To support the Ministry of Justice to achieve the aims set out in the Female Offender Strategy and in recognition of the essential services provided by specialist women’s organisations in the criminal justice system, the Ministry of Justice is inviting applications for one-off grants for core costs.
The grants are available to specialist voluntary organisations providing gender-specific services for women across England and Wales. They are not to commission services but rather to cover core costs, which can include:
- Non-project costs
- General operating and running costs (including rent, utility bills, business rates)
- Management, administration and office costs (including wages of those involved in management, administration and office functions, as well as staff training costs)
- Overheads and support costs as defined by the Charity Commission's statement of recommended practice
£2.5 million in total will be distributed in 12 regional lots, aligned with the probation regions:
- East Midland
- East of England
- Greater Manchester
- London
- North East
- North West
- South Central
- South East
- South West
- Wales
- West Midlands
- Yorkshire and the Humber
The minimum grant will be £30,000 and the maximum will be £60,000, with payment made before 31 March 2021. Organisations can apply for funding from the regional lot where their women’s services are delivered, rather than where the organisation is based if this is in a different region. Organisations can apply as a single entity, or as an umbrella consortium formed from a number of organisations with shared premises.
Regional Probation Directors are closely involved in the grant scheme to make use of their local knowledge and ensure the funding responds to local needs. In order to shape each regional lot to more closely address local needs, each Director has been asked to nominate two local priorities. These priorities could be a specific group of service users or a specific need. Organisations will be invited to explain how they perform against these local priorities.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications are invited from voluntary sector organisations currently providing gender-specific services for women, as registered charities, exempt charities (as per the Charities Act 2011), and Community Interest Companies.
Organisations from whom applications are particularly welcome are likely to have some or all of the following characteristics:
- Most of the people benefitting from the service are women, particularly those in contact with the criminal justice system and/or facing multiple disadvantage
- A track record of providing women's specialist services nationally or regionally/locally
- A local connection to the area
- Small and community based with a low financial turnover
The Ministry of Justice uses an electronic portal tool to manage grant competitions and communicate with applicants. There will be no hard copy documents issued to applicants and all communications, including the submission of applicant responses, will be conducted via the e-sourcing portal, once logged in, search for “ITT_4373”.
Deadline for applications: 10 August, 10:00