Applications are now closed – the deadline for applications was 3 April 2024.
Contents
1. Overview
We are looking for a single organisation to deliver a Good Work Programme for Screen. The Programme will provide resources, advice, training and support to SMEs — including leaders, managers and Heads of Departments (HoDs) — to strengthen their management practices and build more inclusive and productive workplaces.
Delivery of this Programme is intended to respond to three of the sixteen key recommendations from the Good Work Review being:
- Build awareness of rights and responsibilities, customising mainstream resources and advancing targeted and tailored guidance and awareness campaigns for creative businesses and workers.
- Extend and customise resources and services, management development opportunities and financial support for creative businesses to enhance their capacity to drive improvements in workplace practices.
- Strengthen the representation of workers in business decision making, through enhanced representation, engagement, and reporting.
We have allocated £1,500,000 of National Lottery funds for this Programme and intend to award this funding to a single organisation who will be required to design, implement and deliver a programme of activity and engagement with the sector over a 2-year period that delivers against these three recommendations, in partnership and collaboration with suitably experienced and connected partners across the HR, employment law, and screen sectors.
The Programme should be designed with the specific challenges of the screen sector in mind and be targeted at screen sector SMEs as well as HoDs, including those working in:
- Production
- Animation
- VFX
- Gaming
- Distribution
- Exhibition
The Programme design should not duplicate any existing best practice but instead should seek to become the single front door to both existing and new resources and support, whilst also proactively working with organisations and individuals to nurture the adoption of good work principles and practices.
The successful applicant should have the ability and contacts to work with a consortium of skilled delivery partners to provide a suite of “good work” support. Those delivery partners may include universities, HR and employment law specialists, specialist training organisations, screen industry bodies, as well as other organisations and charities with a specialism in one or more of the Good Work themes set out at Section 4. We also welcome partnership with delivery partners that can extend support beyond these themes.
The successful applicant will also be expected to work closely with relevant screen sector stakeholders in the development and collation of programme resources and activity to ensure the programme meets industry needs and expectations. The successful applicant will be responsible for the dissemination of programme resources and uptake will be a key measure of success. Buy-in from key screen sector stakeholders will therefore be vital.
2. Delivering against our National Lottery Strategy
All activity funded through the Good Work Programme should contribute to achieving some or all of the following outcomes of the BFI National Lottery strategy:
3.3 Workforce retention is improved by building inclusive, flexible and supportive workplaces.
3.4 Vital skills for the sector that cannot be delivered by the commercial market are developed.
4.1 Better support available for small and medium-sized enterprises and independents to develop their businesses.
In addition, all National Lottery awards must deliver against our three principles for National Lottery funding:
- Equity, diversity and inclusion
- UK-wide
- Environmental sustainability
Key Performance Indicators
The BFI will measure the success of the Fund using the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
- Number of training sessions delivered
- Number (and type) of businesses/individuals undertaking training
- Number (and type) of resources developed
- Number of engagements with / downloads of online resources
- Number of businesses adopting new policies
- Geographic spread of beneficiary SMEs
- Reach of any social media / communications campaigns
Impact Measures
- Number of individuals employed/contracted via newly implemented & fair recruitment and/or procurement approaches
- Number of businesses reporting increased wellbeing across its workers
- Increased worker retention
- Increased diversity of workers
- Increased awareness of sound and lawful contracting practices
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
A clearly defined and communicated set of inclusion targets helps us to monitor and take greater accountability for our progress in this area. They give clarity and a clear direction to colleagues, partners and stakeholders.
The activity of this programme should contribute towards achieving the BFI’s Inclusion Targets, which are:
- 18% disabled (including those with a longstanding physical or mental condition and those identifying as D/deaf or neurodiverse)
- 40% Black and Global Majority (London)
- 30% Black and Global Majority (outside London)
- 50:50 gender – those identifying within the gender binary (also monitoring trans and non-binary identities)
- 10% sexual identity (those identifying as LGB+)
- 39% working-class background
You should set your own targets that relate to supporting the longer-term ambition of achieving greater diversity in the workforce with these targets in mind.
