A To Z Advice
ESSENTIAL FOR ALL APPLICANTS
All applicants must be aware of the following three key policy statements:
A To Z of Policies and Guidance
The following is an A to Z of further policy and guidance information for all applicants. It provides details on our expectations if you wish to apply for a grant.
Bursaries and Sponsored Places
Child Care (including Crèches)
Community Interest Companies (CICs)
Consultation with and involvement of children and young people
Early Years (including Children's Centres)
Governing Document or Constitution
Mentoring and Befriending Programmes
Playgrounds, Adventure Playgrounds, Play Areas and Sports Pitches
Supplementary Education / Schools
Young Offenders' Institutes (YOI)
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications for general awareness-raising or educational work. This refers to projects aimed at a general population of children or young people. The awareness-raising may be focused on issues such as sexual abuse, domestic violence and alcohol/drug use. For awareness-raising projects to be considered they will need to be specifically targeted at children and young people who are disadvantaged or at risk of being disadvantaged by the particular issue.
BBC Children in Need in Wales will not fund breakfast clubs in schools, due to Welsh Assembly Government commitment to provide breakfast in all schools that request it.
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications of more than £20,000 for any form of building work. This includes construction, renovation or conversion of new buildings, existing premises, playgrounds, sports pitches etc.
Furthermore, we will only consider applications for building work of £20,000 or less where the amount requested from us will complete the total cost of the project and enables the building work to commence.
There are several key issues to be aware of when applying for a grant.
Ownership:
- We will not consider applications to fund facilities where improvement adds to the capital value of statutory owned property, such as schools and hospitals.
- We will not consider applications to fund the development of a building and/or land that you do not securely own or lease.
- You should have a plan for meeting the future revenue costs of the building including repairs and maintenance.
Planning
- You must have planning permission for the work or permission under the lease.
- Accessibility and health and safety regulations must be considered in development.
- You must provide plans and estimates on request.
Consultation:
- You must provide evidence of children and young people being involved in the design and development of the project.
- We will not fund building developments where there is not convincing evidence of involvement with the groups expected to use the buildings.
Bursaries and Sponsored Places
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications to provide bursaries or to sponsor/subsidise places for disadvantaged children or young people where the normal fee charged by the organisation is unaffordable for them. Examples might include requests from fee-charging organisations that provide drama classes, playgroups, sports coaching etc. where the request is to subsidise places for one or more disadvantaged children because the fee is prohibitive for them.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications from organisations where the majority of children they are providing for are disadvantaged, and which do not charge a prohibitive fee.
In England and Wales, voluntary and community organisations with preceding year income over £5,000 must be registered with the Charity Commission.
If you are a registered charity in England or Wales, you do not need to send your governing document to us, as we will access it directly from the charity commission.
If you are a registered charity in Northern Ireland or Scotland, we still require you to send us a copy of your governing document.
For more information refer to the Charity Commission, the Office for Scottish Charity Regulator or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
Child Care (including Crèches)
BBC Children in Need will only fund projects with a child care element, including Crèches, when the focus is on providing a quality and developmental experience for the children themselves. We will not consider applications for child care where this is to facilitate training or employment for a parent as we consider this a statutory responsibility.
See also Early Years
Projects must be focused on the changes made (outcomes) to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. When applying you must provide evidence that disadvantaged children and young people will:
- be the primary beneficiaries of the project; and
- experience positive changes in their lives from the activities or services you are providing
Applicant organisations must provide evidence that they will protect children and young people in their care and support them to develop. You will need to demonstrate the following points within the application form and during your assessment:
- Your organisation has its own child protection policy and procedures, which everyone in your organisation knows about and uses in their day to day work. This should include having a named person responsible for child protection within your organisation.
- You undertake the appropriate criminal records checks for all staff, volunteers and management committee working directly with or with access to children and young people or information about children and young people.
- You ensure all staff, volunteers and management committee members who may come into contact with children and young people receive child protection training which is relevant to their role and updated on a regular basis.
