Key information
Publication type: General
Publication date:
Contents
Foreword
Through the London Recovery Programme we are working together across London to prioritise those that were most impacted by COVID-19 and to challenge the inequalities in our city.
Far from being the great leveller, the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted young people. We have seen children’s education disrupted and the longer term impact of restrictions on physical and social activities. It’s taken a heavy toll on young people’s mental health. They have borne the brunt of job losses with limited opportunity leading to poorer employment prospects.
We have listened directly to young people about how the pandemic has affected their life chances, and we’ve heard about the transformational impact that mentors and role models have on a young person’s life. A positive, caring relationship with a trusted adult can promote personal development and wellbeing, as well as enable a young person to access additional opportunities and support provided by a range of agencies.
That is why the New Deal for Young People mission centres on the rights of disadvantaged young people to benefit from relationship-based support and focuses on how we can achieve this by embedding quality, ensuring sustainability in the youth sector and increasing reach. We have committed that by 2024 all young people in need will have access to a personal mentor and all young Londoners will have access to quality local youth activities.
We passionately believe young people are central to London’s recovery in the years ahead and now is the time to unite as a city and provide them with the support when they need it most.
New Deal for Young People Co-Chairs
Jeremy Crook OBE Chief Executive, Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG)
Lib Peck Director, London’s Violence Reduction Unit
Martin Pratt Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director Supporting People, London Borough of Camden
Summary
The New Deal for Young People (NDYP) mission aims to support young people in need, particularly those facing the greatest barriers to realising their potential. This grant funding helps meet the mission’s aim to provide these young people with quality mentoring to help improve their life chances, and to do so in a way that builds long term capacity within local communities. This is one of three linked programmes which will support mentoring for young people most in need and will be underpinned by the quality principles developed through a new Mentoring Confidence Framework.
This Request for Proposal has information for applicants on the process to apply for Leaders grants.
Grants of between £100,000 and £500,000 are available to leading organisations to:
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expand quality mentoring for young people aged 10 to 24 with the greatest need
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deliver a capacity support programme for youth organisations, including development and promotion of the new Mentoring Confidence Framework
Delivery is over the period from March 2022 to March 2024.
To find out information about the other two linked progammes, New Deal for Young People Headstart Action and STEAM Mentoring grants please click www.london.gov.uk/new-deal-young-people
An online information session about this opportunity is being held from 1:00pm to 2:30pm on Wednesday 8 December 2021. Please note that this session will be recorded.
The deadline for applications is 5:00pm on Monday 17 January 2022.
1. Background
A key component of this approach is to work alongside leading organisations identified as delivering best-practice youth work and mentoring to develop a capacity-building delivery model that supports the sector to deliver more and better mentoring to young Londoners. This includes enabling organisations to identify their strengths and to support work on areas for development within their mentoring practice. Our consultation with voluntary and community-sector organisations have emphasised the value they place on sharing practice and learning from their peers. This can help them ensure and enhance the quality of the activities that they are providing for young people.
Work to help improve the quality and capacity of the youth sector will be underpinned by
the development of a new Mentoring Confidence Framework. The Mentoring Confidence Framework will be an agile tool that helps organisations build on their best practice for mentoring and personalised support. Building on the evidence base of what works well, it will outline key principles (a ‘mentoring quality statement’) identified as being essential for effective mentoring programmes. Organisations will be able to use the framework to evaluate their own models and practice and identify strengths and areas for development. A draft mentoring quality statement can be found in appendix 1.
Modular training will be available linked to the Mentoring Confidence Framework and an ongoing community of practice of youth organisations will be facilitated where the sector can share tools and evidence of what works.
The use of the Mentoring Confidence Framework is a common thread running through the three programmes that are open for grant funding, linking them together as all grant holders use the framework and share their practice.
2. Aims and Objectives
The New Deal for Young People mission wants to improve the life chances and opportunities for young Londoners by:
- enabling more young people in need to benefit from quality mentoring and youth activities
- improving the quality of mentoring by building capacity of the youth sector
- increasing strategic investment in London’s youth and mentoring activities
- empowering system change and sustainability within the youth sector.
The ‘Leaders’ grants will contribute directly to the two first NDYP objectives.
3. Funding Available
Approximately seven to 12 ‘Leaders’ grants of between £100,000 and £500,000 are available to leading organisations that can evidence their mentoring good practice:
- to expand quality mentoring for young people aged 10 to 24 with the greatest need
- to deliver a capacity support programme for youth organisations, including development and promotion of the new Mentoring Confidence Framework
The total amount of grant funding available is £3,500,000 with an average grant size of £350,000 if ten grants are awarded.