BFI Diversity Standards
All of the activity supported by our funding is informed by the BFI Diversity Standards. You will need to demonstrate how your proposal meaningfully tackles under-representation in relation to disability, gender, race, age, sexual orientation and socio-economic status, while also considering the interactions of these identities and any other barriers to opportunity. If successful, you will need to report following the conclusion of your activity, evaluating how you have delivered against the aims of the Diversity Standards in practice.
For applications to this programme, you are expected to summarise how your activity meets the intentions of each of the Standards A-E overall. Download General Guidance for this summary version of the Diversity Standards.
For BFI National Lottery Skills Fund, the areas we expect you to focus on are:
- what representation is considered and offered in your output
- who works for your organisation
- early career opportunities, training and career progression
- the diversity of beneficiaries and how you will reach them
- the overall accessibility considerations and commitments
UK-wide
The BFI funds activity throughout the UK. This includes national, regional, and local provision to ensure that communities throughout the UK feel the benefit of the screen industries and culture. You’ll need to tell us where your proposed activity will be delivered and how this will support the BFI’s UK-wide principle.
Environmental sustainability
You’ll need to tell us how you will embed the principle of environmental sustainability throughout your funded activity. This includes describing what you’re doing to reduce your negative impact (such as reducing carbon emissions or minimising single-use plastic) as well as what you’re doing to increase your positive impact. If you are offered an award, the BFI will provide dedicated expertise to support you in addressing this principle.
3. Check if you’re eligible
Applications must be submitted by a single organisation meeting the eligibility criteria set out below that will be expected to identify and work with key delivery partners.
Your organisation
Your organisation must be a legally constituted organisation centrally managed in the UK. This includes:
- Limited Liability Company or Partnership registered at Companies House
- Community Interest Company registered at Companies House
- Combined or local authority or statutory body
- Charity or trust registered with the Charity Commission (including UK universities and colleges)
Your organisation must be able to demonstrate specialist knowledge and expertise of HR and UK employment law, and either have relevant connections to the industry or be able to identify partners that do.
You must also have prior experience of managing publicly funded programmes and working in partnership with other organisations to deliver activity at scale.
Your proposed delivery partners should be selected based on their prior experience of providing support in/for one or more of the Good Work themes set out in Section 4.
Individuals cannot apply.
When you’re ineligible
You’re not eligible to apply if you:
- have no prior experience of managing public grant funding
- have no prior experience of delivering programme activity in partnership with others
- are unable to deliver activity across the UK
- do not have a track record and/or in-house expertise of current best practice approaches to HR and UK employment law
- are unable to connect with the UK’s screen sector either directly or through delivery partners
Get in touch with the team if you’re unsure that you are eligible for this fund: Skills.Coordinator@bfi.org.uk
4. What you can use the funding for
You can apply for an award of up to £1,500,000.
Your application should be based on a single two-year award running through to 31 March 2026. Funding will be cash-flowed in line with projected expenditure over that two-year period.
The amount of funding that BFI can make available for the second year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026) may be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels. If we have to reduce funding for that second either year, we will ensure that we provide sufficient notice and work with you to modify plans accordingly.
It is our expectation that our subsequent National Lottery funding round, starting in April 2026, will include a furthern allocation for the continuation of this the Good Work Programme for Screen. We are unable to confirm the amount that might be available and will require any such subsequent funding to be awarded through via a furthern open application and assessment process in order to conform with best practice in distributing National Lottery funds.
It is likely that a longer-term sustainability plan for the Good Work Programme will be required from applicants at this subsequent funding stage.
Your programme
Your proposed programme should respond directly to the Good Work Review set out at the start of these guidelines, and be designed to support SMEs and individuals in the screen sector.
