HMPPS Small Grants Programme Pilot – Rapid Collaboration and co-design input for Recalled Women
This grant will fund a short codesign project to inform the Fixed Term Recall 56 (FTR56) offer. We expect it to be an intensive collaboration programme engaging women with lived experience of recall across all the Women’s Estate. It should be conducted at multiple sites and include women who are released into Wales. The project will use research groups, workshops, and participatory design methods to help shape a gender specific model for future delivery. The project will run for approximately for 6 months between April 2026 to October 2026 The dates for the activities to be delivered will be agreed with the successful candidates at the award stage.
- Opening date: (Midday)
- Closing date: (Midday)
Contents
Summary
MoJ and HMPPS recognises that VCSE organisations are a huge contributor to the running of the prison service and working with people in prison. The empowering legislation for this grant is section 6 of the Offender Management Act 2007
HMPPS have the opportunity to design a gender specific delivery model for FTR56. To ensure any future intervention is effective, proportionate, and aligned with lived experience, we must understand the realities for women who have been recalled and their priorities for support.
Women in custody often experience complex trauma, social isolation, and disrupted support networks. Their recall journeys are frequently shaped by unmet emotional needs, practical instability, and lack of clarity about processes. Capturing their insights is essential for developing a more responsive and rehabilitative approach.
Expected outcomes
The project aims to:
Surface women’s lived experiences of recall and the period they spend in custody on recall to inform system and intervention design.
Identify opportunities for trauma responsive, gender specific improvements.
Build confidence and personal agency among participants.
Increase understanding of what activities and supports promote rehabilitation and reduce future recalls.
Strengthen connections between women, providers, and staff.
Improve awareness of relevant support agencies in custody and on release.
Produce actionable recommendations which are based on all perspectives of recall experience for the upcoming design sprint.
GRANT DETAILS
We are commissioning a specialist VCSE organisation experienced in women’s justice to:
Deliver qualitative research sessions and structured workshops with women who have been recalled.
Explore women’s perspectives on system design, communication, emotional support, and practical needs during the FTR56 period.
Produce a high quality written report summarising themes, challenges, opportunities, and recommended interventions.
The findings will directly feed into the gender specific design sprint for FTR56 led by HMPPS
Requirements for the providers:
Be a UK registered VCSE organisation with proven experience supporting women in the criminal justice system.
Demonstrate understanding of trauma informed and gender responsive practice.
Evidence experience conducting qualitative research, peer engagement, or participatory codesign.
Provider staff working on the grant would need to go through the HMPPS Enhanced Level 1 vetting process, in line with current HMPPS policy. We encourage applications from organisations in which individuals with lived experience are actively involved in the delivery of services.
Have capacity to deliver within a short six month window and supply their own equipment/materials.
There is an expectation, given the sensitive nature of women’s lived experiences, that applicants will outline how they will meet requirements for
storage requirements for qualitative data
consent procedures
anonymity expectations for participants
Benefit for the service users:
Provide women with a safe, supported opportunity to influence the design of services that directly affect them.
Increase women’s confidence and sense of agency through meaningful coproduction.
Provide women with a platform to articulate needs, barriers, and ideas for improvements to recall practices and a new FTR56 offer.
Strengthen trust and engagement between women and the system by demonstrating that lived experience informs policy and design.
A grant is the most suitable mechanism as it enables the Women’s Estate to test and pilot a codesign model to inform future commissioning and service development.
The grant scheme will run for approximately 6 months from March 2026 to October 2026
The total available of the grant is £10,000
The total grant amount will be paid in advance, provided that the grant recipient has given sufficient assurance that the grant will be used for the stated purpose.
Eligibility
The award is open to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations)
The voluntary sector organisation(s) or consortium receiving the grant from HMPPS, should be a registered charity or social enterprise.
Any organisation applying for funding must demonstrate that it meets the due diligence criteria before any award is made. The funding will only be given to organisations where their annual turnover is at least twice the amount of the funding that they are seeking.
Grant funding cannot be used to deliver core services which HMPPS should be delivering.
Objectives
Make a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals seeking positive change.
To improve people’s experience of prison and probation through the rehabilitation activities.
