Knowsley Workforce Development Fund

• Requests for funding to support with/pay for Youth Work, Care Experienced and/or SEND training/qualifications and continued professional development.
• There will be an open call for funding until 31 July 2026, and funding will remain available until such time as the budget of £0.100m is exhausted.
• Applications will be reviewed, and recommendations will be made to the Interim Executive Director (Children's) for final approval.
• Direct beneficiaries of the intervention must come from Knowsley.
• All requests for funding must be on the application form developed specifically for this Fund.
• The impact on the Fund against the priorities must be demonstrable.
• Unless otherwise specified by the Council, applicants are required to maintain records to evidence the impact of their interventions for scrutiny and inspection by the Council for six years following receipt of funds.  This will include evidence relating to payments, financial records, and outcome monitoring reporting, regardless of whether any costs will be incurred by the organisation to retrieve such records.
• Applicants are required to publicise the Knowsley Youth Workforce Development Fund in any marketing and make clear the direct support that has been provided by Knowsley Council.
• Within approximately 3 weeks of the application, applicants will be informed of whether their submission has been successful.
• Payments will only be processed following receipt of signed grant agreements and agreement to the Fund’s conditions upon submission of the application form.
• Organisations /Individuals can apply to more than one course; however, the initial course must be completed fully before commencing any additional courses
• Applicants will need to declare that all effective insurance, DBS, safeguarding and health and safety compliance is in place and provide associated documentation where necessary and upon request.
• Early notification of the inability to spend funding within the allocated time period will be encouraged to enable funding to be reallocated.
• Any unspent funds remaining at the end of the grant period must be returned to the Council.

Please be aware that a full audit trail of evidence of expenditure and outcomes should therefore be retained for inspection.  Appropriate checks may be carried out by the Council’s Internal Audit team. This might take place at any point within a six-year period of receiving the grant.

Applicants should note that failure to comply with requests for information such as evidence of spend, monitoring returns or compliance documents will result in ineligibility for future funding programmes.

Knowsley Council has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud/corruption.