Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund 2027 - 2029

Eligibility

The Fund has a national purpose, but funded delivery does not need to operate across the whole of England and Wales. Applications may propose local, regional, cross-regional or national delivery where they demonstrate that the activity addresses an evidenced gap, supports a population whose needs are not consistently met through existing arrangements, or makes a clear contribution to the Fund’s overall national portfolio. Applicants must explain the additional value of Home Office funding and how their proposal complements rather than duplicates existing provision.

1.    Eligibility Criteria 

Funding is open to voluntary and community sector organisations working in England, and Wales that can support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and/or those caring for or supporting them. The applicant must be registered in England, Wales or Scotland and be one of the following:

• A Community Group that:

o   is set up for charitable, benevolent, or philanthropic purposes

o   has a governing body with at least 3 members

• A Charity registered with a UK charity number

• A Community Interest Company (CIC) – a type of limited company that exists to benefit the community, not private shareholders

• A Social Enterprise – a business with social aims, where profits are reinvested into the business or community, not paid to owners or shareholders

• A Faith-based Organisation

• Any other non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation with an appropriate governing structure.

Partnership and consortium applications are permitted. One eligible organisation must act as the accountable lead, hold the Grant Agreement and remain responsible for the governance, performance and financial management of all delivery partners.

Applicants may submit only one application, either as a sole applicant or as part of a consortium.

Applicants must:

• be able to deliver the funded activity for the full grant period;

• demonstrate relevant experience and capability in supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse;

• have a current (within last 2 years) safeguarding certification, governance, financial controls, information governance and risk-management arrangements;

• demonstrate value for money and the capacity to manage public funds;

• explain how the proposal addresses evidenced need and contributes to the Fund’s objectives and intended outcomes;

• explain the additional value of Home Office funding and how the proposal complements rather than duplicates existing provision; and

• identify material financial, workforce, delivery and partnership dependencies and explain how these will be managed.

The following are not eligible to apply:

• local authorities;

• individuals;

• private companies or other organisations that do not meet the eligible organisation requirements and seek to distribute profit to owners or shareholders.; and

• universities or academics institution.

Statutory bodies may participate as delivery partners where this adds value and does not duplicate their statutory responsibilities. Statutory bodies are not eligible applicants and must not receive funding from this Fund.

Applicants may propose new or developing approaches, but novelty is not a requirement. Established models are eligible where applicants demonstrate unmet need, appropriate quality, outcomes and value for money. Proposals addressing technology-enabled or other emerging harms should demonstrate a credible current or anticipated need, appropriate safeguarding and specialist input, and a clear benefit for victims and survivors.

Assessment criteria

Applications will first undergo mandatory compliance, eligibility and due-diligence checks. These checks will not contribute to the final application score. Applications may be excluded where the checks identify a failure to meet a mandatory requirement or an unacceptable risk to public funds, including evidence of fraud, financial misconduct, insolvency concerns, serious governance weaknesses or failure to meet required safeguarding standards.

Applications will be assessed against four scored questions:

• Strategic fit and evidenced need

• Delivery model and quality

• Outcomes, impact and evaluation

• Accessibility, safeguarding and survivor involvement

Applications must meet all mandatory requirements and achieve a minimum moderated raw score of 40 on each of the four scored questions to be considered fundable. An application receiving a moderated raw score below 40 on any scored question will not be considered fundable, regardless of its overall weighted score.

Fundable applications will normally be ranked by their final moderated, weighted score and funded in score order. However, the Home Office may apply the portfolio-selection methodology  to select the combination of fundable applications that best meets the Fund’s aims within the available budget. This may take account of gaps in support, beneficiary reach, geographic coverage, diversity of provision, delivery risk, avoidance of material duplication and the overall balance of the portfolio. A lower-ranked fundable application may therefore be selected where this demonstrably strengthens the overall portfolio. Any departure from score order will be recorded and justified.

Funding available

The total competition budget is approximately £3.2 million per year. £6.4 million over the life of the Fund.

