FAQs

We are looking for organisations that can deliver the Building Futures mentoring programme, as defined by Youth Futures Foundation. The core components of the Building Futures programme are:

• Mentoring model: 1:1 mentoring support only (i.e. no group component)
• Focus group: Young people in Years 8 – 10 who are at risk of becoming NEET
• Location: Secondary schools (in England) during the school day
• Duration: 6 months (i.e. approximately two school terms)
• Intensity: Weekly 1:1 mentoring sessions of 45-60 minutes
• Mentors: Paid, full time (or FTE) staff (i.e. not volunteers)

A more detailed programme specification will be shared during stage two.

Yes, we will only fund organisations that will deliver the Building Futures mentoring programme, as defined by Youth Futures.

Building Futures must be delivered in-person, in secondary schools, during the school day.

No, you do not need to currently deliver a mentoring intervention to apply for this funding.

We welcome applications from delivery organisations that:

• Currently deliver a mentoring programme to secondary school students; and/or
• Currently deliver non-mentoring programmes in secondary schools

We welcome applications from intermediary organisations that will partner with delivery organisations that have the capacity and experience to deliver the Building Futures mentoring intervention.

We encourage intermediary organisations to refer to the criteria above when identifying suitable delivery organisations.

When completing your stage one application, we are interested in understanding your current delivery, and whether this includes a mentoring intervention. To support you to answer this question, please use the broad definitions below.

A mentoring programme will have the following features:

• A supportive and consistent relationship between a trusted adult (mentor) and a young person (mentee) that is focused on building trust and connection and fostering personal growth and development. The trusted adult should not be a family member or a teacher.
• A structure of regular touch points between the mentor and mentee over a sustained period of time. A proportion of this time should be dedicated to supporting the mentee 1:1 (with/without a formal structure) if the mentoring programme involves a group component.
• The programme should be targeted at specific young people or groups of young people i.e. not delivered universally
• Clear processes and structures for mentor/mentee matches, programme entry and programme exit.

A non-mentoring programme is any programme that does not meet the definition of ‘mentoring programme’ outlined above.

For this funding round, we are open to appointing either:

• a lead partner or consortium
• a group of direct delivery partners
• a hybrid model that combines both approaches

The final delivery structure will be determined based on the strength, scale, and complementarity of applications received. No delivery model is pre-determined, and we are genuinely open to all three routes if they best enable us to reach 4,500 young people effectively.

The final delivery structure will determine how many organisations Youth Futures will fund in this round. For example, we could fund:

• one intermediary organisation; or
• up to eight delivery organisations, depending on the scale at which each organisation can deliver; or
• one intermediary organisation and up to four delivery organisations

Yes, we would be open to this. Due to the scale we are aiming to reach, we’re anticipating that multiple partners may need to be involved but we are open to bids that can reach the full 4,500 young people.

For this funding round, the eligibility criteria are fixed. The income eligibility threshold is in place to ensure financial stability and manage risk given the size of the grants and evaluation approach for Building Futures.

Delivery organisations that do not meet this threshold could explore consortium opportunities with intermediary organisations in the youth sector. Intermediary organisations are able to include smaller partners in their bids.

The funding available will be dependent on how many young people your organisation can deliver the Building Futures programme to.

We expect the unit cost per young person to be approximately £1,200 – £1,400, which includes delivery costs (such as staffing and resources), core costs, and support for the impact evaluation. This cost also includes costs that organisations will incur during mobilisation periods.

Organisations invited to submit a stage two application will be asked to submit a project budget. Organisations should base this budget on the scale of delivery they can commit to. We will provide additional guidance to stage two applicants to support with completing a project budget.

No, we do not have a preferred geographical footprint. We are open to delivery in any location in England, provided you can reach enough young people in Years 8-10 who are at risk of becoming NEET.

We are open to bids that cover multiple regions and bids that are concentrated in one region. However, if you were to put in a bid to deliver to all 4,500 young people, we would probably prefer that this covered more than one region.

As part of your application, we will ask you to describe the geographic location(s) where you plan to deliver the programme and how you will reach young people who are at risk of becoming NEET.

Yes, providing they meet eligibility criteria.

There isn’t a limit on how many partners form the consortium. However, given the nature of the impact evaluation and the need for delivery to be consistent across all partners involved, we would prefer a smaller consortium to a larger one.

We are expecting to receive a high number of applications for this funding round.

A QED is an evaluation approach that compares outcomes for young people who received the programme (the treatment group) with a carefully matched group of similar young people who did not (the comparison group).

This approach uses statistical techniques to ensure the two groups are as similar as possible at the outset. By doing so, it enables us to determine whether any differences in outcomes were caused by the programme. This design is widely used in policy and education research where it is important to measure impact robustly while working within the realities of programme delivery.

If you would like to know more about this funding round and ask questions, you can register for our upcoming webinars taking place during December and January. 

We will be running the same webinar on four different dates. Please click on the links below to register for a webinar. 

• Tuesday 9 December 2025 14:00 – 15:00 GMT
• Friday 12 December 2025 10:00 – 11:00 GMT
• Thursday 8 January 2026 10:00 – 11:00 GMT
• Monday 12 January 2026 14:00 – 15:00 GMT

We expect Building Futures to be delivered in mainstream secondary school settings only. This approach is based on learning from phase one and the need to ensure consistency across delivery partners.  

Yes, we plan to provide materials and guidance to partners to ensure consistency in programme set-up and programme delivery. 

The independent evaluator will be responsible for recruiting and constructing the comparison group. Partner organisations will only be expected to recruit the young people who are directly participating in the programme. 

To ensure the comparison group is as similar as possible to the programme participants, the evaluator will use pupil level matching based on key factors such as attendance, attainment, SEN status and other relevant characteristics. They intend to rely on administrative data and established QED (quasi experimental design) matching methods to create a comparison group that closely mirrors the treatment group at baseline, including variations in school level context. This approach is designed to support a robust and accurate assessment of programme impact. 

Yes, intermediary organisations are responsible for forming their own consortium. At stage one, you will be asked whether you have already identified your delivery partners. If you have, you should provide details of these organisations. 

If you have not yet identified your delivery partners, you will instead be asked to describe: 

• the types of delivery organisations you intend to partner with 

• how you plan to identify and select those organisations 

• how you will ensure the consortium is identified ahead of submitting a stage 2 application 

All intermediary organisations will be expected to have identified their consortium prior to the stage two application deadline (13th March).