- You take appropriate steps to ensure that children and young people in your care are safe, e.g. by conducting risk assessments for activities, by ensuring supervisory staff hold relevant qualifications, by providing adequate training to volunteers.
All of these measures should contribute to ensuring that the child or young person in your care will have a positive experience whilst participating in your project.
Please be aware that your approach to safeguarding children will be explored further during assessment should you reach this stage.
See also Computers and Internet.
When submitting supporting documentation with an application, churches are expected to provide full accounts according to BBC Children in Need's standard application requirements. However, instead of submitting a constitution churches are asked to provide:
- A document confirming their legal status, e.g. aims and objects.
- A document detailing how financial decisions are made (we would expect this to involve more than one person).
- A document detailing how project decisions are/will be made (we would expect this to involve more than one person).
Community Interest Companies (CICs)
BBC Children in Need will consider applications from CICs; however, we must be convinced by the applicant that the work is very directly focused on the needs and aspirations of children and young people. Applications should also show how the project responds to a clearly identified need and how the views of children and young people have been taken into account.
If your application includes the purchase of computers you will need to provide evidence that the computer/s will be primarily used by children and young people.
If you have a website or enable children and young people to access computers or the internet from your premises you will need to ensure:
- You have an ‘acceptable use policy’ (more information below).
- Your website is fully accessible, easy to read and appropriate to the age of its users.
- Children and young people have been involved in the design of your website (as appropriate).
You will be asked about your ‘acceptable use policy’ during assessment if you provide computer/internet access to children and young people or a website for their use, regardless of whether or not it is a component of the project for which you are requesting funding.
An ‘acceptable use policy’ details the way that the IT facilities can/cannot be used and all users are expected to sign up to it before gaining access. The policy should include ground rules for safe and responsible use of internet/email/chat rooms by the young people and describe the sanctions for misuse of the facilities (including how usage will be monitored and misuse identified). The policy should also describe the measures that the organisation is taking to ensure the children and young people's safety on the internet. It is important that this is relevant to the organisation, for example, a project for 15 to 18 year olds would need a very different policy from one for primary school children.
See also Equipment.
There are two distinct areas in which you need to consider computer safety. Firstly, within and for your own website (if applicable) and secondly, when children and young people are using the internet via your computers/premises.
You must fully consider the following:
- Children and young people should not be identifiable or contactable from information on the website.
- Photos should be used with care and with permission from the child and, parent/carer.
- Social Networking sites/facilities should adhere to good practice guidelines as set out by organisations such as Childnet International or Kid Smart, this might include reporting, access, registration, conduct, and moderation standards and practices.
- Children and young people using the internet via your equipment or premises should be sufficiently aware of and equipped with the skills to recognise and deal with internet dangers, which is usually achieved through training and information sessions and clear procedures for reporting inappropriate behaviour.
For more information refer to Childnet International and Kid Smart.
Consultation with and involvement of children and young people
When making an application, you will be expected to detail:
- How you have taken children and young people's views into account about the work you plan to do and the differences (outcomes) you hope it will lead to.
- How consultation will occur on an ongoing basis throughout the life of the project.
- How children and young people involved in the running or managing aspects of the projects will be supported where appropriate.
We accept that there may be clear reasons why some projects can only offer limited consultation; however applicants will need to be able to explain clearly why this is the case.
For more information refer to Participation Works.
Organisations that have previously received a grant from BBC Children in Need will be expected to provide convincing evidence to demonstrate the differences our funds to date have made to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. Each application will be considered on its own merits as we appreciate that organisations grow and improve their services to children or deal with different groups of children over a number of years.
BBC Children in Need expects all organisations offering formal, professional counselling to consider the following in their planning and running of their projects:
- The employment of professionally qualified counsellors who have experience of working with young people, who access appropriate clinical supervision with experienced supervisors, and who take part in regular, relevant continuing professional development.
- Delivery of accessible counselling in an appropriately private but safe setting (for both the clients and the counsellors).
- Being seen as a non stigmatising service within the community.
