Youth Matters Fund
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is seeking a single grant recipient (or consortium) to lead the Youth Matters Fund (YMF). This £400 million+ programme is committed to delivering significant, long-term change in youth provision across underserved areas in England. The YMF aims to achieve rapid improvements in the quality and level of youth services, long-term sustainability of youth sector facilities, and meaningful local partnerships that drive sector growth. The successful recipient (single or consortium) will lead the programme, manage the grant allocation, and oversee large-scale youth service delivery.
- Opening date:
- Closing date: (Midnight)
Contents
Summary
Grant opportunity
The outcomes we would like to achieve
The Youth Matters Fund (YMF) provides up to £416.8m of grant funding to deliver significant long-term change in youth services provision across the parts of England with the greatest need. The fund aims to achieve three core outcomes in circa 60 eligible places:
Rapid improvements in the level and quality of youth services provision, informed by a step change in engagement with young people;
Long-term enhancements to the sustainability of youth sector activities and facilities; and
The development of meaningful local partnerships that underpin sustainable sector growth.
Strategic Alignment
This fund is the cornerstone of the government's Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy (NYS). The ambitions of the strategy are to support disadvantaged young people by breaking down barriers to community access, with the ultimate target by 2035;
to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers; and
for half a million more young people to have access to a trusted adult outside of their home.
The Youth Matters Fund is designed to embody several shifts in government that are outlined in the National Youth Strategy, namely moving away from the historic challenges of fragmented delivery and centralised decision-making. The strategy advocates for a fundamental transition towards collaborative, place-based governance. By embedding these principles into this fund, we are prioritising local decision-making and collaborative partnerships, ensuring that investment is responsive, sustainable, and rooted in the unique needs of local communities and local young people.
To translate this strategic vision into on-the-ground impact, we are seeking a delivery partner with the capability to drive this transition within eligible places.
Notably, alongside this grant, DCMS is planning to deliver a separate, in-house pilot to test how revenue investments can be made in a small number of Local Authorities, through a devolved approach. This may explore various aspects of devolved delivery, including how these Local Authorities work with others in partnerships and how local youth plans are developed and delivered. This may generate helpful learning for the in-flight Youth Matters Fund, which DCMS will share.
Delivery Approach
We are seeking to award this grant to the applicant that can most credibly and effectively provide long term and sustainable improvements to the youth sector provision in the eligible places. These are places where young people feel there is little to do and where need is highest. We are currently developing the place methodology which we are planning to publish this autumn.
The successful proposal will make a significant contribution to achieving the outcomes within the eligible places.
We will favour applications which will deliver the greatest impact on these outcomes, particularly those which are most likely to deliver benefits beyond the period of DCMS funding.
The areas that we will prioritise for investment are facing long-term challenges related to the sustainability of the youth sector but also immediate challenges regarding a lack of appropriate provision now.
The successful delivery partner will set out the steps it will take to identify and address the immediate challenges facing the local youth sector, whilst simultaneously identifying how it will create and deliver longer term plans to develop and improve the local youth sector services provision in the medium to long term.
As part of these proposals we expect applicants to set out how they will ensure sustainability through the creation and/or development of meaningful youth sector partnerships, bringing together key local actors to better understand local challenges, develop and implement necessary change, remove duplication and build a sustainable ecosystem of local youth services provision.
The successful proposal will not just demonstrate how it will use the funding we will provide but will also demonstrate how the organisation/consortium we choose to fund will act as a champion and advocate for the youth sector in the eligible places, demonstrating to other funders the value that investment in the sector can bring.
The successful applicant will demonstrate how they will work with and alongside existing and emergent youth and community structures, ensuring that the investments they make are meeting genuine local needs. We are particularly keen to support intelligent investment strategies, which avoid duplication of existing provision, instead working proactively and collaboratively to understand and build the local offer.
We believe that successful youth provision must engage young people at every stage. It is not enough that they are the recipient of a service, rather they should be meaningfully engaged in the design, delivery and evaluation of provision in order to ensure the provision is valued and successful. We will give preference to proposals which demonstrate how they will engage young people in both the targeting and design of provision as well as the allocation of onward investments.
As part of an intelligent investment approach, we would expect the successful applicant to build meaningful relationships with other funders and to understand the full range of funding opportunities on offer in each eligible place. These may be from central or local government sources as well as from other funders such as philanthropists. This is so the successful applicant is able to direct and guide applicants to the Youth Matters Fund to alternative funding sources where these may be more appropriate to meet their needs, providing an appropriate amount of support and advice to those who might need it.