The Home Office expects to make multiple grant awards through this competition. Applicants may apply for funding at a scale proportionate to the activity proposed. There is no expectation that funding will be distributed equally between successful applicants. No single application may request more than 20% of the total funding available in each year of the competition. Applications exceeding this limit will be treated as non-compliant and will not be considered for funding.

The Home Office reserves the right to take account of the overall balance of the funding portfolio when making final award decisions. This may include consideration of coverage across strategic priorities, victim and survivor cohorts, service models and areas of unmet need, alongside the assessment scores achieved by individual applications. The purpose of this approach is to maximise the overall impact of the Fund and ensure a balanced and coherent portfolio of support.

The Home Office reserves the right to offer partial funding awards to any Applicant. Such awards may be lower than the amount requested in the Application.

Where a partial award is offered, it will be subject to the following conditions:

• Applicants must confirm that delivery of their Application remains viable at the level of funding offered. Where the Home Office award is less than the amount requested, Applicants may choose to supplement the funding using their own resources (including match funding, as defined in the Grant Agreement), where they consider this appropriate. The Home Office will not negotiate or permit changes to Applications, including scope, deliverables, or milestones, following submission.

• Applicants will be required to confirm the value and source of any additional match funding contributing to delivery. The Grant Agreement will be revised to reflect the confirmed funding profile and will specify any ineligible expenditure that will not be reimbursed by Home Office funding.

The Home Office reserves the right to withdraw a partial funding offer where an Applicant is unable to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Home Office, that delivery of the Application remains viable at the level of funding offered. This includes circumstances where any proposed match funding contribution is considered insufficient or not credible.

Objectives

The Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund aims to improve access to specialist support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse across England and Wales by funding services that address unmet need, strengthen support pathways and improve outcomes for victims and survivors.

The scheme will seek to:

•  Increase access to timely, safe, inclusive and trauma-informed support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, particularly where there are identified gaps in provision.

•  Improve the experience of support, including how people find, access and navigate services.

• Improve outcomes for victims and survivors, including wellbeing, safety, recovery, resilience, coping and other outcomes relevant to the intervention being delivered.

•  Strengthen support for non-abusing parents, carers and family members where doing so contributes to improved outcomes for victims and survivors.

• Reduce national and cross-regional gaps in provision and strengthen referral pathways, partnership working, safeguarding arrangements and system capability.

• Build the evidence base by generating and sharing learning to inform future policy, commissioning and service delivery.

Outcomes and Impact

The scheme is intended to address the unmet need, unequal access to specialist support and variation in provision identified through engagement with the sector and wider evidence on child sexual abuse support services.

The Fund aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• Victims and survivors of child sexual abuse can access timely, specialist support that meets their needs, helping to improve their wellbeing, resilience, recovery and ability to cope, and making it easier to find, access and navigate support services.

• Support is more accessible, inclusive and responsive, particularly for underserved and underrepresented groups and those who face additional barriers to accessing help.

• Victims and survivors benefit from stronger support networks and services, including, where appropriate, support for non-abusing parents, carers and family members, and increased sustainability and capability within specialist organisations.

• Partnership working, referral pathways, safeguarding arrangements and access to specialist expertise are strengthened, improving local and national responses to child sexual abuse and supporting the sharing of learning and evidence across the sector.

• Gaps in provision are addressed through a balanced portfolio of funded projects, ensuring that funding complements existing services, supports the fund's strategic priorities and delivers the greatest possible impact for victims and survivors.

Illustrative Funded Activities

The Fund will support a portfolio of specialist activity intended to improve access, experience and outcomes for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. Proposals may focus on one form of support or bring together complementary activities where this is justified by the needs of the people they intend to support. Applicants will not be expected to provide every element of a comprehensive support pathway.

