Bidding Process to Run New Youth Endowment Fund Opens

The bidding process to choose an organisation or consortium that will run the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund is now open.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has launched the bidding process to choose an organisation or consortium that will run the new £200 million Youth Endowment Fund.

The Youth Endowment Fund will provide a 10-year investment to support interventions steering young people away from becoming involved in violent crime or reoffending. It will also build the evidence base for the most effective interventions for tackling serious violence.

The Fund is one of three innovative new measures announced by the Home Secretary in October as part of the government’s long-term plan to tackle serious violence.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

“The Youth Endowment Fund will significantly strengthen our response to serious violence and support action we are already taking, such as the Offensive Weapons Bill and National County Lines Coordination Centre.

“I want it up and running and saving lives as soon as possible, and look forward to receiving the proposals to run this substantial investment.”

The Youth Endowment Fund will be run by an independent organisation or body, similar to the Education Endowment Foundation.

The successful bidder will need to demonstrate its ability to:

Use sector knowledge and available evidence to identify the best projects to fund
Ensure robust evaluation of the projects, using this evaluation to build a body of evidence on what works in stopping children and young people from becoming involved in crime and violence
Share this evidence and best practice in order that it might inform policy making, academic research and the local commissioning of services
Seek to grow the value of the Fund through attracting further contributions
Administer and manage the Fund as a long-term investment from April 2019.

Prospective bidders to run the Fund will need to submit their proposals by 23 January.

Full details on the application process are available on the call for proposals webpage.