- Working within current legislation and guidance, offering confidentiality within usual ethical and safeguarding (child protection) limits.
- Responding flexibly as far as possible to local needs in respect of diversity and practicality (e.g. disability and language).
- Working with and alongside other services and agencies, whilst maintaining appropriate levels of confidentiality.
- Membership of a professional body (such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and as such adhering to an established ethical framework and complaints procedure.
- Employing counsellors whose personal qualities will mean that they are approachable, have good listening skills and a manner that encourages a climate for safe and trusting relationships.
If services are to be delivered by colleagues who are not fully qualified, then these workers must be monitored and supervised very closely by more experienced and qualified staff, and there must be systems in place to ensure safety for clients, workers, and the service.
For more information refer to BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
Please Note:
BBC Children in Need is unlikely to fund projects:
- Taking place during school time (we expect projects to take place before or after school, during lunch or in the holidays).
- Where children or young people are being taken out of class to attend.
See also Schools.
BBC Children in Need recognises the social model of disability where children and young people are disabled due to their exclusion from participation in mainstream society through physical, organisational and attitudinal barriers. These barriers prevent them from gaining equal access to information, education, employment, public transport, housing and social/recreational opportunities. As a result of these barriers disabled children and young people may also experience other disadvantages such as poverty, isolation, reduced access to leisure and friendship, illness and restricted opportunities.
We want our funds to support disabled children in ways that:
- Improve their choice and opportunity.
- Enhance their abilities.
- Encourage independence.
- Build their confidence and self esteem.
- Involve disabled young people and adults as positive role models.
- Counter negative attitudes and barriers to participation.
- Recognise the needs of families and carers.
We will not fund:
- Projects that reinforce negative stereotypes of disabled children and young people.
We expect all organisations applying to us to comply with the Equalities Act (2010).
Projects will be expected to focus on addressing issues of disadvantage affecting children and young people. We define disadvantage as:
- Living in poverty or situations of deprivation.
- Illness, Distress, Abuse or Neglect.
- Behavioural or Psychological Issues.
- Disability.
We expect that the majority of children to benefit from a grant application are disadvantaged. When applying you need to tell us about the children and young people your project is working with and describe how they are disadvantaged.
For guidance on describing disadvantage when making a funding application, please read our guide to the application form.
Early Years (including Children's Centres)
When applying to us for work with early years children, you will need to provide details about how your project is outside national and local statutory commitments. Applicants also will need to be clear that the services are for the primary benefit of disadvantaged children and not their parents.
Children's Centres or national equivalents cannot apply to BBC Children in Need independently and any services applied for cannot be part of their core offer. However other charity or voluntary organisations that are working in partnership with Children's Centres to deliver work which is additional to core services can apply as a lead applicant, they must however be involved in the delivery of this service.
See also Child Care & Crèches
BBC Children in Need will not fund the purchase of equipment for a statutory body, such as a school or hospital.
When applying for funding for equipment, you will be expected to detail:
- How children and young people will be the main users or will directly benefit.
- Why the equipment is needed for the project.
- How issues such as insurance, secure storage and shelf life have been considered.
- How you have shopped around to get the best value for money.
- Why purchasing equipment is better than hiring or borrowing.
- Who will have access to the equipment when not in use by the project.
Where equipment is purchased for an individual child or young person to use, BBC Children in Need prefers that the item remain the property of the group, not the individual. When an item is bespoke or not reusable we are comfortable that it becomes the assumed property of the child or young person.
See also Computers and Internet.
Governing Document or Constitution
A governing document outlines an organisation's rules, objectives and how they make decisions. This document is often called a constitution.
See also Charity Registration
BBC Children in Need will only fund holidays, trips and outings where these can be shown to be an effective way of addressing the needs of the children and young people involved.
We will fund holidays only as a one year grant when they are the primary feature of the applied for project. This is due to the high importance of having current child protection policies for these types of projects.
