Sustainable Steps Wales Green Careers – Stage 2 project plan guidance

You should only use this guidance if you have been invited to stage 2 of Sustainable Steps Wales – Green Careers.

Refer to our programme guidance to ensure your project meets our requirements

You must submit your project plan with your application form by 5pm on Tuesday 14 January 2025.

What happens after you submit your application

If we have any questions about your application, a Funding Officer will arrange a time to talk to you. We’ll use this information to help assess your project.

We’ll send you an email telling you our decision on your application by 31 March 2025. If you’re not successful, we’ll tell you why in the email.

What happens if you get funding

If you’re awarded funding, we’ll arrange a time to talk to you to guide you through the next steps. You can read our general guidance about what to expect when managing your grant.

You can also read our Data Protection Statement to see how we use the personal data you give us.

We ask you to read and agree to our terms and conditions.

What to include in your stage 2 application

Your application is made up of:

project plan – this tells us about your project and how you’ll manage and deliver it
application form – this tells us about your organisation. We have sent an application form by email
project budget – this tells us how much your project will cost and how much you want us to fund. You should use our template to create your project budget
environmental action plan – this tells us how your project will be environmentally sustainable. Find out more about making an environmental action plan
your organisation’s annual accounts (or a 12-month projection for new organisations). Only the lead organisation needs to provide their annual accounts.
draft partnership agreements – a legal document outlining the roles and responsibilities of the organisations you’re working with to deliver the project. You can use our partnership agreement template. If you’re successful, your draft agreement needs to be approved by us and signed before we release any funding to you.
governing document – if you’re not a charity.

If you're planning to purchase electric vehicles

You should include the details described in our vehicle guidance.

What to include in your project plan

Your project plan will tell us about the project you want us to fund.

You should:

number the pages
use font size 12
use the headings we provide below and cover all the points we’ve included
cut and paste from your expression of interest, if the information remains the same
answer any feedback we gave you at stage one
only provide essential supporting documents – provide links where other documents are referenced and tell us what page you want us to read
be concise and limit your plan to 40 pages.

More about what to include

1. Project Summary

Provide a brief summary of your project (300 words or less). This should describe what the project will achieve and who the key partners are.

2. What difference this project will make

Provide the outcomes and indicators for your project which show the impact your project will make. You can find more information about how to write your outcomes on our additional advice page.

Your outcomes and indicators should meet all four programme outcomes. They should also include confirmation that around half of the people you support will be identifying as women.

You should explain how you have determined your outcomes and indicators. If they've changed from what you told us at the Expression of Interest stage, tell us why.

You’ll tell us more about your project later in the project plan. You do not need to repeat what you tell us here

3. Who will benefit

You should tell us:

whether you are planning to work with young people with disabilities or young people from ethnically minoritised communities (or both)
the region young people will come from (this must be two or more local authority areas)
how many people will benefit from your project each year and in total
the age range – if you are limiting the age to less than 16 -30 years then tell us why
whether you are working with people who are younger than 16 and explain why. This is eligible but it shouldn’t be the focus of your project
your engagement work with young people and their families and what they told you
other evidence such as experience and research which tells you about the issues young people face and their needs
how many young women you hope to support and any specific needs they have.

4. What’s on offer for young people

Tell us about the whole package of support available for young people. It should include:

any training and skills development that will be offered and whether it will be accredited to be recognised by employers
whether unpaid work experience will be an option for young people and if so, what range of placements will be on offer and on average how long will each person do this for
work placements - the range of jobs you expect young people to be able to experience and how long a young person can be in a work placement
whether work placements can be flexible to suit the young person’s aspirations, and whether they can try more than one placement
any additional services that others provide that you can refer people to
the customer journey (including timeframes), starting with how a young person finds out about your service and first makes contact, to when they leave. You should describe each stage
how you’ll support those with additional learning needs
how you’ll support those identifying as women
how your project will work with those that are already supporting the young person. For example, their parents, carers and social workers
who will deliver these activities.

5. Job coach support

Tell us about:

your commitment to make sure that all young people will have access to a job coach or mentor to get the support they need
your commitment to meet National Job Coach Standards
at what stages in the customer journey job coach support will be available. You must provide support at pre-employment, during and post-employment
the maximum number of young people each job coach will have at one time and the average time the job coach will spend with the young person
what experience and training job coaches have or will have before they start working with young people and employers
whether your job coaches will help young people to apply for Access to Work
whether your job coaches will provide support to employers – You can refer to what you say in section 7
who will deliver these activities.

6. Raising awareness of green careers

Tell us about:

the current level of awareness on green careers amongst the young people in your region
your ambitions for raising awareness including the number of young people you will target
the activities you will deliver to raise awareness
who will deliver these activities.

7. Supporting employers

Tell us about:

any engagement work with green employers including when and how this took place and how many organisations were involved
what employers have told you and what support they need
the range of green employers and potential job opportunities in the region
how many employers you plan to work with
what support you will give to employers
who will deliver these activities.

