Enrichment Expansion Programme (Pre-Market Engagement)

It is intended that grant funding would be issued to an organisation/consortium that meets the below eligibility criteria, however, we encourage other partners with experience in one or more of the areas highlighted to respond to the market engagement:

• Be a registered company, private company, or Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE), including registered charities. As a grant recipient, you must be able to demonstrate that the project is not for profit.

• Have capacity and capability to work and deliver across all nine England regions, and/or have capacity to form a consortium that would cover the nine regions.

• Have experience of the youth sector organisations, with strong knowledge of youth enrichment provision and regional needs.

• Have experience of working successfully with and providing support/guidance to schools to drive improvement.

• Have experience of successfully working with and providing support/guidance to enrichment sector organisations to drive improvement.

• Have expertise in incorporating youth voice within project design and/or delivery.

• Have the technical expertise, capacity and knowledge to meet the objectives of the programme.

• Have experience in coordinating and building relationships between sectors/services.

This section provides detail on the programme’s objectives, the expected capabilities of the grant recipient, and questions for feedback.

Background

Enrichment activities can be delivered to provide fun and meaningful experiences in their own right, but often enrichment activities are delivered to improve young people’s wellbeing and life outcomes. Evidence shows that participation in enrichment can boost pupil attainment, strengthen employment prospects, and improve mental health. We also know that there are consistent barriers to participation for certain groups of young people, and that many areas across the country have cut back on the quantity of enrichment activities available in recent years. This is why the National Youth Strategy has committed to halving the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.

Learnings from prior programmes, including the £21m Essential Life Skills Programme and £3.4m Enrichment Partnership Pilot, have informed the design and development of the Enrichment Expansion Programme.

Overview of the Enrichment Expansion Programme

The EEP aims to support up to 400 secondary schools to develop a youth-led, tailored enrichment offer and meet the benchmarks set out in the Enrichment Framework (due to be published in this academic year). The programme will drive best practice in coordinating enrichment in and around schools in a way that responds to young people’s needs and builds partnerships between schools and local enrichment providers sustainably. 

This programme’s strategic objectives are to:

• Increase the number of young people taking up opportunities to access high-quality and varied enrichment offers, particularly for disadvantaged young people in underserved areas. 

• Increase coordination between schools and enrichment providers, including greater use of partnerships, adoption of best practice, and use of local and regional sources of support.

• Improve pupil outcomes, including pupils’ wellbeing, school engagement and behaviour, attendance, and KS4 attainment. 

• Support participating schools to meet the benchmarks outlined in the Enrichment Framework (due to be published in this academic year).

The key audiences of the Enrichment Expansion Programme are:

• Disadvantaged young people of secondary school age (aged 11-16), situated in underserved areas.

• Schools (mainstream, specialist and alternative settings) situated in underserved areas.

• Enrichment providers situated in underserved areas.

Place and school selection

DCMS, with the DfE, will determine schools to participate across disadvantaged and underserved areas. The 400 schools selected will be grouped by proximity and will represent a range of geographical contexts, including urban/rural/coastal, and represent a diverse range of students, including those with SEND or on free-school meals (FSM). Eligible schools will be selected and invited to participate by DCMS and DfE. We will share further details on place selection and participating schools in due course. 

The role of the delivery partner

DCMS is intending to award grant funding across three years to a delivery partner (single or consortium). The delivery partner will better coordinate enrichment provision to support 400 secondary schools to improve their offer and meet the Enrichment Benchmarks in selected areas across England. Eligible schools will be selected and invited to participate by DCMS and DfE.

We expect any grant recipient to design the details of the programme’s activities in order to achieve its objectives effectively. 

Based on learnings from previous programmes and stakeholder engagement carried out between November and December 2025, examples of activities carried out by the delivery partner may include:  

• Providing tailored coordination support to each participating school.

• Providing ongoing support to staff working with schools, for example through:

• • Partnership building with providers

  • Supplying relevant training, including support for SEND/AP provision and delivery of youth empowerment work

  • Providing relevant materials (worksheets, guidance, etc.) to carry out responsibilities

• Overseeing and bringing together work at the regional level, for example by:

  • Collating insight from programme staff/schools to map regional enrichment provision

  • Utilising regional connections to drive partnerships between regional partners, schools and local enrichment providers

  • Connecting cross-sector organisations, including relevant Local Authorities, Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, cultural or sports sector enrichment opportunities and schools

  • Collecting evidence of best practice and sharing learnings across regions.

• Bringing together work across the programme at a national level, for example by: 

  • Hosting national events and/or conferences to share learnings from the programme

  • Running an online website/platform for sharing information and guidance on the programme.

As a condition of the grant, the delivery partner must also:

• Work with government, including but not limited to:

• Providing updates on progress, risks and mitigations

• Providing collated regional data on provision and partnerships

• Collecting evidence of best practice and sharing with the national layer/other regional partners.