BBC Children in Need will consider two and three year requests for salaries where there is a holiday element as part of a wider range of activities. If a salary request with a holiday element receives a grant for more than one year, the applicant will be required to provide annual updates of their child protection policy to BBC Children in Need.
BBC Children in Need can only fund trips for holidays within the UK, other than in Northern Ireland where trips for holidays to the Republic of Ireland will be considered.
Due to wide statutory responsibilities in this area, it is not expected that BBC Children in Need will fund accommodation for homeless children or families except in very exceptional cases; however, there may be cause to support refuge accommodation for young people who have run away. We will also support activities within accommodation centres that address the issues and needs of disadvantaged children, such as within Women's Refuges.
Although we do not accept applications from individual children or their families, we fund Buttle UK to make small emergency welfare grants on our behalf to individual children and young people who are in crisis. As a result of these commitments, we do not accept applications from other organisations to provide general welfare funds to families and individuals. For more information on our Emergency Essentials Programme visit the Buttle UK website.
We do accept applications for more specialised types of grants from an eligible organisation applying on behalf of an individual child or children. Examples might include starter packs for young homeless people or a specific item of support for a child affected by illness. The organisation must take responsibility for answering any questions we might have about the child and the circumstances of his or her situation.
Where equipment is purchased for an individual child or young person to use, BBC Children in Need prefers that the item remain the property of the group and not the individual. When an item is bespoke or not reusable we are comfortable that it becomes the assumed property of the child or young person.
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications to provide bursaries or to sponsor / subsidise places for disadvantaged children or young people where the normal fee charged by the organisation is unaffordable for them.
See also Bursaries and Sponsored Places.
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications from local government bodies. This includes councils at all levels, such as county, metropolitan, district, city councils, etc as well any NHS body.
BBC Children in Need will not fund medical aids or equipment where there is a statutory responsibility. This includes the purchase of specialised medical equipment for a hospital.
Mentoring and befriending programmes
BBC Children in Need would expect all organisations applying for mentoring and befriending projects to consider the following in their planning and running of their projects:
- A clear link between your project aims and the benefits identified for individual clients/volunteers.
- A process for client referral/eligibility incorporating good equal opportunities practice.
- Robust procedures in place for the screening of volunteers and arrangements for safeguarding clients and volunteers (including CRB checks, references, risk assessments, insurance confidentiality statement, consent forms).
- A good and consistent process for matching your clients with volunteers and arrangements in place for dealing with relationships that turn out to be unsuitable.
- Ensuring that initial training and preparation for volunteers is in place alongside ongoing support.
- Ensuring that there is/will be a documented process in place for monitoring the progress of relationships.
Organisations working in this area may want to consider attaining the Approved Provider Standard, a national benchmark for organisations providing volunteer mentoring or befriending.
For more information, refer to the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation.
If your organisation is applying for a Volunteer Co-ordinator post, please ensure you provide a job description for the volunteers.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications for minibuses and caravans. However, when making such applications you will need to evidence the following:
- Why the organisation needs to own instead of hire a minibus or caravan.
- How much you expect to use the minibus or caravan, and how much of that use will be by disadvantaged children and young people.
- How insurance, secure storage, running and maintenance costs will be paid.
- How the vehicle will have the necessary accessibility for all potential users.
- How all safety requirements, such as seat belts and fire extinguishers, are included in compliance with the law.
National organisations are those that provide or aim to provide services to the whole of England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland or any combination of these.
National organisations with independent branches (i.e. have their own constitution, their own management committee and are fully responsible for their own finances) are treated as separate organisations and we can accept applications from each branch.
Non-independent branches of UK-wide organisations, which have a physical presence in more than one nation, are eligible to submit an application to each nation, providing that no other grants are held in that nation.
Parenting classes can be supported as long as they are not aiming to enhance the experience of parents as an end in itself, but are working with parents as a means of improving the experience of children and young people. Strong evidence of outcomes for children needs to be provided.
