Example bid answers for small grants fund

1. Project title and project aim (max 400 characters)

• Bidders are expected to provide the suitable title for their project.

Example:

Project Title – Support for Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Children and Families.

Project Aim – A very brief narration of the core aim of the project is needed, more detailed explanation will be expected in the purpose of the project section.

Example

The project aims to support at least 150 SEND children’s well-being and develop their confidence and learning skills by engaging them in various skills and learning activities. It also aims to educate parents and caretakers of SEND children to understand their behaviour and identify their needs.

2. Request Value (max £5k)

• Set out the amount of grant for which you wish to apply.

3. Please set out the purpose for the funding (max 1,500 characters):

• Demonstrate why you need a fund.
• Explain in detail how funding will contribute towards the project costs.
• Highlight the community need project is addressing.
• Please provide realistic Project Budget or cost breakdown on how you will be spending the awarded amount.

Example

The funding will be used to deliver the 10 workshops with a minimum of 15 participants per session, reaching at least 150 individuals in total within 12 months of project time. The focus will be on learning skills need for the SEND children from the deprived areas of Reading like Whitley, Church and Coley. These workshops will include speech therapy, counselling, music, arts, and awareness sessions for families and caregivers, aiming to improve communication, emotional wellbeing, and understanding of SEND behaviours.

As of January 2020, 15.3% of pupils in Reading schools were identified as having SEND, with numbers increasing annually since 2016. The demand for speech, language, and communication support is rising rapidly, highlighting a critical gap in services. Therefore, SEND support is an emerging need for the Reading area. Our project is not just only focusing on SEND children alone but also considering the families and caretakers with an aim of increasing awareness about the behaviour of SEND children to understand them better.

The funding we need to deliver our project is below-                     

Purpose	Amount (£)
Hall Hire	800
Staff Salaries	2000
Programme Activities	700
Refreshments	500
Travel cost	300
Stationery	300
Equipment and Sensory Toys	300
Promotion Cost	100
Total (£)	5000

4. Describe how your project is community-led or co-produced with the community/beneficiary group in Reading (max 1,500 characters)

We have contacted SEND families in deprived areas across Reading, including Whitley and Southcote, to understand their need for support and what they would like to see delivered within the workshops.  In total, 20 families have responded and provided feedback on the proposal.  In particular, respondents highlighted the need for creative activities for their children.

5. Please describe how it meets the grant criteria (max 4,000 characters)

• Please state how the application meets the grant criteria –demonstrate how you support the following key elements of the Tackling Inequality Strategy
  • Enable everyone within the borough to share in Reading’s success.   
  • Drive attainment in skills, education and training and access to quality employment and volunteering.
  • Support people in the town where you think the need is greatest.  
  • Support residents and groups of residents who you see as experiencing disadvantage. 
  • Provide additionality by complementing existing strategies, work, and partnerships aimed at making Reading a more equal place to live. 

Half of the total score for the application has been allocated for this question – please make sure you answer this question carefully

Example

i. Enable everyone within the borough to share in Reading’s success

Our project is supporting SEND Children along with support for the families empowering them to advocate for their children. We are making available of our workshop to deprived areas of Reading so we will be running our sessions in different community centres like South Reading Community Centre (Whitley), Coley Community Centre (Coley), and Dee Park Community Centre so that the different disadvantaged families and children could benefit from our project.

ii.Drive attainment in skills, education and training and access to quality employment and volunteering

Our workshop will be focussed on skills development for SEND children and families. The one-to-one and small group sessions will be delivered by trained professionals. Counselling from health professionals will be provided to families and caretakers of SEND children, boosting their confidence in advocating for their child. Families will be able to utilise the acquired skills to volunteer in communities and provide other families who need support with SEND children. This experience also opens the door for opportunities to find employment advocating and counselling on SEND children.