Delivery is over the period from March 2022 to March 2024.
We encourage applications from partnerships and consortiaReference:2, as well as single organisations. If you are applying as a partnership or consortium you must clearly identify in your application the roles and specialisms of each of your partners and how the lead partner will coordinate mentoring delivery and capacity building support.
In your application you will need to clearly define how your budget is allocated to each of the following two areas of work:
- expanding your mentoring and personalised support
- delivering a capacity support programme and development and promotion of the new Mentoring Confidence Framework.
4. Who the Funding Aims to Support
4.1 Young people most in need
Proposals must be informed by local knowledge, need and demand, and shaped by those closest to your communities who have experience of previous delivery. We want to fund projects that will deliver to children and young people aged 10 to 24 who are facing the biggest challenges and who are furthest away from opportunity.
An illustrative list of the needs and characteristics of the groups of children and young people that we want to help can be found below. This list is not prescriptive (or exhaustive) and we want to hear evidence of local need through your application, together with information on how you are helping young people with those needs. Many young people will also be experiencing multiple disadvantage.
Children and young people:
- with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
- who are excluded, or are at risk of exclusion, from school or college
- who are at risk of becoming involved in violence
- who are associated with gangs or impacted by exploitation
- who are not in employment, education or training (NEET)
- who are experiencing or have been impacted by domestic violence and abuse
- who are young refugees and asylum-seekers
- who are from low income families/living in poverty
- who have a social worker (Children Looked After, with a Child Protection Plan, Children in Need and Care Leavers)
Projects can be delivered in one neighbourhood, a borough or across several London boroughs. You will need to demonstrate how you are linking to existing work in the location that you are proposing to deliver from, for example details of how you will link with boroughs’ employability or regeneration strategies and how you will work with other local agencies.
4.2 A balanced programme
We want to fund a balanced programme that supports young Londoners who are most in need across the city. We will be looking to fund projects:
- who have specialisms in supporting young people with different needs and characteristics (for example one leading organisation specialising in supporting children with special educational needs; one specialising in supporting refugees; one specialising in supporting children in the younger age range, etc.)
- who have specialisms in delivering different types of mentoring (for example peer mentoring, careers mentoring, sports-based mentoring, mentoring using volunteers, mentoring using paid staff etc.)
- who, as well as delivering good mentoring, have the capacity across their whole organisation to boost the youth sector too. Organisations need to be outward facing and ready to contribute and to be part of a movement for change
- located in different parts of the capital
We recognise that many organisations will be supporting young people with multiple needs and delivering mentoring in many different ways. You’ll need to explain in your application what your specialism is and how you can support other youth organisations.
We are also particularly interested in funding organisations that are led by the communities that they represent and that the communities that projects are aimed at are actively involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of the projects. In your application please explain how you have involved the young people your mentoring is targeted at, and the organisations you propose to support, in the design, delivery and evaluation of your project.
4.3 What is our definition of mentoring?
We are broadly basing our definition of ‘mentoring’ on that used by Nesta: “Drawing on existing definitions, we see youth mentoring as trusting, purposeful and ongoing relationships between a younger person or people, and a person they are unrelated to, which involve the exchange of support, advice, encouragement, and skills development”Reference:3. Mentoring is based around personal need and delivered through strong trusted relationships. Mentors can include a wide range of adults and peers who have a trusted relationship with the young person. Mentors are trained and operate in a supported environment where both the young person and the trusted individual both know the expectations and boundaries of the relationship. We recognise that these trusted relationships can be forged in lots of different environments, including those that are less formal, and delivered in different ways.
4.4 What kind of activity will Leaders grants support?
We want to see proposals that are informed by evidence of what works, this evidence may have come from previous projects that you have run, or from elsewhere.
Applicants must prove how they will involve young people in their design and delivery of their project.
4.4.1 Expanding mentoring for young people aged 10 to 24 with the greatest need
Grants will fund the expansion of your mentoring and personalised support. You’ll need to give details in your application of the activity that you will deliver including who you will be supporting through your mentoring, how you will address their needs, the frequency and duration of the mentoring, how you are measuring impact, who the mentors are and your experience of delivery. You should explain how you will engage and inspire young people; activity can include wrap around positive activities and personalised support such as sports and creative opportunities. Through the grant-award process you will need to display how you meet the principles of good mentoring in appendix 1 - for example, how you effectively match mentors to mentees and how you integrate youth voice into your work.
