Adventures Away From Home Fund
This page provides guidance on the application process to become the delivery partner for the Adventures Away From Home Fund.
Applies to England
Summary of grant funding
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) intends to provide a circa £4.7 million grant to an organisation or consortium of organisations to act as a sector partner for the Adventures Away From Home Fund up to 31 March 2026.
The fund aims to increase access to outdoor learning, help young people foster positive relationships with movement and physical activity and develop their socio-emotional and life skills by providing bursaries for up to 27,600 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people (aged 11 to 18 and up to age 25 for for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)) to take part in outdoor learning activities.
The fund aims to provide bursaries for up to 27,600 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.
Youth policy is devolved and this grant is for activities in England only.
Due to the need for the full £4.7 million of funding to be delivered by 31 March 2026, delivery at pace is critical.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 Tuesday 15 July 2025
Fund objectives
The objectives of this fund (to be achieved by March 2026) are to:
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provide bursaries for up to 27,600 young people (aged 11 to 18, or up to 25 for young people with SEND) in England to participate in an Adventures Away from Home experiences
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reach and engage up to 27,600 young people facing significant barriers to participation including but not limited to:
• young people in poverty
• young people living in poverty
• young people with SEND
• young carers
• looked-after young people
• girls and young women
• BAME (British, Asian and Minority Ethnic) young people
• those with English as an additional language
• those in the criminal justice system or secure estates
• those with poor academic attainment/attendance and/or at risk of exclusion -
develop young people’s socio-emotional and life skills, foster positive relationships with movement and physical activity and build increased confidence to engage with the outdoors within the timescale of the intervention
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establish functioning and thriving partnerships working between outdoor learning organisations and local youth organisations within the timeframe of the intervention
Delivery partner role
DCMS is seeking to appoint a delivery partner to achieve the above objectives - a single organisation or joint application.
Acting as the delivery partner does not exclude organisations from delivering the project directly, for example, at applicant-owned activity centres. Applicants must demonstrate how they will ensure any direct delivery or onward grants represents value for money.
The delivery partner will:
- distribute bursaries to cover costs of outdoor experiences, ensuring a broad geographical reach across England. This can either be through direct delivery, for example at applicant-owned activity centres, or through onward grants, to outdoor learning organisations to distribute bursaries and deliver outdoor experiences. The delivery partner must be able to distribute 27,000 bursaries either as residential and/or day trips.
- foster partnerships between outdoor learning organisations and organisations such as youth groups, schools, or Local Authorities to identify eligible young people, and ensure young people receive wraparound support before and after outdoor learning experiences.
- provide regular reports to DCMS on delivery progress.
- evaluate the fund in line with objectives. This should involve: - monitoring the feedback of the young people taking part in the programmes, as well as feedback from the supervisors about their professional development as a result of the program. - elements of a process evaluation, recording case studies from the outdoor learning centres to understand the learning journeys of individuals who participated. - learning focused around establishing what barriers exist stopping young people from participating in outdoor learning
Eligibility
Applicants may apply as a single organisation with or without 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 department’s requirements, or wish to bring in additional expertise to meet the department’s required skills and experience for this role. Applicants are responsible for determining the most appropriate approach to delivering their proposal.
Joint application
The following additional information applies to applicants who put forward a joint approach.
A lead party must be identified that shall submit an application on behalf of all parties to the joint application.
The lead party shall be responsible for all communication with the department during the application and appointment process.
As part of their application, the applicant must submit a structure diagram identifying the roles and relationships between the parties including all relevant companies, their respective parent or ultimate holding companies. The structure should make clear who will be responsible for delivery of the grant and ensure that, as a minimum, the legal obligations and liabilities of the applicant are borne by an entity or entities which satisfy the financial requirements set out in this specification of requirements.
The applicant must submit written confirmation from each party that they authorise the lead party organisation to act on their behalf in relation to this grant competition.
