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Parents in the Lead Activities Fund

Our Parents in the Lead activities fund helps parents (mums, dads, carers, grandparents and expectant parents) run activities for expectant families or families with children under four in the Better Start Bradford area (Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton).

Who is it for?
Smaller parent and community-led organisations in the Better Start Bradford area can apply. The majority of those benefiting from funding must be expectant families or families with children under four.

How much funding is available?
You can apply for a maximum of £2,500 in one year (this can be split across more than one application).

What type of activities will be funded?
Activities must focus on helping children under four to either:

• Eat well and be healthy
• Talk and communicate well
• Be confident, friendly and understand their emotions and behaviour

Examples of activities are:

• Online activities for both parents and children focused on the Better Start Bradford themes listed above.
• Online activities for both parents and children that support parental mental wellbeing.
• Socially distanced/online activities for very small babies and their parents, e.g. simple games, singing and signing.
• Socially distanced/online activities for dads and their 0-3’s together.

We have adapted these activity examples to suit the current COVID-19 climate, you can still apply for funding to run group and face-to-face activities for when this will be possible in the future. Please check the guidance notes for more information.

How do you apply for funding from the Parents in the Lead activities fund? 
There’s a quick, simple application form for parents (and those supporting them) to complete to tell us about your ideas and what these will cost. Please read the COVID-19 changes below to help during this time.

Parents in the lead – activities fund – application form

Parent in the Lead application guidance notes

COVID-19 changes to Parents in the Lead Activities Fund
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have made the following changes:

• Application Support – We have enhanced our support for groups who wish to apply for Parents in the Lead Activities funding. Please contact Helen Rush for more information on 07542 848399 or via email [email protected]. We will support you with the application process.
• Bank accounts – If you don’t have an organisational bank account to hold the funding, we can assist with allocating a constituted group that can hold the monies for you.
• Online Delivery – We are encouraging applications for projects that can be delivered online during the current COVID-19 pandemic, however we are also happy to fund projects that will be delivered face-to-face once everything returns to normality.
• Online Delivery Costs – We can fund certain costs to assist with online delivery for smaller groups as long as these are contained within the £2,500 limit. Please contact the team to discuss this further.
• COVID-19 Health and Safety – Projects applying that do have face-to-face delivery in the future will need to complete a very simple risk assessment. Any activity facilitators will have had to have undertaken COVID-19 safety training.
• Monitoring – We have relaxed the Parents in the Lead monitoring requirements due to the pandemic. More information about this can be found in our guidance notes.

Please note that it will be the responsibility of the project to adhere to Government regulations and guidelines around COVID-19 that are in place at the time of project delivery.

Deadline to apply:
The next deadline date will be announced soon

How are decisions made? 
Decisions are made by a selection panel, made up of local parents, who look at all the applications and choose the best ideas for local families with children under four to enjoy.

Who has already successfully applied:

Parents in the Lead June 2021 announcement

Parents in the Lead May 2018 announcement

Parents in the Lead December 2017 announcement

Parents in the Lead September 2017 announcement

Parents in the Lead June 2017 announcement

Parents in the Lead April 2017 announcement