The programme of activity should comprise individual strands, designed to support the following Good Work themes:
- Improvements to workplace management including inclusive leadership practice, better skilled people managers, and improved approaches to wellbeing including anti-bullying and harassment, and anti-racism practices
- Improved understanding of, and more appropriate contracting approaches to, working with self- employed workers (freelancers)
- The adoption of inclusive recruitment and procurement practices
- The development and adoption of HR policies and procedures that aid legal compliance alongside helping to set inclusive working cultures
- Improved feedback mechanisms, such as appraisal systems, and opportunities for employee, worker, and freelancer voice to help inform more inclusive workplace practices, alongside peer networking
- Any other support that can aid the adoption of Good Work principles and practices, such as research
The Programme should be designed to provide open-to-all advice, guidance and support that can be widely applied by organisations operating in the screen sector (and should therefore avoid being nuanced to any one organisation type).
It may include 1:1 support that helps organisations and individuals working in the sector to adopt the advice, guidance and support delivered through the Programme; for example, helping an organisation’s leader think about how to implement inclusive operating practices, or identifying the types of policies an organisation may want to consider developing and guiding them to appropriate training or guidance available through the programme of activity.
The Programme should include performance management training and mentoring for people-managers, peer networking for leaders, as well as providing guidance on cultural operating practices that embed EDI and Environmental Sustainability as standard.
The Programme should not support the provision of direct HR (or related) services, including legal services, to individual companies or personnel; this means that the programme of activity should not seek to respond to or comment on individual HR cases or grievances, directly write policies and procedures for any one organisation/individual, or get directly involved in providing legal advice to any one organisation/individual. Nor should the Programme create bespoke training for any one beneficiary.
Eligible costs
You can use this funding for programme project costs such as:
- Training
- Stakeholder engagement
- Resource development, collation and dissemination
- Programme events including networking
- Marketing that is directly related to the promotion of the opportunities available through the programme
- Contribution to overheads relating to the delivery of the programme (at a reasonable level, applicable to both the applicant organisation and associated delivery partners)
- New or existing staff responsible for the delivery of the programme (lead applicant and delivery partners)
Ineligible costs
Examples of common ineligible costs are:
- Core costs for day to day running of your organisation not associated with the activity
- Costs relating to an extension of ongoing work
- Capital expenditure
- Filmmaking projects and/or workshops
- Existing training that is already being delivered – such training may be signposted to or included within the Programme to aid join-up, but delivery costs should not be included within the Programme budget unless funds are being used to support a significant refresh and expanded roll-out of said training that could not be achieved otherwise. A clear rationale for using funds in this way should be included in the proposal
- Activity that is already specifically supported by another external source of funding.
- Proposals that focus on other art-forms such as literature, dance on film, poetry film, opera or artists’ moving image
- Cost incurred prior to an offer of funding from BFI — we do not fund retrospectively.
- Promotional or other activity (stands, printed brochures) which does not support environmental sustainability
This list is not exhaustive, and we may inform you that other types of activity within your application cannot be supported by this BFI award, or request that you amend specific lines and allocations.
Please note, if you are registered for VAT, your figures should not include VAT that you can claim back. If you are not registered for VAT, or you are registered for VAT but cannot fully recover the VAT you incur on costs, your figures should include irrecoverable VAT.
Grants we make are ‘outside the scope’ of VAT and should be listed in your accounts as a grant and not, for example, as a fee for any services supplied to the BFI. You should get financial advice from your own accountant or the relevant tax office.
Funds are not intended to substitute or replace existing funding or income that would otherwise be available, or to fund activity at the same scale that can go ahead without an award. National Lottery funds can only be awarded to applicants who demonstrate need and a clear public benefit from the activity being funded.
BFI National Lottery funding is project-based, time-limited funding, and as such, there should be no expectation of ongoing support beyond the term of any awards made.