Delivery partner requirements
To apply for the role of delivery partner for the Adventures Away from Home fund, you must:
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be a registered Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE). As a grant, you must be able to demonstrate that the project is not for profit.
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have a robust safeguarding policy
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have knowledge and experience of working with outdoor learning organisations
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have sufficient staff capacity and capabilities to deliver this project in the timeframe set out.
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have appropriate financial management systems and processes to account for Adventures Away from Home grant expenditure accurately and transparently, such as fraud risk assessments, fraud, bribery, and corruption due diligence, and experience managing counter fraud processes.
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have experience working with young people and incorporating youth voice into the development of the projects and programmes.
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have experience in delivering evaluations, including collecting and sharing data from grant recipients.
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have experience of local partnership development (desirable).
Your organisation (or joint delivery body) will also need to pass our due diligence checks.
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The grant award does not exceed 50% of your annual income, as an example: if an organisation applied for a £500,000 grant, the collective turnover needs to be £1,000,000 or more in order that the grant is not more than 50% of the annual turnover/income.
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We receive and can review at least 2 references.
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If you have been funded by another part of the government, we obtain feedback from that department.
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You are not already receiving funding for this project, meaning your project is funded twice.
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Trustees are not related and there is no indication of fraud.
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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.
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You are to provide an annual report and audited or certified accounts, covering the last 2 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.
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You are to provide details of your organisation/joint delivery body’s approach to equality, diversity, and safeguarding.
Funding
Availability
The Adventures Away From Home Fund is a £4.7 million fund available in the financial year 2025/26. All funds awarded must be spent by 31 March 2026, with any unspent funds returned to DCMS. This grant will provide resource funding only. Up to 6% of the total grant can be claimed for administrative costs for the delivery partner to deliver the fund.
Administrative costs are in-direct project costs associated with delivering the fund objectives. These costs support the overall business operations and include things like rent, utilities, administrative staff, senior oversight, and office supplies etc.
Usage
The Adventures Away From Home funding must be spent to provide bursaries for up to 27,600 disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.
The funding may be spent on the following activities:
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staff costs, where they directly relate to the programme activity i.e. salaries, employer’s national insurance contributions, and employer’s contributions to any occupational pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme
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travel and subsistence
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communication and marketing (subject to cabinet office controls)
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Outdoor learning experiences, this could be for adventure activities, or activities focused on nature, arts and/or sports.
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Bursaries for transport, food and other reasonable costs to remove barriers to attending/travelling to activity centres.
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administration costs related to delivering the project between up to 6%
This is not an exhaustive list but an indication of eligible spend. We may consider funding other types of activities as long as they are not listed as ineligible below. There is no capital spend.
DCMS is happy to receive clarification questions up to 23:59 Thursday 3 July on the fund, including questions on any additional activities that may be permissible and are not specifically prohibited below.
The funds may not be used for:
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academic research
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advocacy and lobbying
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appeals
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campaigning and awareness raising
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capital expenditure
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core costs - other than for those that can be evidenced as directly related to the project outlined in the application
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contributions to reserves
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costs for which funding has already been received
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fees for professional fundraisers
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individuals
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party political organisations
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pension costs - other than employer pension contributions for staff directly employed on the project
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projects outside our funding priorities
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promotion of religious beliefs
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purchase of buildings or venues
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rapid response to emergencies
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repayment of debts or loans
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retrospective funding, where expenditure has been incurred prior to the grant award date
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services run by statutory or public authorities outside the scope of this project
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staff redundancy or redeployment costs
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vehicles
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work delivered outside of England
Financial requirements
Please note: The DCMS financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. If successful, drawdown requests and budgets must fit the DCMS financial year.
Payments will be made quarterly and in arrears. You will need to provide a breakdown of actual, eligible expenditure to make a claim. We will only pay out the amount you can evidence as spent.