Some organisations may decide to work together and adopt a joint approach; however, any application must be made by an organisation which is a legal entity. It is therefore essential that one organisation in the partnership is nominated as the lead organisation and makes the application. That organisation will be legally accountable for managing the grant and reporting back, for project delivery, including the management of any workers funded by the project, and for ensuring that the project achieves its stated outcomes.
Applications from partnerships are subject to the same guidance as other applications with regard to the status of the applicant body.
The lead member of a partnership, i.e. the applicant organisation, will not be eligible to apply for another grant (apart from our normal rules on holding a small and main grant).
Good planning is one of the best ways to improve your chances of making a successful application. For more information and advice, please read our step by step guide to planning your project in Sharing our Experiences.
Playgrounds, Adventure Playgrounds, Play Areas and Sports Pitches
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications of more than £20,000 for any form of building work. This includes construction, renovation or conversion of new buildings, existing premises, playgrounds, sports pitches etc.
Further, we will only consider applications for building work of £20,000 or less where the amount requested from us will complete the total cost of the project and enable the building work to commence.
There are several key issues to be aware of when applying for a grant:
Ownership:
- We will not consider applications to fund facilities where improvement adds to the capital value of statutory owned property, such as schools and hospitals.
- We will not consider applications to fund the development of a building, facility and/or land that you do not securely own or lease.
- You should have a plan for meeting the future revenue costs of the building/facilities including insurance, repairs and maintenance.
Planning
- You must have planning permission for the work or permission under the lease.
- Accessibility and health and safety regulations must be considered in development.
- You must provide plans and estimates on request.
Consultation:
- You must provide evidence of children and young people being involved in the design and development of the project.
- We will not fund developments where there is not convincing evidence of involvement with the groups expected to use the facilities.
Most playgroups and play schemes for children under the age of eight years must be registered unless the law says they are not required to do so.
BBC Children in Need will not fund projects of these types that should be registered and are not. See also Playgroup Registration.
Most playgroups and playschemes for children under the age of eight years must be registered unless the law says they are not required to do so.
For more information refer to Ofsted (for England); Care Inspectorate (for Scotland); Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales; your local Health and Social Care Trust (for Northern Ireland).
BBC Children in Need does not fund projects for pregnancy testing; or advice, information or counselling on pregnancy choices.
BBC Children in Need wants to fund projects ‘for success’ - which may include a proportion of support costs. We will consider proportional support costs relating to the direct project delivery only. We will fund limited project support costs relating to the direct costs of the project, which may include items such as:
- evaluation and/or monitoring costs.
- administrative running costs.
- administrative materials or support.
- management or supervision costs.
BBC Children in Need will not consider applications from statutory health bodies. This includes NHS primary or secondary care bodies, hospitals, PCT's, SHA's and equivalents, for example, Health and Social Care Trusts, NHS Boards and Health Trusts.
Applications from organisations supporting children and young people with rare medical conditions require the external referee to be a medical practitioner with experience of working with the condition and knowledge of the work of the organisation and the specific project.
Your first (internal) referee should be someone who is in a management position within your organisation and who is not the person named as the applicant.
Your second (external) referee must be someone who knows your organisation in a professional capacity but who is not a part of it. It is essential that the referee has a good understanding of the project you are applying for, as they will be asked to discuss your application if it goes through to assessment.
For more information on referees, go to Completing the Application Form.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications from faith based organisations as they are often engaged in social welfare and community regeneration; however, we will not fund the promotion of religion or any activity that involves proselytising.
BBC Children in Need will fund residential activities only as a one year grant when they are the primary feature of the project applied for. This is due to the high importance of having current child protection policies for these types of projects.
We will consider two and three year requests for salaries where the residential element is part of a wider range of activities. If a salary request with a residential element receives a grant for more than one year, the applicant will be required to provide annual updates of their child protection policy to BBC Children in Need.
