Application Access Fund

If you identify as d/Deaf, Disabled, neurodivergent or have a long-term health condition and need support to make a funding application to Youth Music, you can apply to our Youth Music Access Fund. 

This provides funding to cover any additional access costs that might be required for you to make an application to one of Youth Music’s main grant funds. For example, you might want to pay a support worker to help you write your application or help submit it via our online grants portal.

You can ask for up to:

• £350 for a NextGen Fund application
• £900 for a Trailblazer Fund application
• £1,500 for a Catalyser Fund application (up to £300 will be paid ahead of the Expression of Interest stage; the remaining funds will be paid if you are invited to submit a full application)

When to submit an application access fund form?

Forms should be submitted anytime between six weeks before the relevant fund round opens and up to one week before the round closes. Forms received more than six weeks before the fund round opens will not be considered and you will be asked to resubmit at a later date.

Occasionally we can be flexible with these timelines, and decisions will be made on a case by case basis. 

If you have any questions about access support or think you will need more funding to submit an application, please get in touch with us. You can contact us on  020 7902 1060 (select option 1 to speak to a member of the Grants and Learning Team) or email: grants@youthmusic.org.uk

What happens next?

We aim get back to you with a decision within five working days of receiving your form. 

We may contact the reference you provided as part of our checks. We will aim to get the payment into your bank account within 15 working days of approving your form (although we recommend that you allow for three weeks in your planning).

Support to deliver projects – personal access costs

Personal Access Costs

When you make an application to Youth Music for our Trailblazer, Catalyser and NextGen Funds, you can build in personal access costs into your project and budget. These are costs that remove barriers to enable individuals to deliver the project and undertake the grant reporting. 

Caps on how much you can apply varies from fund to fund. You can find out more detail about personal access costs in the relevant guidance for each fund. This is a quick summary: 

• For Trailblazer and Catalyser funds: You can apply for an extra 10% on top of the amount you are requesting. When completing your application there will be a separate section to enter your personal access costs. Personal access costs are only for the team delivering the project. Any access costs for participants are part of your main budget. 
• For NextGen Funds: We don’t currently cap personal access costs. Personal access costs are for the NextGen grantee.  The amount of access costs you can include in your application should be proportionate to your project activities and access requirements. 

For all our funds, if your application is successful, and we need any more information about your access costs we may be in touch. Personal access costs have no bearing on the outcome of your application and we don’t require any proof or paperwork with your application.

Examples of personal access costs that Youth Music could support: 

• Assistive technologies, where needed to deliver the project. 
• Mental health support for people who experience sustained and disabling mental health barriers. The mental health support should directly enable the project activities to be delivered. 
• Support workers and personal assistants for project activities. 
• Travel expenses incurred due to your access needs (for example, additional costs of using accessible transport.) General travel expenses should be included in your main project budget.
• We can consider coaching or mentoring where it specifically responds to your access requirements. The coaching or mentoring should directly enable you to deliver your project activities.
• We can consider other access costs on a case-by-case basis. We cannot fund medication or costs that are not directly related to your project. 

What we won’t fund:

• Access support that costs more than £300 per day, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
• Costs already covered by the Government’s Access to Work scheme. This is because we don’t want to fund costs that you are entitled to and should receive from the Government. 

Other Support

Youth Music is committed to offering a clear and accessible grant-making process that is open to everyone. We do not assess areas such as spelling or grammar, the layout of your answers, the production quality of any documents/videos you attach or link to, or use of standard English. 

We use an online application system and we are aware that our application system may be inaccessible to some people. If there are additional barriers to engaging with our materials (e.g. documents, forms, websites) and the grants portal then please call the team on 020 7902 1060, or email us on grants@youthmusic.org.uk to discuss how we can help. 

If you are attending any of our events, we will ask about your access needs as part of our booking process. If we’ve asked you to perform or present at an event that we have organised, we encourage you to send us your access rider.