To support an individual’s rehabilitation and desistance journey; and
To improve our knowledge about what activities, work to support people and to encourage rehabilitation and desistance.
Dates
The grant is open for applications until 27th February (Midday)
The grant scheme will run for approximately 6 months from March 2026 to October 2026
How to apply
In order to submit a compliant application, applicants must complete all questions in the Apply for a Grant application form. Please note and do not exceed the word counts for each answer. Any information that is included once the word count is exceeded will not be evaluated and will not count towards the evaluated score. Responses must not include diagrams, tables, images or similar.
Applicants are permitted to submit clarification questions via email to HMPPSGrants@justice.gov.uk. For transparency, this advert will be updated throughout the competition to include any responses to questions asked by applicants.
Further information from clarification questions: No further information.
To be eligible for funding under this grant applicants must achieve the minimum threshold score of 3 averaged across all technical questions otherwise they will be removed from the competition process. The scoring criteria is outlined below:
Score Interpretation
5 Exceeds the requirement. Exceptional demonstration shown for the proposal, how the project will be delivered, and extensive past experience detailed.
4 Satisfies the requirements and has minor additional benefits. Above average demonstration across all questions.
3 Satisfies the requirements. Demonstrates understanding and ability to a satisfactory standard.
2 Satisfies most of the requirements with some minor reservations relating to the experience, understanding and/or ability. Whilst mostly the question has been answered in a satisfactory way, one element has been omitted/offers insufficient evidence.
1 Major reservations about the experience, understanding or ability demonstrated, with little to no evidence to support the questions. More than one element has been omitted.
0 Does not meet the requirement. Does not comply or offer sufficient information to demonstrated experience, ability of understanding. Significant elements of the question has been omitted or not addressed to a satisfactory standard.
The Authority reserves the right to ask clarification questions about any elements of an application. These questions will not give applicants the opportunity to expand on the response and may only be used where applications contain minor errors or to clarify where the information presented is unclear.
The grant, if awarded, shall be awarded to the Applicant(s) who:
has submitted an application in compliance with these instructions
meets the eligibility criteria
meets the minimum quality threshold of 3 questions
achieves the highest technical score
Due diligence checks will be carried out before the award can be made. These checks may include, but are not exclusive to, financial, brand, assurance, and charitable status.
Supporting information
Conflicts of Interest
The Authority is required to prevent conflicts of interest occurring in this competition and may disqualify applicants if an actual or potential conflict of interest occurs in connection with the competition which cannot be satisfactorily avoided or mitigated. The Authority may disqualify any applicant which attempts (or whose advisers attempt) to influence the competition in any way.
MoJ Disclaimer
The Authority shall not be committed to any course of action as a result of:
• issuing the competition documents
• communicating with an applicant or an applicant’s representatives or agents in respect of this competition exercise; or
• any other communication between the Authority (whether directly or by its agents or representatives) and any other party.
All applicants accept and acknowledge that by issuing the competition documents the Authority is not bound to accept any bid and reserves the right not to award or conclude a grant for all or any of the costs for which bids are invited.
The Authority reserves the right to apply its discretion on the amount of funding that is to be awarded to the successful applicant(s). If only part of the application is acceptable, in terms of the stated deliverables, then the Authority may only award funding on that basis.
The Authority reserves the right to amend, suspend or terminate all or any part of the competition or its documentation at any time during the ITT.
The instructions in this advert, together with any other tender documentation are designed to ensure that all applicants are given equal and fair consideration. Applicants should read the instructions carefully to ensure they understand them and the conditions of participation before submitting their applications.
Failure to comply with these instructions regarding submission of the application response may result in its rejection. The Authority may reject Tenders which are substantially and materially incomplete, non-compliant, inconsistent, or vague.
Applicants should answer all questions as accurately and concisely as possible. Applicants are solely responsible for ensuring that their applications are free from error and accept that these cannot be modified after the submission deadline.
Costs incurred in submitting applications will be borne by applicants and will be defined as ineligible expenditure under the terms of the grant.
All information supplied by the Authority to applicants must be treated in confidence (unless already in the public domain) and must not be disclosed to third parties other than as is necessary for the purposes of preparing a Tender.