HMPPS Small Grants Scheme Cardiff Community Justice projects
Cardiff Community Justice team (HMPPS) are offering small grants of up to £5,000 to local, third sector organisations that will provide services to people on probation in Cardiff and the Vale. The grants will be used to support those in the community subject to Probation supervision. The scope of services offered can be tailored by the third sector organisations and based on the needs of the participants. Activities include those targeting emotional wellbeing, sports and outdoor activities, arts and music, cooking and other services aimed to encourage rehabilitation and engagement with community provisions. We are particularly interested in hearing from organisations who can provide support within the Splott, Llanrumney and Ely areas of Cardiff.
- Opening date: (Midnight)
- Closing date:
Contents
Summary
Cardiff and Vale Probation Delivery Unit (PDU) seeks to replicate and expand community-rooted approaches to rehabilitation. The Small Grants Programme aims to harness the innovation and reach of local organisations to support people on probation through meaningful, localised engagement.The programme will offer grants of up to £5,000 to voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations that are based in, or support the communities of Splott, Llanrumney and Ely. These grants will fund activities that promote desistance, wellbeing, and community integration.We invite proposals for:
Cooking, barista or hospitality training
Sports and leisure activities
Peer support groups (e.g. substance misuse recovery)
Emotional wellbeing and therapeutic sessions
Arts, graffiti, music production (especially for over 25s)
Community gardening, volunteering, and local heritage projects
Activities should:
Be tailored to the needs of people on probation
Be delivered within the identified localities (Splott, Adamsdown & Tremorfa)
Promote engagement, wellbeing, and skill development
The funding available for this award is £5,000 Expected structure of the sought activities: each individual activity and the overall length of the project: We will provide flexibility to the organisation to tailor their service for meeting the needs of those subject to probation supervision. They will be delivered in the identified locations and promote engagement, wellbeing and skill development. The activity can vary in length though not exceeding 12 months. **Requirements for the providers:**Providers will be rooted within their communities. They will have experience delivering the services and activities to others, however, experience working with those in the Criminal Justice System is not essential as support can be provided from HMPPS. Providers will have their own safeguarding policies and procedures in place for working and providing services to others. We encourage co-production with people on probation, the use of community venues and activities open to wider community to reduce stigma. Benefit for the service **users:**We understand that neighbourhoods are the primary agents of change, furthermore, research highlights the benefits of localised services to support desistance, and the grant application is one way to develop this in Cardiff. This would support operational colleagues as they’ll be able to engage meaningfully with the local services who will be operating in closer proximity to them. There could be increased opportunities for collaboration and further engagement with the organisation once the grant ends. The benefits for people on probation are increased opportunities for meaningful engagement with services in their local area. Increased opportunities to learn new skills, develop confidence in group settings and with non-statutory partners. These grants also provide opportunities to the smaller organisations that may not generally work with HMPPS, providing targeted activities. This pilot will run for 12 months. 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.
Providers will be rooted within their communities. They will have experience delivering the services and activities to others, however, experience working with those in the Criminal Justice System is not essential as support can be provided from HMPPS.
Providers will have their own safeguarding policies and procedures in place for working and providing services to others. We encourage co-production with people on probation, the use of community venues and activities open to wider community to reduce stigma.
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 project will run for approximately for 12 months between 01/04/2026 to 31/03/2027. The dates for the activities to be delivered will be agreed with the successful candidates at the award stage.
Applications are open from 17/11/2025 - 05/12/2025 at 15:00.
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.