Local Alliance Group funding for projects

The Local Alliance Group (LAG) priorities for each area are:

Weymouth

The priorities in Weymouth are to:

• promote and support good health
• inspire a love of learning
• support good relationships
• support financial wellbeing

Portland

The priorities in Portland are to:

• encourage ambition in young people and their families
• build an inclusive community for everyone
• promote a clean and green environment
• provide fun and affordable activities for all ages
• create safe and enjoyable public spaces

Dorchester

The priorities in Dorchester are to be confirmed

Purbeck

The priorities in Purbeck are to:

• deliver solutions for transport across Purbeck that meet need
• develop a joined-up approach to mental health and wellbeing across Purbeck
• offer young people to have opportunities to be involved in environmental issues and for people to listen to their views on this matter
• manage the inappropriate use of social media and proving safe spaces for education, training and recreation
• support parents and carers of children with special education needs emotionally and practically

West

The priorities in West are to:

• support good financial wellbeing
• support resilience and education
• connect young people with their communities

East

The priorities in East are to:

• support young people by guiding them toward positive activities
• while simultaneously working to divert and disrupt antisocial and criminal behaviour

North

The priorities in North are:

• good mental health
• poverty

When applying for this fund, we will ask you to demonstrate:

• the need for financial support for your project
• value for money
• that you are not legally required to provide the project or service you are applying for funding
• that you are not receiving money from anywhere else to provide the project / service (but allowing for matched funding)
• how the project meets at least one of one of the local alliance groups priorities
• what you would like to achieve for children and young people
• how will you know your project has made a difference and what outcomes you will achieve
• the expected start date of your project
• that you have taken an inclusive approach with your project
• clear involvement of young people and / or families in making decisions and the development of your project
• that you can provide the required documents set out in the compliance and supporting documents section, this gives clear guidance for individual, school / college and consortium applications

The following are not eligible for funding: 

• loan repayments
• projects outside the Dorset Council area, for example Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole, or other surrounding areas
• individuals or personal equipment
• commercial organisations
• external bursary schemes or grants programmes administered by the applicant
• projects for services that are already commissioned by Dorset Council which have been awarded to other organisations or agencies
• promotion of religious or political beliefs
• projects which in our opinion could harm the reputation of Dorset Council

Dorset Council has a responsibility to take upmost care with public funds and will require evidence of the following documents. Some funds may require additional documentation.

A guide to compliance and supporting documents needed depending on who you are applying as.

Document	Individual (up to £5000)	School/ College	Consortium (up to £20000)	Why do we need it
Constitution/Memorandum of Articles and Association (within the last 12 months)	Yes	No	Yes	Demonstrates the organisation has guidelines to its purpose and how it is governed. A management committee, Board of Trustees or Board of Directors with at least 3 unrelated people as members.
Annual Accounts	No	No	Yes	These can be audited or independently examined accounts or an income/expenditure spreadsheet depending on the size of the organisation. Demonstrates the financial position of the organisation regarding income, expenditure, loans, liabilities etc. New organisations without annual accounts may submit a financial forecast as an alternative.
Bank Statement (Copies of the last 3 months) see guidance if you don’t have bank statements.	Yes	No	Yes	Demonstrates that the organisation has a bank account in their name with 2 unrelated signatories, and we can confirm bank account details. Important that it shows account name, sort code and account number clearly of applicant.
Safeguarding Policies / Equal Opportunities	Yes	Yes	Yes	To demonstrate that the organisation has robust policies in place.
Environmental Policy or Statement	Yes	Yes	Yes	To demonstrate the organisation considers how their work has an environment impact.
Employers (if applicable) and Public Liability Insurance	£5,000,000	£10,000,000	£10,000,000	To demonstrate the organisation has appropriate safeguards in place.

 

If you don’t have bank statements

For new/emerging or micro-organisations who do not have their own bank account, Dorset Council recommends that their local Town or Parish Council be the bank account holder. Dorset Council cannot make a grant payment to individuals or provide bursaries to individuals. For new/emerging groups set up within last 12 months, or micro-organisations we may ask to have any grant we agree paid to another organisation such as a town, parish council, school, or a professional body.

Documentation is mandatory

Provision of all these documents is mandatory, and they should be uploaded with your application at the time of submission. If for any reason this is not possible, we can make arrangement to submit these by another means.

If we have not received all documents before the panel meets, or the documents do not meet the criteria above, we reserve the right to refuse your application.

Our online form is accessible and easy read. Read our accessibility statement for more information.

Applicants are reminded that we only accept completed applications made through the online application form. You will need an email address to submit the form.

You should also make sure that you have provided all the supporting documents requested, you can upload them when completing your application. If having read the guidance you are still unsure, please contact your locality.

Do not upload large data files (larger than 3MB per file) when completing the form. You can use PDFs or use a zip file if needed. Only upload the documents that we ask for.

The application form is divided into 7 sections. These sections are:

• organisation details
• about you
• project details
• finance
• supporting documents
• additional help
• declaration

On submission you will receive a confirmation email which also has a PDF copy of your application form.

Any individual or consortium applying for funding are recommended to join the local alliance group to demonstrate commitment to enhancing outcomes for children and young people in their local area. To join, please see email addresses above. If your bid is approved, you are expected to spend the funds and start the project within the same financial year

The Local Alliance will assess your application for funding in the following ways:

The Panel

A small panel will review requests. The panel will have a minimum of 4 members, including the Chair or Vice Chair and the Head of Locality and Strategy. The named members can vary each time, but the Head of Locality and Strategy will always be a constant. Members will declare any conflicts of interest as appropriate.

Decision making

The final decision will be agreed by the Independent Chair or Vice Chair (or a nominated Vice Chair for the purpose of the panel) and the Head of Locality and Strategy (or a delegated representative, e.g., Service Manager).

The decision of the panel is final. However, feedback will be provided if requested.

Evaluation

If you are successful, as part of the application process you will also be required to complete an evaluation on your project. You can find more on this under 'Evaluation'.

Fund Closure

Once all funds have been allocated, the Local Alliance Groups reserve the right to close the fund.

As Dorset Council, we will share basic data information about your application with other local grant managers or funding streams. This will enable us to:

• make informed funding decisions
• avoid duplication of funding
• ensure value for money is achieved through our grant making processes

Dorset Council is also mandated to publish all payments over £500 on our website.

Dorset Council will also ensure that applicants data is stored appropriately. See details of our Data Privacy and GDPR policy. Dorset Council will promote all successful grant awards on the Dorset Council website and relevant media.

Start now

If your application is successful, you will be required to complete an evaluation on the project.    

Complete the evaluation form on your finished project

Start now

We ask for feedback either at the end of the project or 6 months after the project starts if it is a project that will continue. We may also request further updates to monitor progress.

We do ask you to consider providing something more creative. We would love to see TikToks, videos, presentations, artwork or any other format to share the impact the funding has had on Children, Young People and Families across Dorset.

This helps us track your project's progress and understand the broader impact of our funding. Your contributions are vital for our communications team to highlight and share your fantastic work with a wider audience.

The kind of questions we will ask are:

1. How much money did you spend on the project? 
2. How many children, young people and families accessed the project?
3. What was the impact of the project? Including feedback and photos