911±¬ÁÏ

National Education Nature Park grant

Frequently asked questions

Our frequently asked questions (FAQs) cover all you need to know about the National Education Nature Park grant

About the grant programme

Who is funding the National Education Nature Park grant?

The grant is being funded by the Department for Education and administered by the 911±¬ÁÏ.

Will this grant be given every year?

There will be a second round of grants in the 2024-25 school year. Eligibility for this grant will be announced in autumn 2024.

Will we have to sign a contract/SLA?
You will be sent a grant agreement to sign before we release the payment.

About the grant

How much can I apply for?

The 2023-24 grant is for up to £10,000. This has to be spent and expenditure reports submitted by 23 July 2024.

How do we choose what to spend our grant on?

The National Education Nature Park and associated grant provides the opportunity for children and young people to develop a meaningful connection to nature and an understanding of our role to act on the biodiversity and climate crises.

The habitat enhancements made possible by the grant should therefore involve children and young people in making the decisions about how your education setting will spend your grant. The Nature Park has two specific activity packages, which will ensure young people are at the centre of decision making and feel empowered to take action to improve and care for nature on their education site. Explore the  and .

Will we be paid the grant in advance or in arrears?

The grant will be paid in advance, so you will need to know how much you will spend before you fill in the application. When we have approved your application for funding and you accept your grant agreement, you are welcome to start buying the items you have included in your application. You do not have to wait for the grant payment to arrive.

Will the amount I request affect my application?
No, our decision will not be affected by the amount you request as long as it is for no more than £10,000. You should only request the exact amount you know you will spend.
What can the grant be spent on?

In 2023-24, the grant can only be used on . The total amount of all expenditure can be no more than £10,000.

You can spend up to £10,000 on plants, plant containers, planting material such as compost or topsoil, gravel, water holders and irrigation equipment.

There are limits on other types of expenditure:

  • You can spend up to £2,000 in total on sheds or other equipment storage, wet weather gear, tools, gloves or other gardening gear
  • You can spend up to £2,000 on fieldwork resources that will help you carry out your project and enable outdoor learning, e.g. tablets to map your site and measure and record biodiversity. This can be equipment such as tablets, humidity meters, light meters, camera traps and stationery. This portion of the grant can also fund protective covers and insurance for devices
  • You can use up to 50 percent of the grant amount on specialist support such as contractors or biodiversity experts. For example, you might pay a biodiversity expert to assess your site using the , and tell you what habitat enhancements will be most effective in improving a grey area of your school grounds. Alternatively, you might pay a contractor to dig up a paved area and plant trees. The specialist must contribute directly to your capital project. The grant can’t be used to pay for workshops or training.
What does grey to green mean?

In 2023-24, your project must be used to create new areas of natural habitat in a space at your school that currently has very low value biodiversity. The aim is to create new greener areas that support a much greater diversity of life. This means you must make your habitat enhancements on:

  • Ground currently covered e.g. paving, concrete, gravel or rubble or
  • Bare, compacted earth, or
  • Fences/walls*, or
  • Roofs.

You can use your grant to plant up or install a pond on top of these grey spaces, or you can use it to remove covered grey space and add your interventions to the resulting bare earth. Remember that planting in the ground is much more sustainable for the long-term. See the grey to green guidance for further details.

*If you are planting a green fence or wall, you can plant in the ground at the base of the fence or wall.

The can be ponds, grasslands and wildflowers, flower, fruit and vegetable planters, trees, green walls or roofs and water butts or other irrigation. Any intervention that is not classified as grey to green will not be eligible for the grant in 2023-24.

Can I buy microhabitats like bird boxes or bee hotels?

Microhabitats can be bought with the grant, but decisions about adding these kinds of items should follow .

As the focus for 2023-2024 is grey to green, we advise using the grant funds to install planting or natural habitats that will provide a foundation for these species later down the line. In the future the Nature Park hopes to bring online engagement activity so young people can decide on what microhabitat is most appropriate for their site, to ensure these fantastic resources are best utilised and don’t lead to any disappointment on not becoming inhabited. The grey to green intervention suggestions include various options to introduce greenery and create green corridors on your site that will help animals such as hedgehogs, birds and bugs. The microhabitats should be part of a wider grey to green project and consider corridors and food sources to increase the likelihood that they will become inhabited.

You should include the cost of your microhabitat alongside the relevant biodiversity intervention in the application form. For example, if you expect fruit bushes you are adding to attract invertebrates, put the cost of a bug hotel in the ‘Adding flowers/fruit/vegetables’ budget line.

Can this funding be used for nature projects if we already have funding for them?