Partnership Funding
For your application to be eligible you will need to demonstrate an element of partnership support which can include cash or in-kind support. Partnership contributions are an important demonstration that there is genuine support for your project from the sector, stakeholders and other partners.
As a guide, we would expect to see cash partnership funding at a minimum of 10% of the total programme budget (that is a minimum of £150,000 over the two year period). If studios or other major commercial partners are on board and likely to benefit, we would expect to see a cash contribution from them proportionate to at least 50% of the value of the benefit they’ll receive.
The minimum partnership funding does not have to be secured at the point of application, but will need to be secured in advance of payment of any award from BFI and before the proposed project start date.
Other BFI funds cannot be used as partnership funding (although we welcome the involvement of BFI funded organisations as delivery partners where appropriate) and UK National Lottery Funding from another distributor should not be the only form of partnership funding.
Deliverables
In your application you will need to identify the specific activity you will deliver (your ‘deliverables’) using the funding, which will enable you to meet your KPIs. Your deliverables should include:
- Free-to-access training and support, including performance management training
- Open-to-all HR and workforce development advice, guidance and support including downloadable resources
- Mentoring and/or training for people-managers
- Peer networking for leaders. By leaders we mean anyone who has responsibility for decision making and can influence the culture and working practices of a workplace
5. How to apply
When you can apply
Applications are now closed – the deadline for applications was 3 April 2024.
Submitting an application
For reference you can view a PDF preview of the application form below.
Information you need to provide
Applications are now closed – the below information is for reference only.
The application form will ask for some basic project details, including:
- key project contacts
- organisation details
- a brief overview of / mission statement for your proposed Programme
- a summary of how it responds to our principles for National Lottery funding
You will need to attach a full proposal to your application, detailing:
A: Your previous experience
- Why you are best placed to lead on delivery of this programme
- The governance and management structure for the programme
- Abridged CV / biography of key personnel and the role they will play in managing/governing the programme
- Staff organogram for the programme, indicating the FTE for each staff member costed to programme delivery
B: A list of confirmed and proposed delivery partners
- Which Good Work theme(s) each partner will lead on delivering and why
- Whether their involvement has been secured
- Details of their relevant expertise and prior track record of delivery to date
- Any partnership funding, cash or in-kind, that delivery partners will contribute
C: Delivery Plan
A clear, strategic plan for design and delivery of the Programme that identifies where key interventions are needed, including:
- Key strands of activity within the programme aligned with the Good Work themes;
- All training to be delivered and a rationale;
- Resources to be developed and/or collated and a rationale;
- Types of beneficiaries (businesses and individuals);
- Any accessibility considerations;
- Where / how training and resources will be hosted and delivered;
- Any legacy considerations;
- Associated implementation plan with clear deliverables and timelines.
D: How you will measure impact
- Intended outcomes and impacts
- Proposed KPIs in-line with the Fund KPIs listed above
- Proposed Deliverables — you should clearly set out deliverables that relate to achieving your KPIs
- A monitoring and evaluation plan, including how you will collect experiential feedback from programme beneficiaries.
E: Timeline for delivery including key milestones
F: Engagement plan
This specifies the range of organisations and individuals you will seek to engage in Programme activity in the first two years of delivery, and how you intend to secure their engagement.
Please note you will be required to work closely with the BFI Skills Clusters to aid local level sector engagement with your programme of activity.
Please set out in your engagement plan how you will work with the BFI Skills Clusters to ensure authentic join up between BFI skills programmes.
G: A clear communications plan
This sets out the approach you will take to promoting the Good Work Programme, the different audiences you plan to communicate with, why, and through which methods and channels.
H: Risk
- Programme risk register
- Organisational risk register
Financial information
You will also need to attach the following you your application:
- A detailed two-year Programme budget and indicative cashflow, clearly setting out proposed use of BFI funds and detailing the source and status of all partnership funding.