4.4.2 Delivery of a capacity support programme for youth organisations, including development and promotion of the new Mentoring Confidence Framework
Organisations granted funding will act as a team of capacity builders from across London. You will deliver a capacity support programme and provide a portfolio of specialised support for the sector to help other organisations to build on their mentoring practice. You will also contribute to the development and promotion of the new Mentoring Confidence Framework.
Examples of activities to deliver this are (but not restricted to):
- providing ongoing one-to-one or group peer coaching (for example, over a six to 12-month plus period) to youth sector organisations using the mentoring confidence framework as a guide. Peer coaching could help them develop their practice, identify their strengths and areas of development, and find ways of driving forward actions
- delivering/contributing to webinars or face-to-face events to groups of youth sector organisations on the overall mentoring confidence framework/draft quality statement or on specific principles within it
- delivering/contributing to webinars or face-to-face events to groups of youth sector organisations on your area of specialism
- supporting a community of practice by bringing together a range of youth sector organisations to focus on a specific area of the framework or draft quality statement to share their experiences and the resources or training materials they use
- involving the young people you work with, your staff, your volunteers and your networks in co-producing and promoting the confidence framework
- other activity that you think is needed within a capacity support programme or to develop and promote the Confidence Framework
4.4.3 Confidence Framework Coordination
Whilst you will be asked to contribute to the development and promotion of the confidence framework, we will be separately funding an organisation to lead the development and coordinate implementation of the Confidence Framework. The organisation leading the work will shape the framework, offer and coordinate training linked to the Mentoring Confidence Framework principles, and ensure best practice is shared.
You will need to work closely with this organisation, with your fellow ‘Leaders’ and with the organisations delivering NDYP STEAM Mentoring and Headstart Action.
5. Outputs and Outcomes
5.1 Outputs
We want to understand the impact of your project on the programme’s aims and objectives. You must show how your project activities will have a positive impact on the young people and organisations these grants aim to support.
Applicants will be asked to identify:
- who are the young people and organisations you intend to support?
- what are the needs or issues of the young people and organisations you are aiming to support?
- what activities you will deliver to meet those needs?
By outputs we mean the number of young people and organisations reached or what has been produced through your project activities:
- the number of young people supported by mentoring and/or personalised support (including demographics such as age, ethnicity, gender)
- the number of organisations that are reached through your capacity support programme and promotion of the Mentoring Confidence Framework
- other outputs specific to your project
5.2 Outcomes
By project outcomes, we mean the result, or to what extent the project has led to the desired change. At a programme level we want to achieve the following outcomes:
- improved outcomes for young people benefitting from quality mentoring and personalised support
- improved quality of mentoring or personalised support delivered by youth organisations
Applicants will be asked to identify:
- what will change for the young people and organisations you are supporting?
- how will you measure that change?
Applicants should give as much information as possible on their project’s outputs and outcomes. The table below suggests a range of outcomes which projects may deliver for young Londoners. Applicants should consider what will change due to their activity and how it can be evidenced in their project’s lifetime.
6. What will we fund and who can apply
6.1 What we will fund
We will fund:
- operational delivery costs
- core staff and volunteer costs
- monitoring and evaluation costs
- marketing and publicity costs
- associated overhead costs (for example heating, lighting, stationery etc.)
- low value equipment costs (up to £1,000) for audio-visual, sports etc.
- your time and other costs associated with attaining the London Youth Quality Mark
We will not fund:
- capital items
- statutory Physical Education provision (i.e. sport in school time)
6.2 Who can apply for grants
We are looking for organisations to run projects that provide disadvantaged young people with quality mentoring and personalised support. To be eligible organisations need to meet the following criteria:
- Your organisation must be legally constituted. If not, you must be part of a Consortium who is a legally constituted organisation or be in a partnership with a Lead Applicant.
- Your organisation must have a bank account, with two separate signatories, (registered in the name of the applicant organisation) into which the grant can be paid.
- The annual grant proposed should not normally constitute more than 50 per cent of your annual turnover. In exceptional circumstances we will consider applications where this does not apply; you must provide details in your application form.
- Your lead applicant must be able to provide audited/examined accounts for at least one year which comply with the relevant regulatory body.
- You must have a proven track record in the work your organisation does.
- You must have expertise and / or experience in delivering the kind of work set out in your proposal.
- You must have all necessary insurances and safeguarding policies in place and be committed to carrying out DBS checks where required.
- You should have or commit to working towards the London Youth Quality Mark Bronze or above.
7. Instructions for Applicants
For details of who can apply for grants please see section 7.2
7.1 Application Process
Grants will be allocated via an open and competitive application process. A Funding Application Form will be completed by all applicants. These will be assessed and shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview. The interview will include a presentation on your proposed project and questions from a young person and officer panel.