Where the successful delivery partner intends to give onward grants, we expect any onward applicants to comply with the relevant UK Grant Functional Standards (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-functional-standard-govs-015-grants).
A key priority for DCMS is to reduce the burden on the youth sector. In support of this, we are working closely with the Grants Management Function in the Cabinet Office and together we are keen to explore - with the delivery partner - novel and creative ways to simplify the grant making process. This could include, for instance, onward grant-making that allows applications to be made in-part by video or through an interview process.
Similarly, we would be interested to explore proposals which reduce the level of bureaucracy related to grant claims and payments whilst maintaining the necessary safeguards around economic crime and proper use of public funding. As part of the application process we will judge the skills, experience and expertise which applicants have in onward grant-making where this forms part of a proposal. We will also work with the successful applicant post-award to determine the relevant freedoms and flexibilities we could support in the grant making process.
Delivery Roles and Accountabilities
To ensure robust governance and effective delivery, DCMS are required to ensure appropriate levels of strategic oversight and independent assurance are in place throughout the life of the fund. As part of the assurance framework, DCMS will appoint a separate organisation to perform a similar role to that of an Employer’s Agent.
We have called this the ‘Funder’s Agent’ and its purpose is to provide technical and professional assurance services throughout the programme, and potentially to coordinate an integrated PMO function across the fund. We will ensure a transparent interface is established between the main parties, i.e. DCMS as funder, the delivery partner managing the fund and the Funder’s Agent, centred on regular progress reporting, financial assurance, and collaborative project monitoring. We expect the Grant recipient to engage with DCMS and the Employer’s Agent on any assurance activities.
The Funder’s Agent will be procured after the scope of the proposal for this grant opportunity has been agreed between the delivery partner and DCMS. This is so the scope of the Funder’s Agent role can be defined in a way that complements, rather than duplicates, what is provided by the delivery partner. If, for example, proposals set out arrangements for assurance of delivery that DCMS considers to be sufficiently robust then the scope of the Funder’s Agent could potentially be reduced to take this into account.
Eligibility
Criteria for applicants
DCMS invites applications from charitable or philanthropic organisations with proven experience in large-scale grant delivery, capital investment, and the youth sector. The successful partner will invest in facilities, equipment, and services to drive sustainable, long-term improvements in youth provision across underserved areas in England.
Legal Status of Applicant
Applicants may apply as a single organisation with or without delivery partners, or may alternatively submit a joint application (for example, as a consortium, joint venture, unincorporated association, partnership or otherwise). This may, for example, apply to entities who feel that alone they do not have the capacity or capability to address the size and scale of DCMS’ requirement, or wish to bring in additional expertise to meet DCMS’ required skills and experience for this role. Applicants are responsible for determining the most appropriate approach to delivering their proposal. If submitting a joint application, we require one organisation to take the lead role as the applicant, main point of contact, payee for funds, and responsible body who agrees to ensure the terms and conditions of the grant offer are upheld by all involved.
DCMS is unable to accept applications from joint ventures or unincorporated partnerships or associations.
The applicants must advise DCMS if there is any change to their legal status and/or composition during or after the appointment process, and DCMS reserves the right to disqualify applicants where significant or material changes occur.
Essential criteria
The applicant must demonstrate that they:
Are a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic institution. DCMS is making this grant award under powers granted to us by s70 of the Charities Act 2006. Therefore, we can only award grants to organisations who are charitable, philanthropic or benevolent in nature. As part of your application to us you should provide evidence that your organisation fulfils this criteria such as memorandum and articles or evidence that you are registered as such an organisation with an appropriate body. Organisations must be able to demonstrate that the project is not for profit.
You must confirm that you can deliver the funded activity within the stated programme period. That you have sufficient resources, capacity and capability to provide tailored support to a range of areas across England.
Have understanding, knowledge and experience with the youth sector landscape, local youth organisations and working with young people.
Have a robust safeguarding policy.
