Programme Award Call – Financial Security in the UK

Deadline: 23-Nov-22

The Robertson Trust is currently seeking programme award applications through an open call on the theme of Financial Security in Scotland.

Financial security is about ensuring people and families have income adequacy, income security, manageable costs and the financial safety nets necessary for when things go wrong.

Priority Areas

For their financial security open call for applications they are particularly interested in proposals that relate to one or more of their three priority areas:
- Strengthening social security in Scotland – reform here and now or long-term change (or both)
  - They mean social security in its broadest sense, the ability to pool risk across society and to help each other when things go wrong. This includes the social security system but it goes beyond it too.
  - This could include work to:
    - Improve take-up of existing social security payments, including through automation or other ways to simplify the system for people who use it (including Scottish flexibilities through the UK-wide system).
    - Increase the levels of existing social security payments (including uprating).
    - Deliver near-term reform of payments devolved to the Scottish Parliament, including Scotland-level payments (devolved payments such as Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant, Carers Assistant and Disability Assistance etc.) and local level payments (payments made through local authorities such as council tax reduction, school clothing grants etc.).
    - Deliver long-term reform of social security in Scotland including further devolution, and big ideas such as a Minimum Income Guarantee or other new ideas for reform. This could include framing and opinion work and tackling other potential barriers to reform.
    - Increase other income for particular population groups such as child maintenance.
- Reducing the costs of essential goods and services – ensuring the fundamentals of a dignified quality of life in Scotland are affordable for all
  - They are interested in how they can ensure that the costs of what people need to live a dignified quality of life are affordable, plannable and manageable. These types of costs include housing, energy, food, broadband and digital, water, council tax and other essential bills, travel and costs specific to key population groups such as additional costs related to childcare, dealing with disability and unpaid care.
  - This could include work to:
    - Reform the existing support available to help with these costs.
    - Develop and test new approaches to reducing these costs for low-income people and families.
    - Reduce essential costs faced by low-income people and families in Scotland.
- From crisis to security – preventing and relieving financial crisis now and in the future in Scotland
  - They are interested in how they can better design services and activity to prevent financial crisis for people and families in the first place and/or to work with those in financial crisis to stabilise their finances and prevent financial crisis repeating in the future.
  - This could include work to:
    - Develop new approaches to ensure people and families on low incomes have the access to savings, insurance, crisis funds (such as Scottish Welfare Fund) and affordable credit they need when things go wrong.
    - Deliver a dignity and human rights-based approach to debt and arrears in Scotland, including debt and arrears to public bodies.
    - Develop new approaches to providing advice earlier and more proactively to people and families prior to reaching crisis point (including new data-led approaches to identifying and targeting people and families who need help).
    - Through Programme Awards they will support work which aims to deliver big change that lasts on tackling poverty and trauma in Scotland.

Funding Information

Programme Awards are available to organisations working in Scotland with an annual income of more than £100,000.
They will look to ordinarily make awards for up to five years or less, and a total award amount of usually between £20,000 and £500,000, and up to £250,000 per year.

Eligible Activities

The following is not an exhaustive list but provides broad examples of the type of work they would be unable to fund within Programme Awards:
- Projects that would be eligible for support through their Funds.
- Work that is not relevant to their financial security theme in general and their three priority areas in particular.
- Direct delivery of services, unless this is testing and demonstrating a new approach which has a good potential to lead to wider change and is in line with their three priority areas.
- Unrestricted funding (though they do encourage full cost recovery and will fund a proportionate share of organisational overheads through Programme Awards).
- Wider interventions and approaches which do not have a clear connection to delivering big change that lasts on tackling poverty and trauma in Scotland.
- Applications which are about improving or changing internal organisational capacity, capabilities or structure (unless there is a clear link to how this will improve outcomes for people experiencing poverty and/or trauma).
- Work which solely seeks to build understanding of the causes of poverty and trauma as opposed to delivering solutions on poverty and trauma.
- Restricted funding for capital projects.

Eligibility Criteria

This open call for Programme Awards is available to organisations working in Scotland with an annual income of more than £100K.  Annual income is based on the money you received in the last financial year, as presented in your most recent set of audited annual accounts.
Programme Awards are open to:
- Organisations with an annual income of more than £100,000. Organisations do not need to be based in Scotland but the proposed work does need to aim to have an impact in Scotland.
- Registered Charities
- Asset Locked Community Interest Companies (must be able to demonstrate a satisfactory asset lock demonstrating how they do not distribute assets or profits to individuals or third parties)
- Housing Associations
- Credit Unions
- Partnerships led by one of the organisations can include other types of organisations (such as companies or public bodies)