Variations between proposed drawdown amounts and actual drawdown requests across quarters of the same financial year will be accepted, with explanation and justification. However, we will not be able to vary funds across financial years. Any funds not drawn down by the end of the financial year will become unavailable.
DCMS makes payments in arrears and only pays in advance by exception. If you wish to be paid in advance, you will be asked to explain and justify your reasons in your application, this includes ensuring that your request fits with one or more of the ‘payments in advance’ criteria outlined in the application form. Your request will be considered as part of the assessment process. If your application and request to be paid in advance are approved, you will be expected to provide quarterly reconciliation details for the duration of your project, detailing any underspend against funds received. You will be required to reconcile any underspend before further funding is released. You will also be required to complete a formal Financial Reconciliation Statement (FRS) form at the end of the financial year.
Whether paid in arrears or in advance, you must be able to transparently report on a quarterly basis and provide evidence of expenditure of the use of the Adventures Away From Home Fund. The Adventures Away From Home Fund must be shown as restricted funds in your accounts and you must be able to identify separately the value and purpose of the grant in your audited accounts. You will be asked to describe the financial management systems and processes you will put in place to ensure you can achieve this in your application.
Grant monitoring and reporting
DCMS is committed to robust monitoring and evaluation of grant funding, proportionate to the size and length of the grant.
Successful applicants are expected to:
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provide regular financial and performance monitoring data returns for the grant funding period. DCMS will provide a template for returns
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attend quarterly monitoring meetings to report on the progress of grant awards (based on the monitoring returns) and update on risks/slippage on spend
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attend informal catch-up meetings with DMCS project leads
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work with DCMS to support the design of the evaluation and collection of relevant data for the overarching process and impact evaluation
Evaluation
DCMS is interested in understanding how the grant holder has achieved the objectives of the fund through an evaluation. It will be the responsibility of the delivery partner to undertake an internal evaluation.
The exact nature of this data will need to be agreed between DCMS and the delivery partner, but is expected to include the following:
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collecting demographic information on the gender, age, ethnicity, and disability at minimum
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monitoring the feedback of the young people taking part in the programs, as well as feedback from the supervisors about their professional development as a result of the program.
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develop a monitoring and evaluation framework building on findings of previous AAFH evaluations (e.g. filling knowledge gaps from previous evaluations).
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elements of a process evaluation, recording case studies from the outdoor learning centres to understand the learning journeys of individuals who participated. Research questions to be agreed with delivery partner and DCMS.
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learning focused around establishing what barriers exist stopping young people from participating in outdoor learning.
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to highlight key learnings from this phase of the programme, along with any continuous improvements made since the previous phase.
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peer reviewed and quality assured publication of the report by the delivery partner(s) themselves, but with the potential for DCMS to publish on gov.uk as well (details to be agreed).
The evaluation will not have a separate budget as it is being conducted by the delivery partner(s) internally - it will be incorporated into the up to 6% admin budget. DCMS will review and sign off the final monitoring and evaluation plans (a monitoring and evaluation framework) and the reports from the evaluations.
How to apply
Application timeline
The timeline below is indicative and subject to change.
Competition opens for applications: Wednesday 25 June 2025
Clarification workshop: 1 to 2pm Tuesday 1 July 2025
Clarification questions deadline: 23:59 Thursday 3 July 2025
Publication of clarification questions: Tuesday 8 July 2025
Deadline of the application: 23:59 Tuesday 15 July 2025
Application assessment: Wednesday 16 July to Tuesday 22 July 2025
Notification of grant awards: week commencing 11 August 2025
How to apply
Follow the steps below to apply:
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Make sure you have fully read the guidance on this page.
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Complete the application form.
Applications for this grant fund must be submitted by 23:59 Tuesday 15 July 2025 to youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk with the subject line:
Grant Application – [Organisation Name] – Adventures Away From Home Fund.
Any applications received after the closing date will not be assessed.
