To apply for the funding a school must fulfil the following criteria:

• The school is a state school that receives funding through their local authority or directly from the government
• The school does not currently have a DLC licence to deliver DofE
• The school has not terminated a DofE licence in the past six months at the point of application

To receive the funding, a school will need to demonstrate that:

• The school is committed to ensuring that DofE provision is sustainable long-term and that they will subsidise and support their DofE delivery in future years

Eligible schools can apply for funding to support with the following:

• Licence fee support (equivalent of up to 50% of full fee, outlined below)
• Training for staff
• Bronze, Silver and/or Gold Participation Places
• Expedition equipment

Further funding is available for schools which are confident they will enrol over 45 participants in a year. The application form includes the opportunity for schools to request additional places. This will be assessed on a first-come-first served basis by the DofE Project Team. In order to receive funding, schools will need to demonstrate the following:

• The school has confirmed numbers of young people ready to enrol and that the additional places will be used within the first year of applying for funding.
• The majority of participants benefiting from this additional funding will be from a marginalised background
• A commitment from the school that they will ensure this level of provision is sustainable long-term and that the school will subsidise and support this in future years

All equipment purchased is owned and retained by the school and should be loaned but not given permanently to participants. All items should be purchased within the first year of receiving funding. Invoices/receipts will be requested at the end of the first year.

The school must record all assets in its Assets Register. Assets are defined as an item which has a useful life of more than one year and is an item with a purchase price in excess of £500, or a group of items purchased which exceed £500.

We will only fund reusable expedition equipment. Requesting to fund single-use items, such as gas canisters, will cause grant applications to be rejected.

The Operations Officer and incoming DofE Manager at each school are required to create an Action Plan, which sets out how the Licensed Organisation or Centre will develop their provision over the first year, which will then be updated and re-submitted as part of the annual reporting requirements. This must be submitted to the Project Manager within eight weeks of receiving funding.

DofE Managers within each school will be sent an annual report, which they are responsible for completing with support from their Operations Officer. The following steps need to be taken:

1. 10 months after their grant award date, the DofE Manager will receive an email requesting a monitoring form is completed. They will have two months to complete and submit the report. The Operations Officer will be copied into the email.
2. The Operations Officer supports the DofE Manager to complete the form and raises any issues with their Operations Manager and the Project Manager.
3. The report is reviewed by the Project Officer and approved or returns with a request for further information.
4. Once approved, the Project Manager requests Award Scheme Ltd to issue the following year’s Participant Places to the Licensed Organisation or Centre’s eDofE account and issues the second year’s licence fee instalment payment.
5. This process is repeated on an annual basis. In the final year the Project Officer reviews the final report and, if happy, closes the grant, notifies the relevant Regional Director, Operations Manager, Operations Officer and DofE Manager.

The annual report requests information on the following:

• Five bullet points on the impact of the grant on marginalised young people.
• An updated version of the Action Plan, showing progress and future plans, which is agreed by the Operations Officer and DofE Manager.
• The number of Participation Places that are required for the following year (unless the report is for the final year) and whether the Licensed Organisation still requires the second-year licence fee contribution of 25%.
• Two quotes from either a participant, parent / guardian, DofE Manager, Headteacher or Licence Signatory.

A summary of financial spend and the submission of evidence of expenditure. The evidence of expenditure required is as follows:

• Receipts/invoices for all expedition equipment purchased.
• Receipts/invoices for training courses purchased.

Evidence of expenditure for licence fees and Participation Places will be provided internally by the DofE.