Partnership

Funding round: Building Futures

Partner with us to deliver a mentoring programme at scale and deepen our understanding of preventative interventions and their potential impact on secondary school students at risk of becoming NEET

Overview

Through Building Futures we are growing the evidence base on how preventative interventions -  such as mentoring - can support secondary school students at risk of missing out on further education, training or future employment.

We are now seeking partners to deliver the Building Futures mentoring programme at scale and take part in an impact evaluation.

What is Building Futures?

Building Futures is a six month programme of weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions for young people in years 8 to 10 who are at risk of becoming NEET. It is underpinned by trusted adult relationships and trauma-informed practice.

Further information on the core components is available in our application guidance below. A more detailed programme specification will be shared with delivery organisations during the second stage of the assessment process.

What is an impact evaluation?

An impact evaluation seeks to understand whether an intervention or programme made a difference to particular outcomes.

Impact evaluations do more than describe what has taken place, as they assess whether the changes observed can reasonably be attributed to the programme itself, rather than to other external influences.

What we’ll invest in

We’re interested in hearing from:

delivery organisations who currently work with high volumes of secondary schools in England and are able to deliver the Building Futures mentoring programme to secondary school students in Years 8-10.
intermediary organisations who will partner with multiple delivery organisations and form a consortium to deliver the Building Futures mentoring programme to secondary school students in Years 8-10.

We are open to appointing either:

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

Further information is available in our application guidance:

Guidance for delivery organisations Guidance for intermediary organisations

Further info

Grant amount

Eligibility - delivery organisations

To submit a proposal, your delivery organisation must:

be registered in England, and operating for at least 36 months
have an average income of £750,000 per year over the previous 3 financial years
currently deliver a mentoring programme to secondary school students and/or currently deliver programmes in secondary school contexts
be willing and able to deliver the Building Futures mentoring model, as defined by Youth Futures
have existing partnerships with at least 15 secondary schools (in England)
be able to deliver Building Futures to at least 500 young people between September 2027 and April 2028
be willing to engage in an impact evaluation

The full eligibility requirements are summarised in our application guidance for delivery organisations.

Eligibility - intermediary organisations

To submit a proposal, your intermediary organisation must:

be registered in England, and operating for at least 36 months
have an average income of £750,000 per year over the previous 3 financial years
have experience brokering partnerships with delivery organisations to deliver large scale programmes
have experience working with and recruiting young people at risk of becoming NEET either directly or through partnership work
have experience of brokering partnerships with secondary schools or multi-academy trusts
be able to deliver Building Futures to at least 2000 young people between September 2027 and April 2028, ideally up to the full required scale of 4000
have the financial systems and controls in place to manage significant funds on behalf of a consortium
be willing to engage in an impact evaluation

The full eligibility requirements are summarised in our application guidance for intermediary organisations.

Application timeline

Key Dates

1 December 2025 – Stage 1 applications open
23 January 2026 – Stage 1 applications close
Mid-February 2026 – Stage 2 applications invited, by selected request
13 March 2026 – Stage 2 applications close
End of March 2026 – Interviews
By 1 June 2026 – Funding decisions communicated

How to apply

Further support

Useful links

Guidance for delivery organisations Guidance for intermediary organisations FAQs Word template for delivery organisations Word template for intermediary organisations Guide to Blackbaud