Have organisational capability in programme, project or grant management
Have appropriate financial management systems and processes to account for grant expenditure accurately and transparently such as fraud risk assessments, policies on fraud, bribery, anti-corruption and due diligence and experience managing counter fraud processes, while ensuring value for money
Have appropriate organisational legal protocols and processes, including data management (GDPR and Data Protection), Conflict of Interests, handling vulnerable adults and children (safeguarding), Modern Slavery declaration, Health & Safety declaration, relevant insurance, fraud and due diligence policies (as described above)
Applicant Preferences
We will favour applications from organisation(s) that provide evidence of:
Sector knowledge and capability
Understanding, knowledge and experience of working with the youth sector landscape, including VCSE organisations, Local Authorities, representative stakeholders and other public service providers at a local level to understand what provision currently exists in each eligible place and what is needed across refurbishments, new builds, capital equipment and youth services funding.
Understanding of the support and assurance required for local youth organisations delivering activities and capital projects.
Understanding of and commitment to supporting young people.
Delivery experience
Demonstrable experience of designing and delivering similar projects, which align to the fund’s objectives, including delivering and monitoring of grant funding.
Demonstrable experience of meaningfully embedding young people’s views in the design and delivery of projects as well as providing appropriate input for onward funding decisions.
Sufficient capacity and capabilities to deliver the fund in the timeframe set out as well as to upskill and support staff
If an onward grant model is proposed, experience of grant management, in particular technical assessment of bids and appropriate digital platforms and systems to support grant management services
The ability to map the landscape of relevant funding opportunities available to youth organisations in each eligible place and to then signpost these depending on the needs of organisations, offering an appropriate amount of support and advice to those who need it.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Experience and capacity to work with an independent evaluator
Experience supporting evaluations through taking part in evaluation activities such as interviews and providing data to support a programme evaluation.
The ability to facilitate and embed lesson learned to drive legacy of the fund within the youth sector
Appropriate data sharing, management and monitoring
Technical ability
The ability to track the progress of a large portfolio of individual projects, underpinned by robust portfolio management arrangements, including timely, accurate and insightful management information, planning and forecasting.
The ability to design, deliver and maintain any relevant online and offline services that meet legal and regulatory requirements for security, accessibility and protecting the privacy of users.
Due diligence
DCMS does not tolerate fraud, bribery or corruption. To be eligible for this fund, shortlisted applications will be checked against various databases to assess the accuracy of the information provided. Any shortlisted applications which do not satisfy due diligence checks will not be assessed. DCMS will monitor the grant throughout its lifetime and may conduct additional assurance exercises to ensure that funding is being spent correctly.
We will assess the following:
You have a track record of delivering grants of the relevant size, scale and complexity given the overall funding available through this programme.
We have received and reviewed at least two references from a minimum of two organisations that have previously funded you to deliver a fund.
If you have been funded by another part of the government, we seek feedback from that department.
That you are not already receiving funding for this fund meaning the fund is funded twice, unless the other funding is acting as match funding.
Trustees are identifiable and unrelated to others within organisations involved in the programme (including DCMS), and there is no indication of fraud.
Where multiple organisations are located at the same postcode, there is no indication of fraud – if you do have the same postcode as other organisations you will be asked to provide an explanation.
You are able to provide an annual report and audited or certified accounts, covering the last two years or similar documentation.
Please note, in the event your last financial year end was more than 6 months ago, we may request further accounting information at a later date as part of the due diligence process.
We expect applicants to provide further information, if requested, as the result of due diligence and risk assessment checks. DCMS will conduct its due diligence checks through processes including (but not limited to):
the government’s online automated due-diligence tool ‘Spotlight’
manual pre- and post-award checks in line with Cabinet Office’s Guidance for General Grants, including reputational checks such as social media
We will not give you a chance to provide missing information if your application is incomplete
Objectives
Funding Purpose
DCMS funds should be demonstrably additional to existing funding. DCMS funds should not be used to replace existing youth sector funding, including Local Authorities’ duty to fund youth services through the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS). Applicants will be required to demonstrate how they will consider additionality as part of their investment processes.
Similarly, DCMS funding should be used to build upon not duplicate existing provision. To deliver the outcomes, the growth and sustainability generated must not be driven by displacement/replacement of the existing market (i.e. the creation of new youth provision which simply leads to the closure of old provision).
We are seeking a grant recipient who is able to invest revenue and capital funding into the youth sector in order to improve; the wellbeing, the social and emotional skills, behaviours and practical skills of young people which are evidenced to lead to improved life outcomes and reduced public spending on care services. To achieve this we are wanting to support an organisation deliver the following high-level objectives and expected outcomes:
Objectives
Enable a diverse range of high-quality enriching activities and youth work in underserved areas, focusing on tackling barriers to access and contributing to halving the participation gap between disadvantaged young people and their peers.