You will not be contacted for clarification or further information. It is your responsibility to ensure your application is concise, fully completed, and that you supply all the necessary supporting documentation.
The only instance where a government official may contact you is where the level of funding you have requested cannot be met, and a lesser amount is being offered. In this case, you will be invited to consider a lesser amount. You may be requested to submit a summary of activities, outputs, outcomes, and budget (realigned to fit the revised funding on offer) for consideration.
If contacted under these circumstances, please note that the time frame for providing your initial response may be very short.
Assessment
Evaluation criteria
A panel will assess the bids. Please assume that assessors have no or limited background knowledge of your organisation, its aims, and what it does. It is therefore important that your application is as clear, concise, and unambiguous as possible.
Initial sift
We will review your application to check that the information in the body of the application meets the eligibility checklist. Applicants must set out how they intend to provide outdoor learning opportunities for 27,000 young people using the grant funding available.
Assessment and moderation of eligible bids
We will then score eligible bids in line with our key criteria.
The table below outlines what we are looking for, the weighting in the bid evaluation, and the questions we will use to make our assessment.
| Measure | Weighting % | Questions related |
|---|---|---|
|
Project |
30% | 2.2 |
|
Project |
40% | 3.1 3.2 3.3 |
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Monitoring and Evaluation: Applications must include outcomes to be measured (number of beneficiaries etc), agree to regular monitoring of KPIs, and set out how they will share lessons learned. Applicants must outline how they intend |
15% | 4.2 4.3 |
|
Project |
15% | 5.3 |
|
Equality and diversity |
Unscored | 6.2 |
| Total | 100% | n/a |
Moderation of scores
Scores will be moderated and an overall score given to each bid.
Due diligence
All successful applicants will be subject to comprehensive due diligence reviews and other database searches, including fraud risk indicators. The relevant documentation is expected to be provided alongside your application form. A checklist is provided in the application form.
Final confirmation
Upon successful completion of due diligence, we will issue the final confirmation of the successful applicants.
Grant award
Acceptance of funding
DCMS will aim to notify all successful applicants by the week commencing 11 August 2025.
Your grant offer letter will set out the level of funding and any additional conditions that apply specifically to your grant. The letter will also set out what the grant is for and the payment schedule. Once we have awarded a grant, we will ask you for regular financial and performance monitoring reports and a final project report at the end of the funding term.
Please note:
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grant money will not be paid until we have received your written acceptance of the terms and conditions attached to your grant offer.
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you must acknowledge you have received our grant in your annual report and accounts covering the period of the project.
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if there is any breach of the terms and conditions, or your organisation ceases to operate before the grant has been spent, grant monies may have to be repaid.
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when the grant ends, the Adventures Away from Home Fund does not have a commitment to provide any further funding for the project.
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anyone found to be acting dishonestly in making an application for funding or spending the grant will be reported to the police and may be liable for prosecution.
Grant terms and conditions
See DCMS draft terms and conditions for grant agreements. The terms and conditions are non negotiable. Submitting a proposal means acceptance of these. You should not seek to amend the terms and conditions.
Unsuccessful applications
We will inform all unsuccessful applicants week commencing 11 August 2025. We will issue written feedback.
Please note that the decision will be final.
Advice and support
All available information and guidance relating to this grant funding is contained above and in the application form.
DCMS will hold a clarification meeting from 1 to 2pm on Tuesday 1 July 2025 via Google Meet. If you would like to attend, please contact youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk.
Clarification questions may be sent to youthrevenue@dcms.gov.uk up until 23:59 Thursday 3 July, after which no more will be responded to.
All clarification questions will be anonymised and made public so that all potential applicants are able to access any additional information.
As the application process is competitive, we are unable to provide support in completing the application.
Updates to this page
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Amended errors in the evaluation criteria.
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Updated for 2025/2026 grant competition.
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Updated clarification questions document.
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Added clarification questions.
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First published.