Activities may include:

• specialist counselling, psychotherapy and other trauma-informed therapeutic support, including flexible or sustained provision where justified by the needs of victims and survivors;

• stabilisation, psychoeducation and pre-therapy support, including appropriate support for people waiting to begin a therapeutic intervention;

• advocacy and practical assistance, including help to navigate health, housing, welfare, education, safeguarding and criminal-justice systems;

• peer, group and community-based support that is appropriately facilitated and supported;

• support for victims and survivors who do not report to the police, do not participate in criminal-justice proceedings, or require continuing support after an investigation or proceedings have ended;

• support for adults disclosing or seeking help for non-recent child sexual abuse, including where needs emerge or change at different stages of life;

• support for non-abusing parents, carers, siblings, partners, kinship carers, foster carers or chosen supporters, where this contributes directly to the safety, recovery or wellbeing of a victim or survivor and appropriately protects their autonomy and confidentiality;

• support at points of transition, including between children’s and adult services, when moving between geographical areas, or when a formal intervention or other source of support ends;

• targeted and adapted provision for underserved groups and people facing additional barriers to support, including appropriate outreach and a choice of face-to-face, remote or blended delivery;

• reasonable practical measures that enable people to access funded support, which may include travel, childcare, interpretation, communication support and safe digital access;

• specialist emotional and practical support responding to technology-enabled abuse and its continuing effects;

• relationship and sexual-wellbeing support where this falls within the agreed scope and contributes directly to the Fund’s intended outcomes;

• appropriate support responding to harmful sexual behaviour, where this falls within the agreed boundaries of the Fund and is clearly connected to outcomes for victims and survivors;

• activity that strengthens continuity, referral pathways and coordination between specialist services, statutory agencies and community organisations; and

• proportionate workforce development, supervision, evaluation, partnership activity and learning where these are necessary to improve the accessibility, quality, safety or capacity of frontline support.

The examples above are illustrative rather than exhaustive. Proposed activity must be clearly connected to the Fund’s objectives and intended outcomes and will be considered against the published eligibility and assessment criteria. Awards will be subject to the available funding envelope, evidence of need, quality, deliverability, additionality and value for money.

What we will not fund

The Fund is not intended to:

• Replace statutory responsibilities.

• Duplicate existing locally commissioned services where there is no clear national rationale.

• Fund activity that is exclusively local in scope without demonstrable national impact or added value.

• Support projects that do not align with the objectives of the Fund.

Dates*

Competition opens:                                            2 November 2026 (10:00)

Deadline for clarification questions:           6 November 2026 (16:00)

Jaggaer Registration Closing Date:             14 December 2026 (12:00)

Competition closes:                                            18 December 2026 (16:00)

Assessment period:                                             18 December 2026 to 27 January  2027

Funding decisions communicated:               3 - 12 February 2027

Delivery starts:                                                        1 April 2027

Delivery ends:                                                          31 March 2029 23:59

*Dates shown here are indicative.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted using the application form and supporting documentation provided as part of the Application pack.

Applicants will be required to complete the mandatory compliance, eligibility, due-diligence and declaration questions; answer the four weighted questions; provide a detailed budget and financial information; and submit any supporting information specified in the competition documents.

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Step 1:

In order to apply for funding, Applicants will first need to register on the Home Office (HO) Jaggaer portal via the following link: https://homeoffice.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html

Applicants should be approved for usage within 24 hours of registering on the system.

After clicking on the eSourcing portal link, it should take you to the home page. On the left-hand side of this page, just below the login boxes, there is an option to register.

To register as a supplier, you will need to provide information which will include:

• The full legal name of your organisation;

• Your DUNS number – a unique nine-digit number provided to organisations free of charge by Dun & Bradstreet (if your organisation does not have a DUNS number, please email SVSCSAFUND2027@homeoffice.gov.uk)

• Profile information describing your organisation and the size of your business.

PLEASE NOTE: Registering on the Jaggaer portal will not automatically give you access to the competition documents.

Step 2:

DO NOT HIT THE APPLY BUTTON ON THE ADVERT.

Once registered on Jaggaer, please email SVSCSAFUND2027@homeoffice.gov.uk  in order to be granted access to the competition.

DEADLINE: The Authority will NOT accept any emails from Applicants requesting to be added to Jaggaer after 14 December 2026 – 12:00. 

If you fail any of the compliance questions (Part A), you will be eliminated on review and your Technical questions will not be scored.

Further information

Questions relating to this competition should be submitted through the competition clarification process set out in the applicant guidance.

Responses to clarification questions may be published anonymously to ensure that all applicants have access to the same information.