Opening School Facilities Fund
Opening School Facilities Fund
On the 8th March '23 the Department for Education (DfE) announced Phase 3 funding for Opening Schools Facilities (OSF). Phase 3 OSF will see a £57 million investment programme to meet the goals of the Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan. The aim is to help schools to open their existing sport facilities, including school swimming pools, for a broader range of young people and to support the wider community by partnering with sporting organisations, who can help deliver activities in these settings.
The programme will focus on the following -
• Driving a youth informed community offer of activity on a school site in the most underserved communities.
• The upskilling and capacity building of schools to create longer term plans to open their facilities for the benefit of the community.
• To provide inspiring (young people want to), accessible (they can) and meaningful (they benefit) provision that helps improve physical activity levels and participation in their area.
Opening school facilities outside of the normal school day to school and community users, to create sustainable change in physical activity levels.
Phase 3 is a three-year investment to ensure that local solutions are sought collaboratively that identify long term changes in behaviour, leading to more people being active in areas that need it the most.
Active Partnerships (AP's) will work with schools to enable them to deliver new or enhanced activities that will increase the range of face-to-face opportunities for pupils (and their families), incorporating making schools aware of further opportunities to open their sports facilities sustainably beyond the end of participation in the programme.
We know there are clear health inequalities, in relation to physical inactivity, therefore the opening schools’ facilities intervention must promote physical activity to residents who find it challenging to access opportunities and achieve the daily recommended levels of physical activity. The programme will target support to schools with a high percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals, from low affluent families, culturally diverse groups, and pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).
The programme will be delivered by a consortium of national organisations:
Active Partnerships (lead organisation)
The Youth Sport Trust
UKactive
StreetGames
- To support schools to open their facilities outside of the normal school day (evenings, weekends, and holidays) to allow children & young people and the wider community to access more opportunities to be physically active.
- To open school swimming pools focusing on swimming and water safety lessons both during and outside the school day for pupils at their school and for pupils at other local schools.
- Participants are provided with a range of stimulating and enjoyable opportunities to take part in physical activity and sport, in addition to that experienced within PE lessons and extra-curricular activities. This means NEW and additional extra-curricular activities are eligible
- Participants are signposted to take part in the same or similar activities in their local community, following the end of their participation in the programme.
Short Term: Schools will receive support to help the facilitation of opening their school premises outside of the school day, to deliver both new extra-curricular and out of school hours community sessions, to benefit young people and adults in the community.
Longer Term: Schools will be able to develop a sustainable business model from hiring their facilities to external organisations at affordable rates. Pupils will also benefit from having greater access and opportunity to take part in activities after school, at weekends and during holidays in their local area.
Who can apply?
Schools will be contacted by their local AP on a ‘place-based’ approach which targets the most deprived areas/areas of need, based on local insight and data.
Applications from schools who fall within Wesport’s place based approach to CYP work will be prioritised. Schools outside of these areas can still apply if meeting the key criteria of the fund and have an IDACI ranking of 1-4.
Community Organizations, Sports Clubs and National Governing Bodies can support school applications but cannot apply for funding themselves. Groups of schools or local networks (eg. Multi Academy Trusts or School Sport Partnerships) can collaborate to add additional value however individual agreements and plans must be submitted for each school.
Key Criteria for Development Plans
- Tackling Inequalities: provision should focus on people from lower socioeconomic communities; disabled people and those with long term health conditions; women and girls; people from ethnic minority backgrounds
- Engaging the school community: programmes to be co-designed with young people
- Engaging the wider community: opportunities for continued participation and for community engagement (including co-designing with community organisations / local young people)
- Developing a sustainable workforce: youth leadership and volunteering opportunities
- Added value: linking to other policy areas, HAF, community safety,
- Youth voice: must include youth voice when developing plans
- All schools must sign a grant agreement form
- Minimum of a 12-week programme for indoor and outdoor facilities – with opportunities to continue after the initial period (Year 1 is exempt from this due to timescale)
- Minimum of a 6-week programme for swimming and water safety activities – with opportunities to continue after the initial period (Year 1 is exempt from this due to timescale)
- Commitment until March 2025 (APs and schools can plan a year at a time but the emphasis is focusing on sustainable change)
- Indoor and outdoor activities can be delivered after school, evenings, weekends and holidays (not including current curriculum or extra curriculum school activities)
- Swimming activities can be delivered both during the school day, before and after school, evenings, weekends and holidays
- Activities can be delivered in holidays, in conjunction with HAF and other programmes, but must target new participants
- Needs to be a new or additional activity to what is already taking place
- All eligible items for expenditure, must be paid for first and then claimed in arrears via uploading invoices onto smartsheets
- All activities must evidence through uploading information (individual and throughput figures) onto smartsheets monthly
- All schools must agree to take part in a national evaluation of the programme
Phase 3 of the Opening School Facilities Fund is a 3 Year programme (see below), with schools engaging in Year 1 receiving funding each year in line with their agreed action plan and budget. Schools can apply for the investment they require to support their project. Schools who sign up in Year 2, will receive funding for 2 years and so on.
Year 1: Jan '23- Mar '23 (All APs need to sign up their allocated number of schools within 8 weeks. There is an expectation that there will be a higher number of secondary schools targeted in the programme than primary schools, schools with pools, special schools and PRUs)
Year 2: Apr '23- Mar '24 (Deadline for new and existing funded school Delivery Plans to be shared to national team by 24th July)
Year 3: Apr '24- Mar '25
What we need from schools interested:
First, please contact CYP@wesport.org.uk to express an interest in this funding pot and arrange an initial discussion.
We are asking for schools interested in accessing funding and support from Wesport to do the following:
- Read the school guidance document,including Frequently Asked Questions before completing the online application
- Complete the School Information and Delivery Plan form
- If approved, complete monitoring and evaluation as part of the programme
Community Groups seeking to access school facilities out of school hours please contact the Wesport team on CYP@Wesport.org.uk , and your local school.
Apply below!
Year 2 Deadline 27th November, 5pm.
Year 3 Deadline 19 March, 5pm *Please talk to the Team before submitting an application