BBC Children in Need will not give grants directly to residential establishments wanting to secure funding for children and young people to attend their centres. We will only provide funding to organisations with an established working relationship with children and young people.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications from projects offering respite care to the family of a disabled child. However, as the core provision of respite care is statutory responsibility, you will need to provide a strong rationale as to why BBC Children in Need has been asked to fund the scheme.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications from schools but will not consider:
- activities or services that schools have a statutory responsibility to provide. i.e, the curriculum or activities directly related to it.
- improvements to a school building or grounds.
- the purchase of equipment that will be used within curriculum time.
Unless a very exceptional case can be made, BBC Children in Need is unlikely to fund projects:
- which take place during school time (we expect projects to take place before or after school, during lunch or in the holidays).
- where children or young people are being taken out of class to attend.
When submitting supporting documentation with an application, instead of submitting a constitution, schools are expected to provide:
- A document confirming their legal status.
- A document detailing how financial decisions are made (we would expect this to involve more than one person).
- A document detailing how project decisions are/will be made (we would expect this to involve more than one person).
When a grant is made to a school the funds will only be paid into a bank account in their name and not that of any other body, for example, a local authority.
Projects working with children and young people excluded from schools should be able to demonstrate clearly how the BBC Children in Need funding will be additional to statutory responsibilities and not replace statutory funding that follows the child.
See also Schools.
BBC Children in Need recognises the need to engage sessional staff for the purposes of delivering specific forms of project or activity for children and young people, for example, short term/one-off holiday play schemes. However we believe that, where possible, it is more likely to produce good outcomes for children if organisations offer fixed-term part-time contracts to cover projects.
All main grant applications which involve an element of staffing costs, including sessional staff, tutors, coaches, employees, contractors, freelancers, play workers, artists, therapists must provide a job description, person specification and first year work plan for each different post requested.
Staff training can be funded when there is a link to outcomes for children and young people that can be clearly demonstrated, for example, when it is focused on the provision of children's services. Training will not be funded when it is purely to enhance an individual's professional development.
BBC Children in Need does not provide funding for the relief of statutory responsibilities. We can consider additional services that are clearly beyond statutory responsibility and organisations are expected to show that this is the case in their applications to us.
We are unlikely to fund where a local authority or other statutory body has withdrawn or reduced funding to a project or service. For funding to occur in these circumstances there needs to be a very strong and distinctive case made by the applicant.
Supplementary Education / Schools
When applying for supplementary education projects, you must be able to show consideration of the following:
- How the classes are publicised.
- How pupils will be selected.
- How children are consulted and involved.
- The level of contact with mainstream schools, other supplementary schools, community organisations, local children's trusts (if in England) or other local and national educational bodies.
- The level of parental involvement.
- The structure of the curriculum and assessment of progress.
- The qualification/experience of tutors.
- Staff development/teacher training.
For more information on supplementary schools, refer to ContinYou.
BBC Children in Need will consider applications to strengthen young people's life and social skills and their ability to participate in society. However, in relation to any work focused on employability and training, the application must show that it is beyond the school curriculum and broader statutory responsibilities for engaging 14 to 19 year olds.
Volunteer expenses must only be paid for expenditure which is incurred, for example, when refunding a bus ticket or the cost of petrol. Expenses should not be an allowance or fixed fee for volunteering, as this may be viewed as pay, which is subject to National Insurance and tax.
For more information, refer to Volunteering England.
BBC Children in Need will not fund Welsh classes. The teaching of Welsh is a statutory function up to GCSE level and is a core subject in all schools in Wales.
BBC Children in Need does not fund children's workers in women's refuges in Scotland, where it is covered by statutory provision.
Young Offenders' Institutes (YOI)
BBC Children in Need will consider funding that adds value to the statutory responsibility to provide 'opportunities for enrichment' and services that prepare and/or support young people in their transition back into society on release. The responsibility for provision must be a partnership between the YOI and a voluntary sector organisation and the activities are to be holistic in nature. We would normally expect any such applications to come from the provider, rather than the YOI. We will not fund other statutory responsibilities of the YOI, these being capital or staff costs, the provision of ongoing education and basic enrichment, such as equipment for general association with peers, and family days.
See also Partnership Work.
