You must be able to answer yes to all the statements in this section before you make an application.
You are a constituted UK based organisation
- Sole traders, and individuals, can’t apply to this fund.
- If you are a voluntary group not registered with Companies House or the Charity Commission, you must have a constitution and management committee.
- You must be legally constituted before you submit your application
- If your set-up date is less than one year before the application deadline, you can apply for a maximum of £15,000.
You are not a school or academy
- Schools and academies can’t apply to this fund. This includes primary, secondary, PRUs, and special schools.
You have a bank account in the name of the organisation
- They can only pay grants into the bank account of the organisation that submitted the application. You’ll need to give evidence of this if you’re offered a grant.
You have a set of recent account
They expect to see accounts that:
- Show your total income and expenditure for the last financial year (often called a profit and loss or a statement of financial activities); and
- A summary of your assets and liabilities at the end of the year (often called a balance sheet).
- These should be less than 18 months old.
- You’ll need to upload these with your application.
You have the correct insurance in place and comply with all relevant statutory legislation
- Correct insurance includes employers’ and public liability as a minimum. Copies of your insurance must be available on request.
- Statutory legislation includes things such as company and charity law, the Data Protection Act, and the Equality Act.
Safeguarding is an essential part of your culture and ways of working, and you meet our minimum safeguarding standards
- Safeguarding practices are well understood, always developing and they inform your ethos and behaviours.
- You’ll need to evidence that you meet our minimum safeguarding standards:
- A safeguarding policy in the name of your organisation, updated in the last 3 years.
- A person with overall responsibility for safeguarding (your designated safeguarding lead). Their name and contact details are in your safeguarding policy.
- Safer recruitment practices including DBS checks for those working with children and young people (at the highest level permitted, re-checked at least every three years).
- A procedure for reporting concerns, incidents, or allegations (including those against staff/volunteers) that says who to inform and how to contact them.
- Regular safeguarding training for staff and volunteers who work with children and young people (this can include in-house sessions) and induction into safeguarding for new starters.
You are committed to improving inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) in your organisation (this includes youth voice and participation)
- They don’t expect organisations to have got it ‘all sorted,’ but they want to fund those who are committed to reflecting and making change. That’s why they ask you about IDEA in our application and monitoring forms.
- They expect all organisations to pay the real Living Wage. Their IDEA hub provides further information and support.
You are keen to develop your organisation
- They want to fund organisations that are open to developing. This means evaluating and reflecting on what you do, engaging with Youth Music, and being collaborative. They try to be honest with themselves about what is and isn’t working. And they want the organisations they fund to be the same.