7.2 Submission Requirements
The deadline for applications is 5:00pm on Monday 17 January 2022.
You must complete the Funding Application Form including attaching the following supporting documents and email to [email protected]
- copy of your public and employer's liability insurance
- your Data Protection Policy
- your Safeguarding Policy
- a copy of your organisation’s most recent audited accounts or accounts signed by an independent and qualified accountant
Please note that as part of the assessment process we will be sharing your application with London Councils, Local Authorities, the London Violence Reduction Unit, Voluntary and Community Sector partners, other funders of youth activities and a panel of young people.
If you have any questions around the application process please contact us by email at [email protected]
Frequently Asked Questions we receive will be published with answers on www.london.gov.uk/new-deal-young-people. We will not publish our response to any FAQs that have been submitted after 10 January 2022.
7.3 Award criteria and evaluation process
The weighting applied to each assessment area is detailed below:
Each of the above areas will be assessed in accordance with the following criteria:
After proposals have been assessed and scored against the assessment criteria, we will take into consideration the overall spread of proposals to be funded. The factors listed below will also be considered when making final decisions about which suite of projects are awarded funding:
- specific target group demographics
- the type of mentoring and the specialisms of the grant applicant
- scale and level of funding requested
- geographical spread of delivery
7.4 Due diligence
We will carry out financial due diligence checks before we offer funding – please see appendix 2 for full details. Successful applicants must provide the required documentation on notification. Please note, local authorities and local authority-maintained schools are exempt from this process.
7.5 Timetable
The grant funding application timetable is detailed below:
8. General Requirements
8.1 Project management
Successful applicants must produce an annual delivery plan with key milestones. You must keep the GLA updated with regular progress reports, linked to key milestones and submit quarterly claims to us. You will be required to complete the London Youth Bronze Quality Mark. More information about this can be found at https://londonyouth.org/what-we-do/quality-assurance/
You will also be expected to be available for an inception meeting. You may be asked to contribute to the GLA’s future good practice activity by speaking at events, providing case studies of what has worked well etc.
8.2 Monitoring and reporting
Delivery organisations must collect standard data on the young people and organisations taking part (including starts, completions and demographic data) and report this on a quarterly basis. This data is in addition to any measures your individual project will have to monitor. This is because we are funding lots of different activities for young people. That means we need to track participation and impact in a standard way across multiple programme streams and projects.
8.3 Safeguarding
Child protection and safeguarding is of paramount importance. You must send your safeguarding policy and data protection policy with your application. Your safeguarding policy should include how you:
- respond to concerns about a child's wellbeing (including disclosures)
- respond to allegations of abuse made against a child
- recruit the right people to work and volunteer with children
- prevent and responding to bullying
- respond to concerns about online abuse
- ensure data, photographs and images of children are taken, stored and shared appropriately; and it should include
- named Safeguarding officer/s
This guidance has been drawn from the NSPCC and is in line with the requirements of the GLA’s Child Policy and Protection Procedures. Once awarded a grant, delivery organisations will be required to report to the GLA if there have been any child safeguarding incidents. If you are a lead partner or consortium we will ask you to provide information on delivery partner safeguarding arrangements and on how your partnership is supporting and monitoring each other’s child protection policies/process.
8.4 Evaluation
We are committed to promoting the highest standards of evidence and evaluation. All applicants will be expected to demonstrate how they will evaluate the impact of their project on the anticipated outcomes.
We will also commission an independent provider to evaluate the New Deal for Young People. Successful applicants may be asked to participate in the overall evaluation.
8.5 Payment
Payment will be based on achievement of key milestones and outputs as set out in the applicant’s grant funding agreement.
8.6 Support for applicants
An online information session about this opportunity is being held from 1:00pm to 2:30pm on Wednesday 8 December 2021. It will be recorded and shared through the GLA and our partner’s networks.
8.7 What other City Hall funds could I apply for?
The following grants are open or will soon open for applications. For information on more City Hall grants see www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/funding-and-innovation
Appendix 1: New Deal for Young People Draft Mentoring Quality Statement
Appendix 1: New Deal for Young People Draft Mentoring Quality Statement
Setting expectation and evidencing impact – Mentors should jointly set expectations with the young person and organisations should be able to systematically demonstrate the impact of their mentoring.
Type of activities – Youth mentoring programmes are particularly effective when mentors employ targeted approaches matched the needs of their mentees rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. It is important that the mentor listens and responds to the needs of the mentee.