iii. Support people in the town where you think the need is greatest  

The need of vulnerable young children is not being consistently identified in most of the cases. The early identification of children with complex needs under the age of two. So, our project also aims to promote awareness among parents by providing skills to identify speech, language, and communication difficulties in their children in the early stages. The children and parents we have focussed on are mostly residents in deprived areas where education and health awareness are low.

iv. Support residents and groups of residents who you see as experiencing disadvantage

Our project is targeted to SEND children and families from deprived communities of Reading. The focus of the project is supporting the residents to obtain the skills and knowledge about SEND children by encouraging them to attend the sessions we deliver in their local communities. We aim to make sure those residents have access to services available for SEND children, mental health support, social support networks etc. The support and resources from the project will help residents to thrive.

v. Provide additionality by complementing existing strategies, work, and partnerships aimed at making Reading a more equal place to live 

Our organisation works closely with the education and health sector to identify and overcome the needs of SEND children and parents. For example, we have multiple volunteers from the education and health sectors participating in our project delivery by involving in developing workshops and delivering activities and programmes. Our sessions are tailored as per the need of SEND children making positive changes in their life by building confidence and communication skills. Our project also targets to make Reading a more equal place to live by bringing opportunities of growth and achievement to all of Reading’s communities.

6. Please set out the proposed outcomes from the funding (max 1,500 characters)

• Think about the aim of the project and please provide measurable outcomes such as :
  • Number of participants or people benefitting from the project
  • Number of sessions you have targeted to deliver though the project.
  • The benefits people will have after attending the programme or end of the project.
  • State any positive impact of your project to the local communities.
  • Expected realistic outcomes from the project.

Example

The expected outcomes from the project are below:

• 150 SEND children feeling more confidence while communicating.
• Delivering 10 sessions of SEND workshop over the 12 months.
• Increase in social interaction and feeling empowered to learn new skills.
• Families being able to identify children with complex needs in the early stage.
• Parents and caretaker being able to understand the behaviour and emotions of their SEND children with training provided by health and educational sector professionals.

7. Please set out the Delivery Plan for your project (max 1,500 characters)

• Please state how project will be delivered with Key timeline, necessary resources and state if there is any risk

Example

Activity	Timeline (MM/YY)	Resources required	Any risks?
Planning, programme development and promotion	Feb -Mar 26	Project lead -Volunteers -Marketing leaflets, posters (paper and digital)	Lack of engagement from participants: Our project will be focussed on deprived communities in Reading. There is a risk of families not willing to attend the workshop and may not bringing their SEND children. Therefore, we are planning to promote our project with the help of the school to ensure this risk is minimised.
Delivery of Workshop	Apr –Nov 26	Venue Hall -Equipment and Sensory toys -Qualified trainers	Estimated Budget may overspend– In the worst-case scenario if the number of participants increases then we will adjust the number of workshop deliveries to prevent running out of budget alternatively we will apply for other sponsors to cover the cost.
Feedback and Survey	Dec 26	Participants engagement -Volunteers to collect and process survey data	Low response rate To minimise this risk our survey will kept short and concise.
Outcomes and impact reporting	Jan-Feb 27	Dedicated volunteer and member of team to write the report	Quality of report: We’ll consider data accuracy and confidentiality to maintain quality of report.

8. What makes the proposal unique? (max 1,000 characters)

• Explain how your proposal stands out from the rest.
• e.g. only group offering such services, building on existing relationships with a specific cohort, etc

Example:

Our proposal is unique because we will be delivering our workshop to three different location which are deprived area of Reading. We also have a unique blend of volunteers equally from education and health sector professionals which make our project delivery more realistic and effective.

9. Other funding sources

• Please provide details of other funding sources (if any) you are receiving for this area of activity

Example:

Amount £	Purpose	Funder	Time frame
£2000	Wellbeing support for vulnerable children	XYZ.	July 202x-Aug 202x

10. Supporting Documents

• Providing supporting documents is not essential. However, if you do have any you want to include, please upload them here. This may be link for your organisation, relevant videos and document links.