Programme Board papers
Raising the Bar & External Funding
13/11/2014, by Gavin Talbot (External Funding Officer)
Key decisions required
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Approval to take a lead on seeking funding opportunities through the larger
educational funders (working in conjunction with relevant SCC departments
as appropriate).
That the programme board detail their key priorities that they would want to
see funding brought in for.
Detail any key individuals that should be the key contacts for any project
development
1. Overview
Through research and communication with some key education funders we have
identified a number of funds primarily the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation, Erasmus+ and the Education Endowment Fund where innovative
educational projects are being funded across the country. However there seems to be a
lack of successful proposals from here in Suffolk.
In order to develop successful and innovative proposals, we need to become more
proactive in targeting funds with effective projects.
Part of the work of the External Funding team initially running in conjunction with
managing the Challenge Fund has been to work on how we will get more information out
to schools on Funds that they can apply for. This has been through the compilation of a
funding list, a monthly funding piece in the RTB newsletter and through general advice
as required by schools (mainly at this stage through rejected Challenge Fund projects).
We are also developing some funding Masterclass sessions for schools that we hope to
launch in conjunction with the 2nd Round of the Challenge Fund.
The next step we feel is developing strong strategic projects to these specific funds
which will help with meeting our Raising the Bar ambitions. This would enable us to
build on the smaller funding available to schools and the VCS sector through the
Challenge Fund and Community Fund.
2. Approach
In order to achieve this we are proposing that we lead on project development in this
area, in partnership with LIS and CYP colleagues. There will also be linkages with other
Transformation programmes, in particular MEIC where there are some good
opportunities for partnership working with the VCS sector generally but especially around
early years.
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We recognise that the capacity for directorates to develop projects can be hard
especially at the current time where the focus is on transformation or improving service
quality. We can bring the extra capacity and space to develop ideas, away from those
working directly with schools currently. The extra capacity will help with developing the
strong innovative proposals that these funds look for and support the Raising the Bar
priorities and those working on the frontline (whether in SCC or in schools) who have
good ideas but may lack the capacity to set them in motion.
Our approach will be that with a small number of key focus areas directed by the
programme board that we will work to develop a pipeline of potential projects and a
strategy on how to realise them.
The approach taken will vary according to the priorities that the board wants us to focus
on and the potential funds – so examples for illustrative purposes could be:
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An Erasmus+ bid could be developed in conjunction with LIS to set up a strategic
partnership with a number of European countries aimed at an innovative
approach to addressing a particular subject area.
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A project funded by the RTB Challenge Fund that is showing promise could be
developed and scaled up for a larger Education Endowment Foundation bid.
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A large Education Endowment Foundation bid could be developed in conjunction
with LIS to address a particular issue facing Suffolk.
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A small scale project by a VCS organisation that looks promising could be
developed into a wider project to target the Esmee Fairbairn Suffolk Fund with a
view to this being a route into a larger project that goes for funding to the national
Esmee Fairbairn Fund.
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Pro-actively speaking to funders or national organisations doing innovative work
that meets Suffolk needs to develop projects that could then go for funding.
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Giving project development and funding support to schools with innovative
project ideas that may not meet RTB Challenge Fund criteria but have the
potential to ‘Raise the Bar’.
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Appendix 1: Overview of key funds
1. Education Endowment Foundation
The EEF funds the development and evaluation of cost-effective and replicable projects
that seek to improve the educational attainment of pupils who are eligible for free school
meals.
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Key areas of interest
o Testing out innovative new approaches
o Proving the impact of “promising” projects and scaling up
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Examples of projects
o There is a big focus on projects involving literacy, numeracy, targeted
interventions and classroom strategies.
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Funding levels
o A minimum of £50,000 with no defined upper funding limit
2. Erasmus+ EU Funding
The EU’s main funding for education projects. It funds collaborative projects across a
minimum of 2/3 EU countries in the field of education, training, youth and sport.
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Key areas of interest:
o Key Action 1: Mobility of students and teacher
Opportunities for students or teachers to go to another country for
learning opportunities. For teachers this generally involves exchanges to
share information and best practice.
o Key Action 2: Co-operation for innovation and exchange of good practice
Strategic partnerships aimed at improving educational standards.
