Pathways to Employment support grant

Applicants are invited to provide a service across Hampshire to support the development of the Personal Assistants in Care market

Applicants are invited to provide a service across Hampshire to support the development of the Personal Assistants in Care market.

Hampshire County Council recognises the significant value that voluntary organisations have in their local area. Their local knowledge and expertise on the needs of their neighbourhoods makes them very well placed to drive local initiatives forward such as the Pathways to Employment Programme.

We have received a number of questions asking if the course has to be for four days. The successful bidder would be required to run a Pathways to Employment style course, the four days also includes the matching sessions. Successful bidders may therefore choose to run three days of teaching and one day for matching to potential PA’s, which could be a more informal session.
Grant purpose

The aim of this fund is to enable organisations to start to facilitate the Pathways to Employment programme in their local area from September 2019. The Pathways to Employment programme is a unique solution to a big problem. The problem being that many people who now have the means to employ their own staff as Personal Assistants to support them, find it difficult to find the right people to do the job. Personal Assistants for their part, find it hard to find a role that satisfies them, and they find it difficult to get the training, supervision and support they need once they have a job.

The Pathways to Employment programme has been designed to answer these questions.
  1. What is it that Personal Assistants need to do a good job?
  2. What is it that potential employers need in order to find the right people to support them?
Who should this grant support

Voluntary organisations situated across the county that have a keen interest in helping to develop the Personal Assistant market across Hampshire, increasing awareness of the role to the people within their local area.

Area of interest

The presence of this programme needs to be seen and be accessible across all Boroughs of Hampshire.

Grant solution requirements

This is a one off opportunity to apply for funding to support the Pathways to Employment programme, increasing awareness of the role of a Personal Assistant in Care at local level with a view to looking to encourage innovation and developing a sustainable model to run further events in the future.

There are a number of stages to the Pathways to Employment programme:
  • Stage 1: Bringing together local people who think they may want to work as Personal Assistants in Care
  • Stage 2: Explaining about what is involved in the work
  • Stage 3: Apply to the course by designing a poster, showing their unique skills and qualities
  • Stage 4: Inviting these people to a four-day training course, which covers values, building self-confidence, teamwork, asset based community development, communication skills and meeting potential employers
  • Stage 5: Work on matching those who require staff with graduates from the course

The priority is on developing a strong concept supported by an effective partnership

How much can I apply for?

Voluntary organisations can bid for up to £1000 for funding to support the opportunity to facilitate the first Pathways to Employment Programme within their local area in September/October 2019.

Deadlines and Processes

All applications must be received by 10am on 28th February 2019 using the online application form and process.

The department reserves the right to share contact details of applicants with one another where proposals are complimentary.

Grant eligibility

To secure funding for the opportunity to develop the Pathways to Employment programme, any application must ensure:

  • if the programme is ongoing, how it will remain sustainable after the initial investment has been made from Hampshire County Council
  • an effective monitoring and reporting process are in place, including a final review of the benefits of continuing and/or variability of wider roll out of the scheme to more communities

Every organisation in the application has a minimum of 3 people on its management committee as per Charity Commission guidelines and where appropriate the organisation shall have in place insurance arrangements in respect of staff, volunteers, users and third parties.

There is a recommendation that the organisations are able to provide a representative to the Pathways to Employment course that is happening in Fareham on one or more of the following dates - 19th and 26th January and 2nd and 9th February (see partners volunteer leaflet here ). This will be a live course being run by Caroline Tomlinson from My Life in Wigan and will be used as a train the trainer opportunity to learn how to facilitate the course and be provided with all of the necessary course documentation. (Attendance at the course does not guarantee grant funding)

Grant exclusions

Exclusions include:

  • proposed solutions or applying organisations that do not meet the programme’s eligibility
  • proposed solutions that are already provided under contract to the Adults’ Health and Care Department
  • capital grants (i.e. for equipment repair, maintenance and routine improvements) – there is funding in place elsewhere, but this programme is for projects only
  • proposed solutions that are solely within the unitary authority areas of Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council
  • any party political activity
  • proposed solutions that cater for one religious group, or promote or incite discriminatory practice
  • funding cannot be used for proposed solutions where there is a responsibility for them to be funded from the local precept , school or other service funds
  • We are unable to award funding to commercial enterprises and/or individuals acting in their own capacity

Organisations will not normally be eligible for grants where they hold unallocated reserves in excess of one year's running costs, or where it is judged that these reserves are unreasonably in excess of what is required or not allocated for legitimate purposes. Those organisations receiving recurring funding which hold unallocated reserves in excess of three months' running costs may receive a reduced grant.

The Adults’ Health and Care Grant Programme has adopted the Charity Commission’s reserves policy in this respect. The Charity Commission’s definition of reserve is:
"Reserves are that part of a charity's unrestricted funds that is freely available to spend on any of the charity's purposes. This definition excludes restricted income funds and endowment funds, although holding such funds may influence a charity's reserves policy. Reserves will also normally exclude tangible fixed assets held for the charity's use and amounts designated for essential future spending”.

Contact us

If you require further information, please contact the Grants team by:

E-mail [email protected]

Telephone 01962 847131 or 01962 826922

Read application notes and apply