Manchester City Council is launching a new Early and Extra Help and Support (EEHS) funding programme aimed at Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations.
Aims of the fund
The funding programme has two aims:
- To provide early support before a need for statutory services, to help people to manage their tenancies or resolve issues in their existing accommodation, manage their money, and access community support and services that help them to stay financially resilient.
- To provide extra support to help vulnerable families and underserved communities navigate ‘systems’ around benefits, money management, and housing. This includes, for example, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and refugee communities, people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, and the most economically disadvantaged.
Target beneficiaries may include, but are not limited to:
- People living with long term health conditions and disability, including mental ill-health
- Communities experiencing racial inequality
- Individuals and families impacted by poverty
- Individuals and families impacted by insecure housing
- Older people over 50
- People living in some of the city's most disadvantaged wards
Funding is available under three separate strands:
- Early and Extra Help and Support for Single Adults
- Early and Extra Help and Support for Young Adults (18-25)
- Tackling Inequalities: Early and Extra Help and Support Grants
Early and Extra Help and Support for Single Adults
Funding is for a daytime and evening service including a food offer, which is embedded within a current adults day centre. The service will provide a mixture of early and extra support with a focus on financial resilience, navigating systems and acting on advice and guidance received.
The service will be delivered as a two-year contract with funding set at £200,000 per annum.
Early and Extra Help and Support for Young Adults (18-25)
Funding is to provide early support to young adults to prevent the breakdown of accommodation. A key aspect of this work will include mediation with family members, friends and landlords. In addition, the funded service will offer extra help to young people who are insecurely housed e.g. sofa-surfing or subletting, by providing advice on realistic housing options and helping them navigate existing systems. Support will include income maximisation, building tenancy sustainment skills, and supporting young adults to access education, training and employment
The service will be delivered as a two-year contract with funding set at £150,000 per
Annum.
Tackling Inequalities: Early and Extra Help and Support Grants
The Tackling Inequalities Grant Programme is a £350,000 funding pot aimed at families and communities with protected characteristics who face barriers to accessing support. Funding is available for organisations over two-years, to either pilot ideas and test new approaches, or provide additional capacity to increase or expand work already taking place in the city.
The funding is available under two areas: Early Support and Extra Support and
organisations can bid for between £50,000- £100,000 per annum. Bids are also welcomed for services that deliver both early and extra support.
Funding bids are encouraged for services that will:
- Tackle specific language, cultural, community or other barriers
- Support people to resolve problems at an early stage, linked to wider health and wellbeing objectives
- Support the Council’s agenda around homelessness prevention through helping residents at a pre-statutory prevention stage, including:
- Providing mediation and liaising with landlords and/or families and carers.
- Providing people with independent and realistic information and skills about how to search for and secure housing within the Manchester area
- Help people complete forms and gather evidence for things like PIP
- Help people to act on advice received
- Support to break down barriers to accessing services, such as practical help to make and attend appointments, and facilitate other contacts as appropriate
Key Dates
Opening date Monday 16th June, 9am
Closing date Friday 4th July, 5pm
Decisions made July to August 2025
Funding Start Date 1st October 2025
For further information and to request application documents email:
[email protected] indicating which strand(s) of funding you wish to apply for.