Duration and frequency – Studies show that longer relationships between mentees and mentors are associated with better outcomes. High levels of commitment and communication from mentors is important when building the relationship, and regular contact has been shown to be key to the success.
Youth voice – Young people should be given opportunity to shape and direct the mentoring. This could include the design and evaluation of the programme as well as directly being able to communicate what support they need.
Characteristics of a mentor – Positive outcomes rely on the formation of a positive connection between mentor and mentee. Factors such as trust, empathy, authenticity, and mutual respect are considered critical to a quality mentor relationship.
Creating matches - matching mentees and mentors with shared backgrounds and matching in a culturally sensitive way are important for effective mentoring programmes. Shared backgrounds include values, beliefs and interests. Matching processes that give choice and agency to mentees are seen to be effective.
Training of mentors – Mentors need to be equipped with the skills to support young people. Upfront as well as ongoing support, training and supervision for mentors is key.
Appendix 2: Due diligence requirements
- We (‘the GLA’) will carry out financial due diligence checks prior to the offer of funding. This will ensure that any risks to either the programme’s success and project objectives, or the funding itself, has been considered and deemed acceptable. The outcome of the due diligence checks will be given to the project board. They will consider this alongside the technical aspects of the funding application, when deciding which projects to fund.
- The due diligence will comprise of the following checks: liquidity, profitability, return on capital employed, debtors and creditors cycle, the review of Credit Safe reports, Charity Commission checks (where applicable), and the review of insurance documents, finance and procurement regulations to ensure that robust governance arrangements are in place to account for and manage our funding.
- We will only carry out due diligence checks on shortlisted organisations with project proposals that meet our funding criteria.
- Applicants applying for funding as either a (i) Lead Applicant or (ii) a Sole Deliverer should supply Financial Due Diligence Documentation for the Sole Deliverer or Lead Applicant only, and
- Applicants applying for funding as part of a Consortium should supply Financial Due Diligence Documentation for all members. The information will be collated in order to establish the strength of the consortium as a whole.
Financial due diligence documentation
- To support the due diligence process, applicants must provide the following documentation with their application:
- Copy of the most recent audited accounts or copy of the most recent accounts signed by an independent and qualified accountant
- Evidence of public and employer’s liability insurance
- Applicants must provide the following documentation when they are notified that they are successful pending due diligence checks
- Copy of the organisation’s financial regulations
- Statement of the organisation’s cash flow forecast for the current year
- The organisation’s budget for the current year
- Name and contact details of bank
And if relevant:
- Details of previous GLA contracts/grants and values over the last 12 months
- Where applicable, details of your organisation and / or any of your directors / partners / proprietors' bankruptcy, insolvency, compulsory winding up, receivership, composition with creditors, or subject to relevant proceedings
- Where applicable, details of any pending or actual investigation by a consultative committee of accounting bodies in relation to accountancy standards or professional conduct for which your organisation and / or any of its director(s) / partners/proprietor(s) is/has been subject to, including actions taken to put things right.
We reserve the right to require further information upon request.
Other important Information
- For applicants with a charitable status, we will check your details against those held on the Charity Commission’s website. We do this to ensure that you have charity status, that all documents requested by the Charity Commission have been submitted on time and they have no concerns about your status.
- For small organisations or newly incorporated companies without full financial statements a guarantor will be required who will provide a full performance guarantee under-which the guarantor undertakes to fulfil the terms of the grant in the event that the applicant is unable to deliver. Due diligence will need to be carrier out on the guarantor.
Exemptions
- Local authorities, local authority-controlled schools, government bodies and departments are exempt from the financial due diligence process. This status should be clearly highlighted in the application form.
References
- Reference:1www.london.gov.uk/coronavirus/londons-recovery-coronavirus-crisis/londo…
- Reference:2Sole Deliverers: Sole Deliverers are an individual organisation without sub-granting or sub-contracting arrangements. The GLA will issue a grant to the Sole Deliverer. Lead Applicants: Lead Applicants are an individual organisation who is solely responsible for the achievement of the project which is delivered through a partnership which is legally bound by sub-granting or sub-contracting arrangements. The GLA will issue a grant to the Lead Applicant. Consortiums: Consortiums are formed of a partnership of organisations who come together to deliver a common objective (the project) and are held jointly accountable for the delivery of the project. Consortiums are a legally constituted organisation (in which case all members must participate in the project). The GLA will issue a grant to the Consortium, and all members must sign the agreement.
- Reference:3www.nesta.org.uk/report/what-makes-effective-youth-mentoring-programme/…
- Reference:4pending satisfactory due diligence checks