8. Sharing learning and achievements, raising awareness and influencing policy and practice

Tell us about:

the key messages you expect to tell people
who you will tell
what policies and practice you hope to inform
the activities you will deliver each year
who will deliver these activities.

In section 18, tell us how you’ll monitor and evaluate your project to inform these activities.

9. Project activities

Tell us about key activities that will take place for each year of the project.

10. Why this project is needed and designed this way

Tell us about:

recent and relevant research
what you have learnt from other projects
other options for delivery that you considered and why this is the best way
who, when and how you engaged with others (employers, educators and other services) and what they said. You can refer to what you told us in section 3 about young people.

11. Complementing other provision

Tell us about:

other local, regional and national services/plans (existing and future) and how your project complements these and fills a gap
other organisations that you’ll connect with that will ease referrals to and from other services. Examples of other services include careers advice, other work placement services, education providers, other support services for young people and job centres. You can refer to what you said in section 4
how you’ll make links with employers
how you’ll monitor other services to ensure your project, through its lifetime, continues to complement.

12. Lead Organisation

Tell us about:

your organisation’s aims and objectives
your organisation’s experience and how this will help with this project
how your organisation is managed including how your financial transactions are set up and run.

13. Partners

Tell us about:

who will help deliver the project
each partner’s expertise and experience and how this will help with this project
what each partner will do, including the lead organisation – you can refer to what you say in sections 4 to 7
how the partnership will be managed. This might include reporting arrangements and making payments
any other organisations that support the project but are less involved.

You need to provide a draft partnership agreement for those organisations who will help manage the project or receive some of the grant. This can be one agreement for all partners or separate agreements. You can use our partnership agreement template.

If you get funding, we must approve the signed partnership agreement before the project can start.

14. Project management

Tell us about:

how you’ll manage the project and make decisions. This should include the management structure, and governance arrangements
the staff and volunteers you need to deliver your project. You should include job titles, how many hours the post holder will work on the project, and the salary and which partner will employ them
whether the posts are new or existing (new posts will need to be openly recruited)
how you’ll continue to involve young people in delivery and evaluation of the project as it progresses
the financial controls you’ll put in place and how wages for young people will be paid.

15. Welsh language and other languages

Tell us about:

how your project will be delivered bilingually in Welsh and English. You can either tell us in this section what you will do or send us your bilingual project guide
any other languages you will use for this project.

You can include translation costs as part of your project budget.

16. Safeguarding

Tell us about:

your policy and procedures for keeping young people safe including when they are with employers
how staff and volunteers are suitably checked and trained
how you’ll respond to safeguarding incidents.

The NCVO website has child safe-guarding advice and information services.

If you get funding you’ll need to follow our policy on safeguarding children and adults at risk.

17. Environmental Impact

We want to fund projects that are environmentally sustainable.

You should include an environmental action plan (sometimes known as a climate action, carbon savings or sustainability plan or policy). We’ll ask you to feedback on this each year.

Your plan should include how your organisation and partners will:

create positive environmental impacts and reduce carbon emissions
help others to be environmentally sustainable including acting as a role model to young people
monitor and evaluate your environmental impact.

Find out more about making an environmental action plan.

18. Monitoring and evaluation

We’ll ask you to provide progress reports every 3 months. We’ll also ask for yearly evaluation reports to share with our programme evaluator. The evaluation report will need to include qualitative and quantitative information, case studies and lessons you’ve learnt. You’ll also collaborate with our evaluator and share findings.

Tell us about:

your plans for tracking progress and measuring the impact for each of your project outcomes. It should include how you monitor the progress of young people during and for at least 6 months post-placement. You can refer to what you say in section 2
your planned approach to evaluation and learning, explaining how you will make sure evaluation and learning are embedded in your project from the beginning
who will deliver these activities including how you will involve young people.

Find out more about how to learn from your project.

19. Risks

Tell us about:

key risks for your project
what actions you will put in place to manage them
how you’ll continue to monitor and manage risks whilst delivering the project.

20. What you’ll spend the money on

You should use our template to create your project budget.

Tell us about:

how you worked out your costs, including overheads
what the costs are based on, for example, what it has cost to deliver similar work before
whether you will be encouraging the employer to cover some or all of the salaries for the young person
whether you’ll be encouraging all organisations to pay the real living wage
details of funding from other sources such as Access to Work
if your costs have changed significantly from your expressions of interest please explain why.

Find out more about calculating your overheads.

Find out more about what you can apply for.

21. Legacy and planning for the end of your grant

Tell us about:

any activities and support that will continue after the grant ends. You should include any steps that need to happen to make this happen. This may include adopting the approaches from your project more widely across your other work or involve encouraging other organisations to respond to your achievements by changing what they do or how they do it
your approach to planning for the end of your grant.

Contact us

If you need any help, you can contact us by:

phone on 0300 123 0735 (lines are open 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday)
email on sustainablestepswales@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk