Pathways to employment application guidance notes

Detailed guidance for completing the application form

To apply electronically, you must have a valid email address.

Organisation details (Questions 1-6)

Question 1
Which department/grant programme you are applying for:

Pathways to Employment – Support Grant

Question 2a Contact details of your organisation
Provide contact details for the applying organisation. This needs to be the organisation that is responsible for administering and accounting for any grant awarded.

Your activity/project/service (Questions 7-10)

Question 8b Details of the project and what the funding will pay for
This provides you with an opportunity to describe in more detail the project you will deliver. Think of this in terms of the grant fund and eligibility criteria (listed on the criteria page). Outline the known or perceived need for your solution and detail what level and type of intervention the project provides. Tell us about your project this may include (but is not exclusive to):

• What project will be delivered, what beneficiaries is it including and how?
• Total number of people benefitting
• Who will deliver the project; paid qualified staff or volunteers?
• Tell us about other organisations you will work with on this project, can you evidence collaborative/partnership working
• Describe briefly the management and governance arrangements/structures you have in place within your organisation/consortium
• Tell us briefly what your funding will pay for if successful (i.e. administration costs, salaries, activities, transport, etc.)
• Any new organisational or service developments planned for the funding period?
• Areas of work that enable and/or support other organisations to provide prevention and early intervention solutions for Adults in Hampshire

If you are uncertain what information to include in this section please contact the team for guidance.

Question 8c Project outcomes and how Hampshire residents will benefit
This is an opportunity to describe what differences and impacts your project described in 8b will make to those accessing them, both participants and volunteers. Consider this in terms of the Strategic Plan.

• How will it help the beneficiaries identified in the criteria?
• What does it aim to achieve?
• How will you evidence this?
• Does it make full use of community resources?
• Improvement of Health and wellbeing of Service User?
• Increased self-sufficiency, independence, personal confidence and capability

Question 8d How will you involve service users in the development of your service/activity
This is an opportunity to describe how you engage and consult with the community on the services and programme design and delivery and how you use this information. How do you identify service users’ needs? Please tell us how you involve the service users with the decision making. Please tell us how you share consultation and engagement data with partners and the impact this has on your organisation and that of partners, if appropriate.

Which local plans or strategies do your services and programmes tie in with? Include details of how you monitor and evaluate your services/programmes/activities. Here you can tell us about any local feedback you have received.

Use this section to tell us about any quality systems you use to demonstrate how you ‘ensure the delivery and improvement of high quality services’. If you have identified a quality mark you are working towards in a previous application please summarise any progress you have made.

Finance (Questions 11-15)

Question 11 Financial Reserves
“Unrestricted” and “undesignated” funds means funding you have available that is not required to be used for specific purposes i.e. they are “free” from restriction. In your last set of audited accounts did your organisation have reserves? If yes, please detail these here. This information should tie in with your accounts. You may be asked to clarify this figure if it is not clear how this links to the annual accounts.

Organisations will not normally be eligible for grants where they hold unallocated reserves in excess of one year’s running costs. In cases where reserves held exceed this level a reduced level of funding may be agreed. All charitable organisations are expected to have an agreed reserves policy that addresses their financial risk.

Question 12 Detail of costs
Please provide a full detailed breakdown of your organisation's annual expenditure including core costs and those incurred for delivery services and/or programmes. We would recommend you use your most recent annual accounts as a baseline for this information in addition to any realistic annual rises. Provide details where appropriate, of staff costs, hire costs, materials, equipment, performers or professionals, marketing, overheads, building repairs and maintenance. Also list any specific one-off projects which are separate from the core programme of activity. List any other miscellaneous costs that do not apply to the previous categories. Any in-kind expenditure should be listed also in the following Income section.

Please only tell us about costs for the solution detailed in the application form. Do not include figures for the whole organisation’s budget.

Please include as a minimum the following headings in your budget profile:

• Staff
• Premises
• Administration
• Training
• Other (please specify)

Question 13 Income for the project/activity
Please detail any estimated income that your solution is expected to receive for the financial year you are applying for. This includes income from grants, subs, in kind support, funding from your organisation and any other monies you are likely to receive. Include here any other funding applications that you have applied for even if you don’t yet know the outcome of your application.

Again we would recommend you use your most recent annual accounts as a baseline for this information in addition to any realistic annual rises.

We recognise volunteers offer a range of skills and experience, but in order to keep it simple, to calculate their time, please use the national minimum wage. If a volunteer offers professional services (i.e. an architect or legal advisor) the cost of their time should be calculated using market charges.

If it subsequently comes to light that you have applied for funding from another Hampshire County Council Department prior to this application and not declared it here, any future awards may be claimed back. Please do not include this application in this section

Question 14a Project finance summary
Please state how much funding you require from the Autism Support Grant. Grants awarded are a contribution to the overall core costs of the organisation. The amount you are applying for should therefore be less than the total expenditure of the organisation and its services/projects/activities provided.

Question 14b How the project will be sustainable
Tell us how your organisation manages its financial risks to ensure longer term service/programme sustainability. Do you have any funding strategies in place? If you are currently operating at a deficit, please state how your organisation is planning to address this and in what timeframe.

Question 14c Partially awarded or unsuccessful application
Tell us how your organisation would deliver its services/activities/projects if it was unsuccessful or awarded a smaller amount of funding than requested.

Question 15 Sources of funding that have not been able to support your project
Not applicable for Supportive and Inclusive Communities Grant. You do not need to answer this question.

General information (Questions 16- 20)

Question 16 Quality mark
Please list any quality marks your organisation has attained or is currently working towards. Having a quality mark is not an essential criteria of this grant scheme however the County Council wishes to invest in organisations that can clearly and measurably demonstrate they provide quality services/programmes.

Question 18 Documentation
Please ensure you tick all appropriate boxes. As a minimum standard we would expect your organisation to meet the minimum legal requirements along with policies and procedures to cover your organisation’s services/programmes. Generally we would expect organisations to have £5m cover for public liability and employers’ liability insurance

Question 20 Equalities
Please answer all three parts as best you can. We are not looking for comprehensive policies, just some bullet points as to what they include, for example: thorough training; information sessions, staff guidebook etc.

Please note: In addition to information about your policies and procedures please outline how the aims of your project will contribute towards a, b, and c.

Examples of things which may be relevant to include are:

• We have an equality and diversity policy
• We ensure our staff receive equalities and diversity training
• We actively encourage and support all sectors of the community including those having protected characteristics to take part in this project
• We have an open and transparent recruitment and promotion policy
• The organisation’s culture fully embraces diversity
• This project focuses on fostering good community relations across all sectors of society by...
• This project will advance equality of opportunity for everyone by…
There is a 5000 Character limit in this section to ensure that this question can be fully answered in all dimensions

Documentation to be submitted

You only need to send the same document once over 12 month period. If you have sent us your documents in the last 12 months please tell us the grant reference number to which they were attached if possible. We would appreciate electronic document attachments. If, however, you only have a paper copy please write this in the documentation section and send a paper copy in to the grants team.

For all applications

• Annual accounts
• Adults safeguarding policy
• Child protection policy
• Equality and diversity policy
• Health and safety policy
• Public liability insurance (usually £5m)
• Employers' liability insurance (usually £5m)

Monitoring information

This information will help us to plan and fund areas of work where there are significant gaps and needs. If you need to collect this information from your staff or service users then it is important that you give them a choice as to whether they choose to give this personal information.

Supplementary questions

No supplementary questions apply for this application.