Essential Skills Devon

The following costs are not eligible project costs.

• Any cost incurred, prior to the start date of the proposed project.
• Capital expenditures and spending on the purchase of assets, for example buildings, furniture, fittings. This includes the purchase of information technology that is treated as capital expenditure for accounting purposes
• Any item(s) which you have already had European Union or other public funding for (or intend to apply for European Union or other public funding).
• Recoverable VAT
• Proposals that are carried out only to meet a domestic legal requirement
• Statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties.
• Bad debts
• Gifts
• Entertaining (which for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations).
• Contingency costs
• Insurance policy costs
• Contributions in kind
• Depreciation, amortisation, or impairment of fixed assets owned by the applicant/project
• Interest payments or service charges payment for finance leases.

Grants will be paid in arrears and normally in stages dependent on your timescales and outputs/milestones. We expect you to make a maximum of 3 claims over the course of the project. However, we will accept more frequent claims if a viable explanation is provided in your application.

You must show that you have sufficient funds to pay for the project costs until you receive the grant payments. In some circumstances you may need to apply for a percentage of the costs upfront, this is an exception rather than the rule.

All projects must be able to deliver, show defrayal and claim all project costs by 31^st March 2026.

Defrayal means that any agreed eligible costs must be paid in full. Items can only be declared as fully defrayed if evidence is provided that the payment for the item has left the purchaser’s account.

All applicants must show how their project will support its target beneficiaries (16+), resident in the Devon County Council administration area, Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, South Hams, Teignbridge, Torridge and West Devon. Essential Skills Devon aims to support those harder-to-reach groups that are finding maths, English or digital a barrier.  Therefore, projects will be asked to show how their delivery will support:

• Disabled individuals – including those with neurodivergent characteristics or who are experiencing mental health issues
• People who are Deaf and use British Sign Language
• Minority ethnic groups
• Individuals in isolated areas across Devon
• Care experienced individuals
• People who are long-term unemployed
• Other evidenced harder to reach groups

An application can only be made using the Essential Skills Application Form https://forms.office.com/e/f1hewgXZdx which also includes relevant guidance for completion. The Essential Skills team will assess your application. We are looking for evidence of a sound business case and for projects that deliver value for money and meet our priorities for funding.

If you are unsure if your project is eligible, or if you require support, please contact the Essential Skills Team on EssentialSkills@devon.gov.uk  and they will be able to assist you.

You won’t automatically get a grant

When you apply for a grant, you are competing with other applicants in the eligible area. We are looking for projects that best meet the priorities for funding, and that are good value for taxpayers’ money. If you can show this clearly in your application, you are more likely to receive a grant.

Essential Skills funding is limited and will be prioritised to applications that best contribute to the programme’s aim and themes, as set out above.

The application process is competitive

This means that even those who submit a quality application may not be funded, as this scheme aims to support a range of projects, to cover a variety of needs, geographies and demographics. We aim to support projects within those wards and places within the County whose residents have traditionally had the lowest skills achievement.

Devon County Council reserves the right not to make any awards if it is considered that the proposals are not sufficiently innovative, are not scalable, or practical.

All applications are assessed and put forward to an independent decision-making board who have the final decision on whether a project is approved or declined for funding.

Do not start work, incur costs, or place any orders before your grant agreement has been signed. This will potentially make your whole project ineligible

We understand that the application process may appear to be lengthy for those only seeking a small amount of funding, however, the application detail should be proportionate to the size of the grant you are applying for. The most important consideration, and what your application will be assessed on, is the quality of the information, not quantity. Therefore, we expect the level of detail will be greater for larger project funding applications than smaller projects.

The Essential Skills grant scheme has a single-stage application process:

Stage 1. Full Application

The Full Application is a comprehensive application, in which you tell us in detail about your project.

This is a competitive process and submission of a Full Application does not mean you will be awarded funding. You are part of a group of projects that will be presented to the Decision-Making Board.

Tip: Ensure you make the distinction between what your organisation delivers as a whole and what the discreet project is that you are requesting funding for – even when requesting support for ‘core costs’ you must clearly define what the funding is going towards and what directly it will achieve.

Supporting Documents

In the Full Application we will require  supporting documents that can include policies; business accounts; supporting letters etc. As well as any supporting documentation that demonstrates the need and demand, impact, value for money and deliverability of your project and how it will make a game-changing difference to the local economy/community.

Outputs, Outcomes, and Milestones

Outputs are the measurable results which you will achieve as part of the project.  Outputs are integral in the decision-making process; they help the appraiser determine the value for money that the project will achieve. If your application is successful, they will form part of the grant funding agreement which you will be required to enter into with Devon County Council. Therefore, it is advisable to be realistic about the outputs your project will achieve.

All the organisations applying for an Essential Skills Devon grant must show how their project will deliver within at least one of the following outputs and outcomes.

Milestones are they keys steps in your project; these are normally the timescales in which you hope to achieve progress.

Before you submit your Full Application, please check you have provided:

1. Application Form including fully completed costs, outputs and milestones
2. Letters of support or expressions of interest from stakeholders – optional
3. VAT letter to confirm that you are not VAT registered or are making exempt supplies (if applicable)
4. Note that the following policies (where relevant) will be required for successful applications, prior to contracting:

• Public liability insurance / employer’s liability insurance
• Health and Safety
• Safeguarding Adults
• Prevent (anti-radicalisation)
• Modern Slavery
• Data Security / Data Protection
• Equality and Diversity

If you do not have one or more of these policies, please explain which policies you do not have in place and explain why.

How to Submit your Full Application

A Full Application must be signed electronically and submitted using the Microsoft Forms link.

Once you have submitted your application, you will receive a notification of submission, please print this for your records. Please send any supporting documents to the Essential Skills Team: EssentialSkills@devon.gov.uk All emails must be from the email address you provided in Section 1 of the Application Form. Closing date for applications is Monday 14 July 2025, applications will need to be submitted using the Microsoft forms link by 23:59 hrs.

The programme team will check your application for eligibility and completeness.

If your application is 100% complete, then it will be assigned to an independent appraiser for review.

If there are any documents missing, or we require further information or clarification, you will be contacted to provide the information requested. A response must be sent within 48 hours from the date you were asked to provide the information. Where this is not possible, please contact  the team immediately on EssentialSkills@devon.gov.uk, explaining why you are unable to provide the information within the requested timescale, and provide the date you will be able to supply the information. When all required information has been received, your application will be assigned to an independent appraiser for review.

Decision and Outcome

The decision on whether to award funding will be made by the Decision-Making Board (DMB), which is comprised of representatives from Devon County Council and the Devon & Torbay Combined County Authority.

There are four possible outcomes from a Decision-Making Board meeting:

• Approved – the project is awarded the funding without any additional conditions
• Approved with conditions – the project is awarded the funding subject to meeting additional conditions.
• Deferred – the project decision is deferred; you will be provided with details of the reasons and what you must provide to enable the DMB to decide.
• Rejected – The application is rejected, and you are provided detailed reasons for the decision. You will also be informed if you can reapply.

Appeals Process

Whilst we appreciate it will be disappointing, that your project was not selected for funding, please be assured that this decision will not have been taken lightly, therefore appeals are only accepted if you believe that a mistake has been made due to errors or omissions during the processing of your application. All appeals should be submitted in writing to EssentialSkills@devon.gov.uk within 14 working days; from the date you are notified that funding has not been awarded. Any appeals received will be reviewed by an independent DCC officer, who has not been involved at any stage during the application processing, appraisal or decision-making processes, please allow 30 working days from the date DCC acknowledge receipt of your appeal. All appeal decisions are final.