Agency Collaboration Fund: A supportive home

Applications have now closed.

Introduction

We know that many children and young people at risk of becoming involved in violence are known to local agencies. Yet this knowledge is often fragmented across multiple organisations, with different people holding different pieces of the puzzle. Opportunities where agencies could and should work together are missed.

To help understand where those opportunities are, we’re investing in our Agency Collaboration Fund. We want to find out how agencies can better share data, power and information to prevent children from becoming involved in violence.

What we’re aiming to invest in

For the second grant round of our Agency Collaboration Fund, we’ve partnered with BBC Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation to launch A supportive home.

A supportive home will test specialist multi-agency and multi-disciplinary teams located in neighbourhoods to support children, young people and their families/carers who are vulnerable to – or experiencing – violence or criminal exploitation outside the home.

The grant round will fund local authorities to put into action recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Who we’re looking to fund

We will fund and evaluate up to five local authority area partnerships in England and/or Wales.

Each successful partnership application will test a multi-agency team approach in two different neighbourhoods/localities within one local authority area.

We seek applications from local authority area partnerships where the lead partner is the local authority. As a minimum, partnerships must include:

• Local authority – inclusive of early help; children’s social care; Youth Offending Team; education; youth work (where delivered by the local authority); relevant services to support young adults.
• Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) delivery partners – these may be large specialist organisations and/or local specialist grassroot organisations who are known and trusted by the communities.
• The police.
• Probation.
• Mental health professionals for both children and young adults.
• Education, (if not part of the local authority) including schools.

In addition, there’s an expectation that partnerships will place a strong emphasis on involving children and young people and their parents/carers as partners in the service design, delivery and review.

Duration of project delivery and funding

Projects will be initially funded for 18 months. This includes up to six months preparation, including recruitment, and a 12-month implementation phase. Implementation will be evaluated through a feasibility study.

Subject to positive feasibility study findings, projects will then be funded for a further two or three years during which an impact evaluation will be undertaken. Applicants will need to demonstrate willingness to engage in both feasibility and impact evaluations as part of the application process.

For the feasibility phase, the YEF in partnership with BBC Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation, will invest up to £500,000 per partnership for delivery costs and between £85,000 and £110,000 per partnership for evaluation.

Application guidance

Please read the accompanying application guidance before starting your application.

Workshops

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can watch a recording of our application workshop and view the accompanying slides below.

Timeline

Applications closed at 5pm Tuesday 16th May 2023.

FAQs

Read our FAQs.