- Your last set of independently certified / audited accounts
- If more than 12 months has passed since the year end covered in your certified accounts, please additionally provide draft accounts for the intervening auditable period as approved by your board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet).
- Your most recent budget and management accounts for the current financial year as approved by your Board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet), as well as any subsequent budget reforecast since board approval was provided.
- Budget/forecast for your organisation for financial years 2024 to 2026, accompanied by notes highlighting the assumptions made and key risks (for instance around renewal of funding from other sources)
Equality monitoring
You’ll be asked to complete an equality monitoring form when you submit your application. The form asks for demographic information on the staff working on your project or in your organisation. The data that you submit on this form will be confidential and anonymous and not seen by the staff assessing your application.
We will not be able to put forward your application for assessment until you have completed the equality monitoring form.
If you have any questions when completing the application form please contact us on Skills.Coordinator@bfi.org.uk
6. What happens after you apply?
1. You’ll get confirmation we received your application within 1 to 2 working days.
2. We’ll request any additional information we may need within 4 weeks.
3. Interviews will be held week commencing 13 May (TBC).
4. You’ll get a decision within 12 weeks.
Once submitted, we will review your application and if necessary, may write to you or request to meet with you to obtain more information about your application. If we need additional information from you, it may take us longer to reach a decision on your application.
If your application is ineligible, we will email to tell you we will not be able to consider it. We may allow you to fix a mistake if this is the only reason the application is ineligible.
Applications will be shortlisted according to the assessment criteria outlined below. If shortlisted, you will be invited to an interview to present your proposal and answer specific questions about your proposed approach.
How your application is assessed
10% Evidence of the applicant’s ability to deliver the Programme, including:
- Experience of leading a programme or project with a shared delivery model (for example, previous experience managing a consortium, network of organisations, task force or similar)
- Experience in leading delivery of similar programmes at an appropriate scale and to a high quality
- Proposed governance structure
- Financial viability of the organisation
25% Evidence that the programme can be successfully delivered via the consortium of delivery partners, including:
- Expert knowledge of the UK Screen Sector
- Expert knowledge of Good Work principles, best practice approaches in HR and current knowledge of UK employment law
- Relevant experience in developing and delivering Good Work related training, resources and guidance, alongside prior experience and evidence of supporting positive cultural change across the operation of external business’
- Ability to deliver UK-wide
25% How the proposal responds to the Funding Objectives and Outcomes, including:
- The quality and feasibility of the delivery plan and timeline
- The reach and ambition of proposed deliverables and KPIs
15% Quality and ambition of:
- The plan for stakeholder engagement throughout project delivery
- The communications plan outlining how you will reach underrepresented groups as well as beneficiaries across the UK
15% Proposed budget/expenditure and resource allocation, including:
- The level of partnership funding secured
- Whether the programme represents value for money
- The proposed organogram
10% General:
- Commitment to environmental sustainability, and equity, diversity and inclusion
- How you have managed any previous BFI awards
- Your demonstration of need for National Lottery funding
- Whether there is a clear public benefit to the proposed activity.
We may share parts of your application with other BFI teams or external consultants to help us assess it.
Lottery Finance Committee Consideration
Following assessment, we will make a funding recommendation to the BFI Lottery Finance Committee for approval. Only one application will be recommended for support. This is the final stage of the funding decision process. Our decision on whether or not we wish to support your project is final.
We undertake due diligence assessments of the applications we are recommending to our decision-making committee for funding. As part of this, we will request the personal address and date of birth of the CEO or Managing Director of the organisation applying.
Please note that our request for this information is not an indication or confirmation of funding and you will be informed separately of the funding decision on your application. We will use this data to run an identity check.
Please note that this is not a credit check and will not affect the ability of the CEO or Managing Director to receive credit from other organisations. We will be unable to submit your application to our decision-making committee until we have received your completed form.
All applicants will be informed in writing of the decision on their application. If your application is declined, all supporting materials will be deleted from your submission in line with our record retention policy.
