Form

Youth Investment Fund Capital: expressions of interest for grant administration details

Published 12 May 2021

Applies to England

1. Objectives

Youth Investment Fund Capital’s (YIF Capital) spending objective is to improve the effectiveness of youth services by driving better youth outcomes such as improved health and wellbeing, and equipping young people with skills for work and life and empowering them to be active members of their communities and society. The issue that the YIF Capital funding seeks to address is an increasingly limited supply of youth centres and spaces for young people to go.

Our intended approach is to work with left-behind areas in England, assessing and funding their proposals for capital investment to transform their local youth facility provision. A list of approximately 60 top-tier local authorities would be pre-selected and engaged by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), ahead of the fund’s launch. We would then seek capital bids through a limited competition among top tier local authorities, investing in the most viable and impactful projects.

Though the priorities for investment would be decided locally, this could manifest in a number of ways, such as:

• use of modular buildings (or other modern methods of construction) that could rapidly deliver new facilities within the financial year
• investment that facilitates new, in-demand activities
• opening up youth activities to new audiences that couldn’t access existing provision, for example due to travel distance or capacity issues
• improving the sustainability and quality of facilities so that service providers can focus on delivering a higher quality or expanded offer to young people

We expect the local coordination of bids to be led by a locally based organisation - a voluntary, community, social enterprise (VCSE) organisation, youth organisation or local authority. Individual grant agreements will be issued to each participant within a local bid.

The £30 million capital fund is the government’s initial outlay from its Youth Investment Fund manifesto commitment, so we also need to plan for future capital investment. We will use this year’s fund to identify capital projects that extend beyond March 2022. We are particularly interested in common requirements between places, where the government could achieve efficiencies and better value for money, through the commissioning and central procurement for multiple youth facilities, for example new modular buildings and pre-fabricated expansions to existing facilities.

2. YIF Capital delivery timetable

YIF Capital must be delivered within the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

3. Grant administration role

We are seeking a Grant Administration partner to manage the delivery of YIF Capital. Our current preference is a VCSE or youth sector organisation with experience in grant delivery, capital expertise and knowledge of the youth sector. The Grant Administrator will need to demonstrate experience of technical assessment and timely management of capital projects, and the ability to work with local and national stakeholders in the Youth sector. This could be delivered by individual organisations or consortia where skills gaps are identified. We anticipate that the Grant Administrator will be awarded a grant to cover costs associated with the delivery of this funding. We will provide further details of this grant award, which is likely to be run via an open competition, after the initial expressions of interest process is complete.

The Grant Administrator will be required to assist DCMS with fund setup, assessment of capital bids, recommendations of award to DCMS and grant offer documentation. Please see further detail below:

Phase	Activity
1. Set up - July 2021	Initial fund setup, including working with DCMS officials on a final application form and guidance and preparing to load onto a Portal/IT system. Early engagement with local coordinators 60 Places. Set up of helpline facility for queries. Supporting DCMS at the launch of the fund. Fraud Risk Assessment
2. Applications - August 2021	Advisory and engagement with local coordinators in 60 Places. Stage 1: Receiving, sifting and assessing initial expressions of interest. Preparing a shortlist of Places for Stage 2. Stage 2: Receiving, sifting and assessing grant applications. Technical assessing of capital bids. Preparing a shortlist of Places and organisations in the Places recommended to receive funding for review by DCMS officials. Preparing for an advisory panel with DCMS officials. Preparing lists for Ministerial approval as required via DCMS officials
3. Awards - August and September 2021	Awarding of grants to successful Place bids and direct to end recipients. Payment of grants.
4. Management - August 2021 to March 2022	Ongoing Relationship management with grant recipients. Regular reporting to DCMS.
5. Review - April to May 2022	Participation in post-event assurance (PEA) and evaluation
6. Close - May 2022	Ongoing fund monitoring and handover of assets and data to DCMS at end of contract

4. Expressions of interest process

We are asking organisations who are interested in this role and have the capacity and skill set to deliver, to submit a short outline over a maximum of four pages of A4 to cover the following:

• experience in grant delivery
• experience in assessing and monitoring capital projects
• knowledge of the youth sector
• confirmation of sufficient technical, financial, human and logistical capacity within the 21/22 financial year to deliver funding of this scale. Liaising with approximately 60 places and administering up to approximately 1,000 grant agreements
• in-house delivery and/or partnership/consortium

Where the expression of interest is being submitted on behalf of more than one organisation working in a consortium or partnership, please provide relevant information for all of the organisations involved. We are not asking for detailed proposals at this stage. We will use these initial returns to understand the capacity within the VCSE and youth sectors to deliver this funding. We will tailor any subsequent application process appropriately and issue detailed guidance in due course.

5. Contact details

Please send expressions of interest outlines to michaela.brennan@dcms.gov.uk by Friday 28 May, 12pm (midday).

DCMS will hold a virtual engagement session on Wednesday19 May to explain this opportunity in further detail and answer any queries. Please contact Michaela Brennan on michaela.brennan@dcms.gov.uk to request further information or to sign up for this event.