Youth Investment Fund data dashboard

Introduction

In 2022 Social Investment Business was commissioned by the UK Government to deliver the Youth Investment Fund in partnership with Key Fund, National Youth Agency, and Resonance. From the outset of delivering the fund, we established a data-backed process to guide decision making, based on the fund’s eligibility criteria and principles. We developed a data dashboard to capture a range of datasets, including demand for the Youth Investment Fund, the breadth of organisations applying to the fund, the size and type of capital grants, organisational characteristics, and geographical spread.

The Youth Investment Fund data dashboard includes data from all expressions of interest to the fund, from August 2022, when the Youth Investment Fund opened, to June 2023 when the fund was closed to new applicants. It includes data about the fund’s main capital grant programme and the smaller refurbishment grant programme; designed for smaller youth sector organisations that only needed a modest investment of up to £150K.

To date £250 million in Youth Investment Fund grants has been publicly announced, allocated to over 220 youth projects, from large local authority projects to renovated scout huts from Liverpool to Lowestoft and Southampton to Sunderland. More Youth Investment Fund grants are due to be announced later this year. Once complete, the Youth Investment Fund will increase the number of regular positive activities undertaken by young people in the targeted areas by 45,000 per year.

Background and the Youth Investment Fund eligibility criteria

Launched in August 2022, the UK Government funded Youth Investment Fund, worth over £300 million, was designed to transform youth services in some of the most disadvantaged areas in England. It will give more young people new opportunities to have fun, make friends and develop vital skills for life and work. The fund is delivered by Social Investment Business in partnership with Key Fund, National Youth Agency, and Resonance.

The Youth Investment Fund was open to applicants that met the fund’s eligibility criteria, including the location of the proposed build site. The UK Government developed a detailed methodology for the eligible wards in England, where youth need was highest, and provision was lowest. Youth services needed to demonstrate that they were open access to all young people and that the proposed capital project would expand access to local young people.

Successful applicants also had to meet the following Youth Investment Fund criteria:

• represent positive value for money,
• are environmentally sustainable,
• and enable positive activities for young people aged 11 to 18 (up to 25 for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities)

All applicants needed to show that the capital project was feasible within the lifetime of the fund. All grant money needed to be spent and accounted for by 31st March 2025

In making funding decisions, we also considered to what extent youth centres involved young people in the development of their project, as well as looking at the organisation’s governance, long-term resilience, capacity to deliver the build project to budget and readiness to start on site.

YIF application dashboard overview

The dashboard shows that demand for the Youth Investment Fund was extremely high. The data is based on all “expressions of interest” between August 2022, when the fund opened and June 2023, when the fund closed.

The dashboard includes organisations that secured a grant and those that were unsuccessful. The dashboard includes the total amount requested and is broken down into capital and revenue costs. The data captured reflects how applicants completed their expression of interest form. It should be noted that applicants could apply for funding for multiple youth centres projects across various sites. The term “site” refers to the number of physical builds associated with each application.

The data includes both applications to the main Youth Investment Fund programme and the smaller Refurbishment Grant programme.

The dashboard shows that:

• The Youth Investment Fund was very popular and was heavily oversubscribed. The fund received 1008 applications requesting a total of £1.06 billion (capital and revenue costs combined), more than three times what we could fund.
• 50% of unsuccessful applications were declined because they did not meet the fund’s eligibility criteria. For example, they were not in an eligible ward, were not feasible to deliver within the lifetime of the fund, did not offer open access to all young people, were financially resilient or did not demonstrate value for money.

Applications to the main Youth Investment Fund programme: Large Capital Projects

The Main Youth Investment Fund was for grants over £150K. The dashboard includes information about the size of capital and revenue grant application, type of building project, readiness to commence work on site, and projected build duration.

There were 596 applications to the funds, worth £998,332,041 in capital and revenue grants. The majority of applications (363) were for capital grants between £100K to £500K.

• 227 were for capital grants between £1M to £10M.
• 145 were for capital grants between £500K and £1M.
• 140 were for capital grants up to £50K.
• 105 were for capital grants between £50K and £100K.
• 5 applications were for capital grants exceeding £10M.

Type of capital project

• The most popular type of application (293 sites) was for renovation and refurbishment of an existing building.
• 116 were for renovations and extensions.
• 184 were for new build constructions; either small (67), medium (52) or large (65) constructions.

Applications to the Refurbishment Grant Programme

The Refurbishment Grant programme was designed for smaller youth centre refurbishments such as works to improve accessibility, insulation, plastering, improvements to kitchen or bathroom facilities, roof repairs, replacing doors or windows, asbestos removal, damp proofing, fitting a new boiler, rewiring or electrical works.

This element of the dashboard only includes small Refurbishment Grants applications of up to £150K. It includes information about the size of capital and revenue grant application and projected build duration.

Grant applications were submitted for 317 sites. The majority (230) were fast- paced projects with a turnaround of 12 weeks or less.

Location of all Youth Investment Fund applications

The data team mapped each Youth Investment Fund application by region. As noted above applicants needed to fall into one of the agreed eligible wards in England, where youth need was highest, and provision was lowest.

Demand for Youth Investment Fund grants was greatest in the North West (233 applicants).

Characteristics of all Youth Investment Fund applications

We recorded data by a range of characteristics included: organisational age, turnover and proportion of leadership by women, BAME, LBGT and disability.

The demand for the Youth Investment Fund

The Youth investment Fund, a total grant pot of over £300 million, was extremely popular and oversubscribed. We received over 1000 grant applications worth a total of just over £1 billion.

We followed a data-backed process to guide decision making, based on the fund’s principles, eligibility criteria and the fund prioritisation process. Some applications that did not meet these measures were declined.

• 50% of those declined did not meet the Youth Investment Fund’s eligibility criteria.
• 14% of applicants withdrew their expression of interest.
• 7% submitted insufficient evidence to support their application.
• 28% were declined in line with the fund’s prioritisation process.

The main reasons for ineligibility included: feasibility, meaning that the proposed build would not be complete in the lifetime of the fund. All grants needed to be spent and accounted for by 31 March 2025. Other reasons included the site’s location falling outside of eligible wards; insufficient financial resilience; not being open access youth projects; not meeting the funds objectives, and problems with ownership or lease.

A transparent and open approach

Social Investment Business is committed to transparency and openness. We are sharing the data gathered for all expressions of interest to the Youth Investment Fund so organisations who applied to the fund and others can better understand the demand for funding, the breadth of organisations applying to the fund, the size and type of capital grants, organisational characteristics, and the geographical spread.

You can find out more about Social Investment Business and see our data dashboards here.