Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund 2027 - 2029

Eligibility summary: Eligibility The Fund has a national purpose, but funded delivery does not need to operate across the whole of England and Wales. Applications may propose local, regional, cross-regional or national delivery where they demonstrate that the activity addresses an evidenced gap, supports a population whose needs are not consistently met through existing arrangements, or makes a clear contribution to the Fund’s overall national portfolio. Applicants must explain the additional value of Home Office funding and how their proposal complements rather than duplicates existing provision. 1. Eligibility Criteria Funding is open to voluntary and community sector organisations working in England, and Wales that can support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and/or those caring for or supporting them. The applicant must be registered in England, Wales or Scotland and be one of the following: • A Community Group that: o is set up for charitable, benevolent, or philanthropic purposes o has a governing body with at least 3 members • A Charity registered with a UK charity number • A Community Interest Company (CIC) – a type of limited company that exists to benefit the community, not private shareholders • A Social Enterprise – a business with social aims, where profits are reinvested into the business or community, not paid to owners or shareholders • A Faith-based Organisation • Any other non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation with an appropriate governing structure. Partnership and consortium applications are permitted. One eligible organisation must act as the accountable lead, hold the Grant Agreement and remain responsible for the governance, performance and financial management of all delivery partners. Applicants may submit only one application, either as a sole applicant or as part of a consortium. Applicants must: • be able to deliver the funded activity for the full grant period; • demonstrate relevant experience and capability in supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse; • have a current (within last 2 years) safeguarding certification, governance, financial controls, information governance and risk-management arrangements; • demonstrate value for money and the capacity to manage public funds; • explain how the proposal addresses evidenced need and contributes to the Fund’s objectives and intended outcomes; • explain the additional value of Home Office funding and how the proposal complements rather than duplicates existing provision; and • identify material financial, workforce, delivery and partnership dependencies and explain how these will be managed. The following are not eligible to apply: • local authorities; • individuals; • private companies or other organisations that do not meet the eligible organisation requirements and seek to distribute profit to owners or shareholders.; and • universities or academics institution. Statutory bodies may participate as delivery partners where this adds value and does not duplicate their statutory responsibilities. Statutory bodies are not eligible applicants and must not receive funding from this Fund. Applicants may propose new or developing approaches, but novelty is not a requirement. Established models are eligible where applicants demonstrate unmet need, appropriate quality, outcomes and value for money. Proposals addressing technology-enabled or other emerging harms should demonstrate a credible current or anticipated need, appropriate safeguarding and specialist input, and a clear benefit for victims and survivors. Assessment criteria Applications will first undergo mandatory compliance, eligibility and due-diligence checks. These checks will not contribute to the final application score. Applications may be excluded where the checks identify a failure to meet a mandatory requirement or an unacceptable risk to public funds, including evidence of fraud, financial misconduct, insolvency concerns, serious governance weaknesses or failure to meet required safeguarding standards. Applications will be assessed against four scored questions: • Strategic fit and evidenced need • Delivery model and quality • Outcomes, impact and evaluation • Accessibility, safeguarding and survivor involvement Applications must meet all mandatory requirements and achieve a minimum moderated raw score of 40 on each of the four scored questions to be considered fundable. An application receiving a moderated raw score below 40 on any scored question will not be considered fundable, regardless of its overall weighted score. Fundable applications will normally be ranked by their final moderated, weighted score and funded in score order. However, the Home Office may apply the portfolio-selection methodology to select the combination of fundable applications that best meets the Fund’s aims within the available budget. This may take account of gaps in support, beneficiary reach, geographic coverage, diversity of provision, delivery risk, avoidance of material duplication and the overall balance of the portfolio. A lower-ranked fundable application may therefore be selected where this demonstrably strengthens the overall portfolio. Any departure from score order will be recorded and justified. Funding available The total competition budget is approximately £3.2 million per year. £6.4 million over the life of the Fund. The Home Office expects to make multiple grant awards through this competition. Applicants may apply for funding at a scale proportionate to the activity proposed. There is no expectation that funding will be distributed equally between successful applicants. No single application may request more than 20% of the total funding available in each year of the competition. Applications exceeding this limit will be treated as non-compliant and will not be considered for funding. The Home Office reserves the right to take account of the overall balance of the funding portfolio when making final award decisions. This may include consideration of coverage across strategic priorities, victim and survivor cohorts, service models and areas of unmet need, alongside the assessment scores achieved by individual applications. The purpose of this approach is to maximise the overall impact of the Fund and ensure a balanced and coherent portfolio of support. The Home Office reserves the right to offer partial funding awards to any Applicant. Such awards may be lower than the amount requested in the Application. Where a partial award is offered, it will be subject to the following conditions: • Applicants must confirm that delivery of their Application remains viable at the level of funding offered. Where the Home Office award is less than the amount requested, Applicants may choose to supplement the funding using their own resources (including match funding, as defined in the Grant Agreement), where they consider this appropriate. The Home Office will not negotiate or permit changes to Applications, including scope, deliverables, or milestones, following submission. • Applicants will be required to confirm the value and source of any additional match funding contributing to delivery. The Grant Agreement will be revised to reflect the confirmed funding profile and will specify any ineligible expenditure that will not be reimbursed by Home Office funding. The Home Office reserves the right to withdraw a partial funding offer where an Applicant is unable to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Home Office, that delivery of the Application remains viable at the level of funding offered. This includes circumstances where any proposed match funding contribution is considered insufficient or not credible.