• Be involved and participate in fund monitoring and evaluation, collecting data and supporting the work of the evaluation partner

• At the end of the programme, hand over assets and information to DCMS as appropriate. 

DCMS, with support from DfE, will provide the strategic direction and overarching support for the EEP, including the coordination across other Government programmes and sharing guidance related to the Enrichment Framework. 

Grant value

Subject to change, we expect the value of any available grant to be in the region of £16-17m over the three years from FY 2026/27 for the delivery partner. The budget breakdown for each financial year will be confirmed in due course. 

Funding will also be allocated to school grants (c. £2.8m) and evaluation costs (c. £1m), which will be delivered separately.

Expected capabilities of grant recipient

Working closely with DCMS and other relevant departments and partners, the grant recipient will be expected to design and deliver programme activities to meet the outcomes of the funding. Any grant competition will require applicants to propose how they plan to do so. 

In order to achieve the objectives listed, we expect that a successful grant recipient (which could be a single organisation or a consortium) would have:

• A track record of working successfully with schools, including special schools

• Experience in programme/project management (of a similar scale) 

• Experience in grant management 

• Knowledge of youth enrichment provision and needs at a regional level

• Experience recruiting and managing programme coordinators/staff

• Time and capacity to upskill and support staff working on the project, including but not limited to:

  • Safeguarding and DBS policies

  • Youth empowerment and youth voice training

  • Monitoring and evaluation activities 

  • Working with (and in) schools 

• Strong understanding and experience of monitoring and evaluation, including:

  • GDPR

  • Supporting the gathering of data and evidence across, for example, enrichment providers and schools

  • Working with an evaluation partner

• Time and capacity to conduct mapping exercises of enrichment provision, including:

  • Ability to assess existing enrichment provision through, for example, reports, existing data, and engagement with enrichment leads in the region

• Pre-existing knowledge of and capability to build partnerships across complementary sectors, for example transport

• Time and capacity to share programme learnings and best practice at a national level 

Questions for feedback

1. Does your organisation have the capacity and expertise to deliver this programme and achieve its objectives in line with the requirements above? If not, would your organisation have the capacity and expertise as part of a consortium to deliver this programme?

2. Are any of the expectations outlined particularly challenging, and if so, why?

3. Are the expected activities and capabilities outlined appropriate for the amount of grant funding? If not, what would make them more achievable?

4. Is any of the information that has been provided about the grant funding unclear, or could be open to misinterpretation?

5. Would you be interested in bidding for this grant? If you are not interested, please provide reason(s) as this will be valuable feedback.

6. Would you consider a consortium bid? If so, do you already have organisations in mind that you would consider bidding alongside [you do not need to name them]? 

7. We anticipate that any grant competition would be open for 4-6 weeks. Does this seem appropriate?

8. How long would you expect the programme set up and mobilisation period to be?  

9. We would welcome any advice on specific information that you feel should appear in the grant advertisement to help potential bidders make an informed response.

We would be grateful to receive any observations by close of play 1 April 2026, particularly any responses to the questions for feedback, as outlined in the 'objectives' tab. Please share your feedback with youth-enrichment-team@dcms.gov.uk.

Subject to decision, DCMS proposes to run a grant competition through the Government ‘Find a Grant’ Service in Spring 2026, with commencement of the grant due in Summer 2026.

Please share responses to the questions for feedback (in the objectives tab) with the DCMS Youth Enrichment Team at: youth-enrichment-team@dcms.gov.uk.

We are also inviting interested stakeholders to attend a pre-market engagement webinar for the Enrichment Expansion Programme (EEP) and Richer Young Lives (RYL) Fund on Wednesday 25 March. The webinar will cover the information set out on this Find a Grant page, including how to send your feedback.   

Sign up to the webinar here.

Wednesday, 25 March · 3:00 – 4:00pm:

The first half from 3-3:30pm will focus on the information above in relation to the Enrichment Expansion Programme.

The second half from 3:30-4pm will focus on pre-market engagement information in relation to the Richer Young Lives Fund.

You are welcome to attend all or one half of the session depending on which programme(s) you are interested in.

Conditions of participation

The contents of the statement of requirements and of any other documentation that may be provided in respect of this market engagement exercise are provided on the basis that they remain the property of DCMS. This policy is still being finalised, and the details of the programme and requirements below are subject to change.   

Respondents should note that this market engagement exercise does not constitute any commitment to award a future grant and we make no commitment to publish a subsequent grant competition. Involvement in this market engagement will not influence the outcome of any future grant competition.

Respondents should also note that outputs from this market engagement exercise may be shared with all participating respondents and should therefore highlight in their responses any information considered to be commercially or otherwise sensitive. Respondents acknowledge that DCMS is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 and may be required under the FOIA to disclose information concerning this exercise (including commercially sensitive information that does not meet the bar for exemption) without consulting or obtaining consent from participants.

Respondents are responsible for all their costs and expenses incurred in connection with this Exercise. Under no circumstances will DCMS be liable for any costs or expenses borne by or on behalf of any party associated with this exercise.