How we prioritise submissions
We prioritise proposals that:
- Are closest to the Fund objectives and outcomes
- We think will have the biggest impact on positively influencing good work practices in the sector
- Offer value for money
- Take risks and try new approaches
- Aim for ongoing, sustainable delivery
7. Getting a decision
If you’re successful
- You will receive a written offer of funding.
- You will need to sign the offer of funding and return it to the BFI within 21 days.
Read the Conditions of Funding section below and General Conditions of National Lottery Funding to find out what you will have to do if you are offered an award.
If you’re unsuccessful
We may have turned down your application because we determined that the proposal:
- Did not fit our funding objectives and outcomes
- Did not demonstrate a strong enough commitment to one or all of the following principles: equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); environmental sustainability; UK-wide
- Was too ambitious for the budget
- Did not demonstrate enough relevant experience
- Was not yet developed enough
- Did not demonstrate sufficient need for National Lottery support and should be financed by other means
- Did not meet with the BFI Diversity Standards
If no application sufficiently meets the assessment criteria outlined above, BFI reserves the right not to make an award of funding for the Programme.
Feedback on an unsuccessful application
If we had a meeting with you to discuss your application, you can ask for feedback on your application. We’re a small team and unfortunately that means we’re unable to give feedback to other applicants.
We will keep the data and supporting materials you sent to us in line with our records retention policy.
We welcome your feedback on the application process and how we might improve it.
8. Conditions of funding
If you are offered an award from us, in addition to the General Conditions of National Lottery Funding, the following conditions will apply to your award:
You will be required to report on progress against all KPIs on a quarterly basis (at a minimum) and attend an annual performance review.
Funding will be cashflowed in line with your projected expenditure over the two years, subject to:
- Satisfactory performance – you being able to continue to deliver your activity in accordance with the terms of the funding and the parameters in these guidelines, and provided that you can satisfactorily demonstrate (through submission of routine reporting) that you are able to remain financially viable throughout the term
- Receipt and approval by BFI of routine reporting including progress against KPIs and costs to date and which can include proposed modifications to the forecast budget and delivery plans to adapt to learnings and changing circumstances, and details of planned activity as those plans solidify.
BFI will require approval over the provision of all partnership funding including the identity of the providers and terms of funding to ensure that all associations are appropriate for the BFI and the National Lottery and to ensure that such relationships do not bring you, or by association the BFI and the National Lottery into disrepute.
Prior to the second year we will review:
- achievement of agreed deliverables and KPIs to date
- any updates to your plan, budget forecast (including income and other partnership funding) and risk register
- your ongoing ability to deliver the agreed activity (including in relation to your continuing financial stability)
You will be required to work collaboratively with relevant BFI departments and partners, including those not identified in your application, to ensure widest possible dissemination of the Programme activity to potential users.
You must share resources, data insights, data reports and learnings with the screen sector, as facilitated by BFI.
You will be required to provide any resources that are developed under the funded activity to the BFI and ensure any resources developed using National Lottery funding are made publicly available both during and after the term of the funding.
You will need to ensure that data on all participants in, and beneficiaries of, the Programme can be shared with BFI in compliance with data protection legislation.
You will be required to work with our designated cultural sustainability partner Julie’s Bicycle to assess the Programme’s environmental impact.
You will be required to calculate the carbon footprint of your funded activity.
For awards made over multiple years, an annual footprint will be required. Further guidance and support will be provided to you once the award period begins.
The BFI National Lottery Funding Plan 2023-2026 has been developed based on full use of predicted income from National Lottery ticket sales due to BFI.
In the event that receipts to BFI are lower than predicted we may have to make a pro-rated reduction across all funding plan programmes.
The amount of funding that we can make available for the second year may therefore be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels.
If we have to reduce funding for this reason we will ensure that we provide sufficient notice and work with you to modify plans accordingly.