomes that align with evidence on tackling child poverty. 

The UK is a leader in the international SOPs market, with 100 partnerships launched to date. The Better Futures Fund follows the success of other SOP funds, such as the Life Chances Fund (2016 to 2025), which supported more than 50,000 people in areas like youth unemployment, mental health and homelessness. Building on this experience and a comprehensive evaluation exercise, the Better Futures Fund will be the largest outcomes fund of its kind in the world.

TimescalesFunding timescales

Round

The 1:BFF funding

The

• Round first1 fundingwill roundlaunch isin expectedAutumn to2026 inviteand bidssupport a small number of demonstrator ‘pathfinder’ projects. 
• Round 2 will launch in Summer 2026,2027 designedand forwill thosedeploy withthe priormajority experience of deliveringthe SOPs,£500 andmillion existingfunding SOPover projects.multiple Successfulapplication applicantswindows. It will be expectedopen to demonstrateall theyapplicants, arewhether ‘readyor tonot go’they projects,have ableexperience toof beginSOP delivering quickly. 
  delivery.

ThisBoth firstrounds of funding roundwill facilitate the development of locally-led SOPs by providing grant funding to local areas. Across Round 1 and 2, projects will be able to commitbid for multi-year commitments up to £3731 millionMarch of2036. governmentAll fundingsuccessful towardsprojects outcomeswill withinbe able to draw down money from the nextfund decade.during Furtherthis detailtime, onor criteriafor andthe matchduration fundingof requirementstheir SOP, if shorter. Projects will be availableable into run beyond 31 March 2036, but will not be able to claim BFF funding from the summer.government beyond this date.

Outcomes processframework

The primary objective of the fund,BFF is to tackle the structural drivers and daily impacts of child poverty. Specific outcomes (with metrics) will be decided in closelocal collaborationplaces, aligned with alocal rangeneeds, but guided by an overarching set of stakeholdersBFF fromthemes acrossthat localalign government,with theevidence impacton economy,tackling child poverty. 

The BFF themes are:

• early years
• keeping children safe and civilfamily society.security
• every Thischild includesachieving exploringand thriving
• homelessness and temporary accommodation
• financial stability
• health and wellbeing.

These themes have been chosen to align with the roleLocal ofOutcomes Framework where possible to ensure BFF outcomes align with local priorities.

DCMS is developing an outcomes framework around these themes in partnership with other government departments and regionalinformed government,by prioritisingevidence in the Child Poverty Strategy. The framework recognises that child poverty is multidimensional and combines a place-basedconsistent national approach towith the fund’sflexibility delivery.for Morelocal informationpartners to deliver tailored, holistic support. The framework will be availablepublished on this page in due course.course and is intended to be used as guidance to support projects in developing their SOPs; it will not mandate the achievement of specific outcomes.

Capacity and capability building programme

DCMS iswill runninglaunch a grantdedicated competitioncapacity toand selectcapability abuilding partnerprogramme to deliversupport learningthe andeffective developmentdelivery services.of the Better Futures Fund over its ten-year lifespan. This is in recognition of the commitment and time required to establish new SOPs at scale. The programme will lookbe tohave strengthenthree strands:

• Learning and development service: To act as an entry point and a central source of expertise for those interested in developing a social outcomes partnership for the knowledge,BFF. capabilityThis will include the development of SOP guidance, toolkits and confidencetemplates, delivery of organisationsthematic toworkshops, designhelping applicants understand fund outcomes and deliversupporting Socialpeer Outcomeslearning Partnershipsnetworks. throughDCMS is in the Betterfinal Futuresstages Fund.of a grant competition to select a partner to deliver this service. For further information, please visit the BFF learning and development service service competition guidance page.

How

Technical assistance: To provide direct support to engageapplicants withduring the Betterapplication Futuresand Fund

Pleasepost-award directstages, allincluding enquiriesdeveloping aboutSOP rate cards, advising on investor interaction, and drafting contracts.

• Market development:  To encourage the Betterwider FuturesSOP Fundmarket to betterfutures@dcms.gov.ukto participate in the BFF, with a small budget for targeted, in-depth interventions in specific sub-sectors, such as social investment and philanthropy.

Alongside these externally procured services, DCMS will publish thematic guidance and guideline, template rate cards to support projects, alongside the outcomes framework. 

We will onlykeep processthis yourpage dataupdated inwith orderthe latest information on the procurement processes for these services.

Monitoring and evaluation

The first phase of the BFF programme evaluation will be an Implementation and Feasibility Study running over the first year of programme delivery (from September 2026 to respondDecember 2027). The Phase 1 evaluation aims to enquiries.maximise Forlearning morefrom informationRound 1 projects, providing early stage evidence on howprogramme welaunch collect,and hold,implementation, useand orsupporting processthe yourdesign personalof data, seethe long-term evaluation of the DCMSfund. personalPhase information1 charter.will be delivered by an evaluation partner commissioned through the Research & Insights DPS, the competition is now closed.