Enable opportunities for young people to have in-person connections with skilled trusted adults in diverse settings. We have an aim to support half a million more young people having access to a trusted adult outside of their home - we expect this scheme to contribute to that target.
Support positive outcomes for participating young people, in particular their skills, their engagement in community development and decision-making, and the benefits from social connections with their peers and/or trusted adults.
Embed young people’s views at the heart of decision-making, both locally and at the scale of the programme, learning, testing and growing as the fund develops.
Create, expand, improve and/or preserve up to 250 facilities, that offer access to youth work and enriching activities to young people in underserved areas; including maximising the use of up to 2,500 new or existing youth facilities through the provision of capital equipment.
Support and improve the local infrastructure, in particular by:
Improving the safety and accessibility of youth activities and facilities
Supporting jobs and economic activity in underserved areas though contracts and supply chains
Support and improve the youth sector’s capacity and capability to effectively run youth activities and facilities, including:
incentivising and supporting place-based youth partnerships that work collectively to deliver the activities and spaces young people want and need.
Increasing the financial resilience of the supported organisations
DCMS is willing to consider any delivery proposal which will achieve these outcomes. Details in Section 3 of the GOV.UK page outline a range of models which DCMS believes may be successful and which are provided to assist applicants in considering what an effective delivery model may look like. DCMS is open to alternative models.
The successful application should demonstrate how they will use the available funding to both stabilise and grow youth provision in the short to medium term as well as embed long term sustainable growth in the local youth sector eco system in the medium to long term.
We will favour applications which:
offer the greatest impact on these outcomes, particularly schemes which will continue to deliver benefits beyond the period of DCMS funding.
can demonstrate a place-based local approach, embedding delivery in local plans and communities.
have a strong youth empowerment and co-design proposal throughout the entirety of the fund, from design to evaluation.
include considerations of match funding and philanthropic opportunities to ensure maximum reach of funding.
include considerations of how they can support youth organisations - including unsuccessful applicants - by helping them navigate diverse, sustainable funding streams, enhancing the sector’s capability to secure resource funding in the future.
Dates
Period of grant agreement
The grant recipient will be expected to start work as soon as they are appointed through the formal signing of the Grant Agreement in the 2026/27 Financial Year, and ending late 2030, with exact dates to be determined.
Timeline
The proposed timetable and timelines serve as guidance only.
Key Milestones:
Deadline for delivery organisation grant application - 21 Aug 2026
Evaluation of delivery organisation application - Sep 2026
Funding award provisional notification - Sep 2026
Execution of Grant Agreement - Nov 2026
Start of delivery organisation mobilisation period - Dec 2026
End of delivery organisation mobilisation period - Mar 2027
Project monitoring - Dec 2026 to Mar 2030
Handover of audit information and assets. Majority of financial reconciliation activities complete. - Feb 2030
Final retention payments released (12 months after project spend period ends) - Dec 2030
End of agreement - Dec 2030
Latest spend dates
Onward revenue grants for the purpose of paying for costs associated with capital refurbishment or new builds that cannot be capitalised must be spent by December 2029.
Onward capital funding for the purpose of funding refurbishments, new builds or capital equipment must be spent by December 2029.
Onward revenue grants for the purpose of funding youth services activities, e.g. youth workers salaries, must be spent by 31 March 2029.
Revenue funding for the delivery partner’s administration fee, must be spent by March 2031 to allow for any capital retention processes and programme closure activities to be concluded.
How to apply
Please follow the steps below to apply:
Ensure you have fully read this competition guidance document.
Complete the mandatory initial stages:
‘Confirm your Organisation’s Eligibility’ - Complete an eligibility checklist questionnaire highlighting how you are eligible against the minimum required standard for this fund.
‘Due Diligence Checks’ - To collect required information to allow for our due diligence checks including; organisation legal name, type, registered address, Charity Commission number (if applicable), Companies House number (if applicable), amount of funding required, where it will be spent.
3. Complete the application form on the GOV.UK page. Applications open on Friday 10 July 2026 and close 11:59pm on Friday 21 August 2026.
Any applications received after the closing date will not be assessed.
Supporting information
For further information, please read the competition guidance.