Young people achieving Grade 4 or above in GCSE English and maths are 50% less likely to be “not in education, employment or training” (NEET) in later life.

Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are 30% less likely to secure Grade 4 GCSEs in English and maths, and 31% less likely to achieve age-related expectations at age 11, than their better-off peers.

The Education Endowment Foundation have found that “great teaching is the most important lever for improving pupil attainment” and that it plays a vital role in narrowing the disadvantage gap. There is also wide acknowledgement of the role of effective school leadership in creating conditions that support teaching, professional development, and teacher retention — all of which influence pupil outcomes.

As part of our response to this, we’re looking to fund one new partner organisation supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in mainstream education via programmes that strengthen the quality of teaching and/or school leadership through training and professional development.

Successful organisations will receive:

• £100k in core, unrestricted funding for an initial period of one year (with potential for us to become a longer-term funder)
• Hands-on support from our Investment Team to help build organisational capabilities for impact and growth
• Support from our network of pro bono experts on anything from strategy development and financial modelling, to marketing and legal support
• Access to our peer learning forums, providing training, networking and co-learning opportunities with 23 partners across our portfolio
• Access to sector-based coalitions to influence policy and the national conversation on issues faced by the young people we serve
• Access to potential additional grants through our network of donors

We have 23 years' experience finding, funding, and building the best organisations working in the youth sector. Since 2013, we have given £100m worth of support to our partner organisations, including £32.6m of core unrestricted funding.

But we are more than a funder. Our backing comes with focused, structured, hands-on support, from our experienced Investment Team and network of pro bono experts, across all aspects of our partners’ work - deepening their impact, upskilling their leadership and helping them achieve sustainable growth. Our approach is working - our portfolio partners become stronger, bigger and better organisations with the power to transform the lives of young people.

Our non-financial support is valued highly by our portfolio partners. In a recent survey of our partner CEOs, all rated our support as delivering either significant or transformational impact.

Impetus is seeking applications from non-profit organisations:

• Working to improve school attainment, especially for young people in state-funded mainstream schools who are experiencing disadvantage.
• Specifically, we’re seeking organisations delivering teacher CPD and/or school leadership development, towards improved attainment outcomes.
• Delivering approaches that are well-evidenced or have a strong emerging evidence base.
• With an ambition to grow their delivery to reach more teachers, leaders and young people.
• Committed to understanding, improving, and ultimately demonstrating their impact on attainment, using robust, benchmarked data.

All interested organisations should first check they meet the eligibility criteria from the following sections.

1. Programme requirements

Your programme must:

• Deliver directly to teachers and/or school leaders in mainstream education
• Be delivered predominantly in England
• Target teachers and/or school leaders serving young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, typically demonstrated through eligibility for free school meals and/or pupil premium
• Work with a minimum of 200 teachers and/or 50 school leaders annually
• Have the potential to improve outcomes in English and/or maths – i.e. not subject specific exclusive of English or maths e.g. music/ science/ history etc.

2. Organisational requirements

Your organisation must:

• Be a UK-registered charity, social enterprise, or other non-profit organisation
• Be dedicated to improving teacher/leadership practice in schools
• Have a minimum turnover of £500k, based on last audited/examined accounts
• Have a minimum of 10 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff

Missing out on attainment outcomes affects different groups unequally, with significant disproportionalities based on ethnicity, gender, and special educational needs and disabilities. For this reason, we are particularly interested in organisations whose programmes or interventions explicitly address the presence of these structural inequalities.

We will also be considering the extent of applicant organisations’ own commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion - through organisational practices and policies, incorporation of lived experience into programme design and delivery, and representation across the staff team and Board.

3. Outcomes

Organisations must be committed to delivering changes in teaching practice and/or leadership behaviours that ultimately improve attainment outcomes for young people experiencing disadvantage. We expect to prioritise programmes focusing on one or more of the following:

1. Classroom management
2. Instructional strategies
3. Curriculum design, sequencing, and implementation
4. Student engagement
5. School leadership
6. The planning and implementation of effective CPD strategies in schools

For any of these areas listed, you must be able to describe the evidence that makes you believe your programme would/could, over the longer term, boost attainment outcomes for young people (e.g. not just teacher retention/wellbeing).

Organisations we aren’t seeking expressions of interest from

Although there may be future opportunities, given our current portfolio and priorities, we are not currently seeking applications from:

• Schools or organisations that directly run or govern schools (e.g. schools, academy trusts, federations, dioceses, or local authorities)
• Organisations primarily focused on working with young people directly
• Organisations working exclusively with AP or Special schools – though those working across mainstream and AP/Special are welcome to apply
• Organisations working exclusively on policy, without any specific programmes
• Organisations focusing on teacher CPD for specific subjects outside of English and/or maths (e.g. science, geography, drama etc.)

We have tried to minimise burden on potential partners, asking only for information relevant to our investment decisions. The eligibility form and data request should take around two hours in total to complete and the majority of information should be easily accessible to organisation leaders.

If you are what we are looking for (as outlined above) and would like to be considered as a potential Impetus partner, please complete the following steps.

Please note, the below timeframe is indicative.

Compensation

We appreciate our selection process is time-consuming for applicants. Therefore, any organisation that makes it to our site visit stage and is unsuccessful will be compensated for their time. Similarly, organisations that go through our partnership building and due diligence process and are unsuccessful will also be compensated for their time.

Inclusivity

At Impetus we are actively trying to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of our funding rounds. If you require any adjustments to enable you to engage with our process, or if you would like to provide any feedback on the accessibility or inclusivity of our process, please do email us at attainment@impetus.org.uk.

Find out more about our commitment to embedding diversity in our work.

Your data

All information collected is used and stored in order to make informed decisions throughout the application process. We will only ever share this information externally if it is with pre-vetted individuals providing external scrutiny or support during our selection process, who will have signed a confidentiality agreement.

Our privacy policy has more information about how we use your personal data.