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Examples of recently funded projects:
o Projects involving schools have mainly focused on curriculum
development, development of materials, teachers CPD and innovation in
teaching.
o In terms of subjects there is a high prevalence of projects focusing on
maths, literacy, science and ICT.
o There have also been projects looking at wellbeing, improving educational
effectiveness and parental engagement.
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Funding levels
o Key Action 1 – covers direct costs of the project
o Key Action 2 – 150,000EUR per year for a maximum of a 3 year project.
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3. Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
They are one of the largest grant funders in the country with a particular focus on Arts,
Education and Learning, Environment and Social Change. Do not fund statutory work
but will fund educational programmes that seek change (examples of such programmes
below).
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Any opportunities here would need to involve partnership working with a VCS
organisation – potentially national organisations as well as local.
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The Suffolk Community Foundation manages an Esmee Fairbairn Suffolk Fund
which is a result of Suffolk being under-represented in their main funding.
Smaller projects have the potential to go to the Suffolk Fund and then if showing
promise could go to the main Esmee Fairbairn fund to scale up.
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Key areas of interest:
o Long term, collaborative area based work
o Prioritise work that addresses significant gaps in provision, develops or
strengthens good practice, tests out new ideas or takes risks to tackle a
difficult issue.
o Projects that cover 2 or more transition points
Examples of recently funded projects
o Middlesbrough Literacy Hub – a new approach to tackling low literacy across
all ages. This project is led by the National Literacy Trust.
o http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/communities/literacy_hubs/middlesbrough
o Achievement for All – An evidence based, two year improvement programme
that supports schools to improve outcomes fors vulnerable and
disadvantaged pupils.
o http://www.afa3as.org.uk/
o RSA Grand Curriculum Design – Professional development programme for
school leaders
o http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/learning,-cognition-andcreativity/education/practical-projects/grand-curriculum-designs
o Into University – Local learning centres for disadvantaged children.
o http://www.intouniversity.org/
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Funding levels
Highly variable dependent on the project as they fund anything from small
individual projects up to large scale projects such as Achievement for All which is
its largest funded project at £692,000
4. Paul Hamlyn Foundation
A large grant funder with education and learning as one of its themes, they usually pick 3
themes to focus on each year. In 2014 these were:
 Tackling school exclusion and truancy
 Developing speaking and listening skills
 Supplementary education
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The 2015 themes are yet to be announced but there are usually 1-3 funding
rounds so would be relatively easy to develop projects within a good timescale
once the themes are announced.
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Key areas of interest
o To support innovation in educational practice to improve learning
outcomes for young people in and out of school settings.
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Examples of recently funded projects:
o All projects funded in 2014 focused on the 3 key themes. There was one
local example:
o NEAD - £149,802 to develop a network of trained youth workers to
support 480 disadvantaged young people in Norfolk and North Suffolk to
improve their speaking and language skills.
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Funding Levels
o Will fund smaller amounts for individual schools or organisations but for
the larger area based initiatives that we would be looking at then funding
can be in the hundreds of thousands with the NEAD example above a
typical one.
5. Other funds
Outside of the main regular funders detailed here there are also a number of smaller
funds that may have some relevance that we would also be bearing mind where there is
a link to Raising the Bar objectives such as:
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British Council: Connecting Classrooms – The British Council’s global education
programme which offers school partnerships with foreign schools and
professional development for teachers.
Department of Education grants (for schools or the VCS sector
One-off funds such as the current Sutton Trust Parental Engagement Fund.
Often these one off funds have short deadlines so having a list of key priorities to
work to and the “permission” to develop projects means we can work quickly to
apply to these types of funds when they come up and not get slowed down by
needing to get approval and stakeholders together.
Lottery: Funding for extra-curricular activities – we would specifically focus on
activities that directly support Raising the Bar (an example could be something
like helping supplementary schools access funding.)
In addition to funds schools can access there are a large number of funds that the VCS
sector can access for educational projects and the External Funding team already has
excellent links with the majority of these organisations already so there may be the
potential to also be more proactive in developing projects that better link SCC, schools
and the VCS sector in Raising the Bar.
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