Applying to the Million Hours Fund
Million Hours Fund application guidance.
Applies to England
The Million Hours Fund Phase 1 is now closed for applications. Phase 2 of the Fund is open – for more information and to apply, please visit Million Hours - The National Lottery Community Fund.
Applications open: 3 July 2023
Applications close: 12 noon on 4 August 2023. Please note that the closing date has been brought forward due to significant demand. Applications are being assessed on a rolling basis. Once the budget for this programme has been awarded, no further grants will be assessed.
Note: Awards for All continues to be open for applications that meet its eligibility criteria. Please visit National Lottery Awards for All England for more information.
Information on applying for further funding through the Million Hours Fund will be announced in due course.
Details
Up to £3 million is available through The National Lottery Community Fund’s (TNLCF’s) Awards for All England programme this summer thanks to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and National Lottery players. This is the first phase of funding of the Million Hours Fund, which totals £11 million up to March 2025.
Awards for All England welcomes applications for projects that will support young people primarily aged 11 to 18 (and up to 25 for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) starting during the 2023 school summer holidays. This funding will support a range of youth services offering a variety of positive activities for young people in eligible wards with the highest reported numbers of antisocial behaviour incidents..
Your project needs to be delivered by trusted adults, whether they are qualified youth workers/youth support workers or experienced volunteers, and provide open or targeted (for example, via youth faith groups) provision for young people. Whilst there is 12 months to spend the funding, this fund is designed to provide additional provision during the 2023 summer holidays, so we expect most spending to happen over the holiday period.
You can find out whether your organisation is eligible to apply below.
Eligibility
To be eligible for this funding your project must:
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Take place in, and/or benefit young people living in, one of these eligible wards in England. Eligible wards have been determined by allocating wards to each Police Force Area
(PFA)(PFA) based on youth population, and then selecting those with the highest reported number of antisocial behaviour incidents from within thePFA.PFA. -
Deliver additional youth provision (existing provision is not eligible).
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Start during, or before, the 2023 school summer holidays (21 July to 3 September 2023).
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Primarily benefit young people aged 11 to 18, and up to 25 for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
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Effectively engage with young people at risk of antisocial behaviour.
This postcode checker will allow you to check which postcodes correspond to which wards, so you can see if you are providing youth services in an eligible area.
Your organisation must meet TNLCF’s Awards for All England criteria.
Relevant documents
Application guidance
If you are eligible, please read the following guidance before completing your application:
When TNLCF asks you for the name of your project, prefix your project name with MH,MH, so enter ‘MH‘MH – project name’.
When TNLCF asks you how your project meets its funding priorities, make sure to include how it meets each of the eligibility criteria above, including your actual start date during the 2023 school summer holidays. Please also include how many additional sessions and hours of youth work you plan to deliver, and how many young people you are likely to reach.
When TNLCF asks you for your project start date, select the earliest date you can. This won’t be a date during the school holidays, as this question will require you to enter a start date 12 weeks in advance, but TNLCF process your application much quicker than 12 weeks.
If you are successful, information about your organisation and project will be passed to an external evaluator to understand the impact of the funding. By submitting an application, you are agreeing (as part of your grant agreement with TNLCF)TNLCF) that you will cooperate with the evaluation and any post event assurance. This will include allowing the TNLCF and the external evaluator to use your project information and to share the contact details for your organisation (which may include personal data) for evaluation purposes.
If your bid is successful, you are agreeing you have a policy in place that explains how young people will be kept safe. For the lifetime of the project, you will need to follow TNLCF’sTNLCF’s policy on safeguarding children and adults at risk. If there is a safeguarding incident, TNLCF has the right to inform DCMS of the incident but we will not provide them with any personal data.
How to apply
You can apply on TNLCF’sTNLCF’s website by clicking the button below:
To apply, you will need to create an account with TNLCF if you haven’t already.
If you have any questions about applying for this funding, contact The National Lottery Community Fund.
Further phases of funding through the Million Hours Fund will be announced in due course.
The below privacy notice explains what personal data will be collected by TNLCF and how and why it will use this data as part of the Million Hours Fund.
Last updated
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Updated ward list spreadsheet.
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Updated page with notice to highlight Phase 1 has now closed.
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Page updated to reflect closing date being brought forward to 12 noon on 4 August 2023.
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Page updated to reflect clarifications on timings.
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First published.