Yes, you can combine other sources of funding with this grant to spend on the grey to green habitat enhancements. In the application form, we will ask what other funding you have. This is for project evaluation purposes and won't affect the amount we give you.

Can I use some of the grant for training?
The grant funding is for capital spend only and expert services to support nature/biodiversity interventions. Therefore, the grant funds cannot be spent on training or staff CPD.
What support do we get pre and post getting a grant?

When you , you will be sent regular emails that take you step by step through the Nature Park programme so you know what to do when. You will also be invited to webinars in autumn 2023 about the grants programme and about the Nature Park. You can use part of the grant to pay for expert help and guidance.

What do I do if I want to use the grant differently from what I said in my application?

You should only use the grant for and for items set out in the above FAQs. You can move expenditure around within the eligible items as long as it stays within the amount limits for each type of item i.e.:

  • Up to £2,000 for fieldwork equipment
  • Up to £2,000 for other resources such as a shed or other equipment storage, wet water gear and tools, gloves and other gardening gear
  • Up to 50% of your total grant amount on a Contractor/Project Support Officer/External expert cost
When will my grant be paid?

When you accept your grant agreement, there will be at least a two-week processing period before your grant payment is sent. We ask you to bear with us in the meantime. We will email an expected payment date. If you applied after 20 April 2024, your payment is likely to arrive at the end of May or in the first week of June.

The grant must be spent by 23 July 2024, though the project can continue after this date. If you know that you won’t be able to spend all your grant by this date, contact [email protected] and we will send instructions for returning the unspent portion.

What are the deadlines for spending my grant and finishing my project?
The grant has to be spent by 23 July 2024. The project can carry on after this date.
Should we keep receipts for how we used the grant?

The grant agreement requires you to keep all receipts. We will carry out expenditure audits of some schools.

What happens if I don’t spend the whole grant?
If you are unable to spend the full grant allocation received then please contact [email protected] to talk through options and/or the process for return of funds.
Can I use the grant to improve accessibility?

As part of your grey to green project, you can spend part of your grant on making your new green space more accessible. For example, putting down surfaces that are suitable for wheelchairs. The types of items that are eligible will be decided on a case-by-case basis, so please email us to check.

Eligibility

Can my organisation apply for the grant?

The eligible schools and educational settings have been chosen by the Department for Education. 1,205 settings in England will be invited to apply for the grant. to find out how the list of eligible schools and how eligibility was determined. If your school is not on this list, visit our  for other biodiversity and outdoor education funding options.

How were the eligible schools chosen?

See  for the list of eligible schools and how eligibility was determined.

I'm a teacher/governor/parent, can I apply?

If you are a governor or a parent at an eligible school, please share information about the grants with a member of staff. School staff should check with relevant stakeholders to agree who should fill in the application form on behalf of the school. The 911±¬ÁÏ will email eligible schools beginning in October 2023 with information about the grants programme.

My school is on multiple sites. How does this affect my grant?
One grant is awarded per unique reference number (URN). You can use the grant on any or all of your sites.

About the application process

How do I apply?

Let us know who the lead contact for your school will be by emailing [email protected].

There is an online form, which should take around 25 minutes on average to fill in. You will need a bank statement for the account the grant will be paid into. The statement must be from the last three months.

What is the deadline?

The application will close on 1 May 2024.

What information will you need from us to make the grant payment?
You will need to upload a bank statement to your application form. This must be no more than 3 months old and must be from a relevant business bank account e.g. for the school, local authority etc. The statement must show the account name, account number, sort code, and date.
Will we be paid VAT in addition to the grant amount?
No. You should carry out your normal processes regarding VAT.
Can a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) apply for all grant eligible schools centrally?
The purpose of the programme is for all young people to develop a meaningful connection to nature and lead the way in transforming their own school grounds for nature and people. The programme resources available online provide the framework for children and young people to develop key skills around communication, decision making and creative thinking, as well as scientific skills in biology, natural history and nature identification and recording, and digital skills including data analysis and data visualisation.

involves getting to know your space and identifying opportunities through developing a deep understanding of the local environment. The grant provides funding for projects that your pupils will identify to suit the context of your individual education setting, as they move through the five-step Nature Park process.

Therefore, grant applications need to be completed by each individual eligible school to ensure that children and young people are involved in the process and that the interventions chosen are tailored to meet the specific needs of each education setting.
Can I see my application answers again after submitting?

Your filled in application can be seen by going to the Application Portal and selecting View.

When you have opened the application, you can use the button on the top of the page to print your application as a PDF. The budget table is also included in the Grant Agreement letter attached to your grant offer email.

How to prepare for your grant application

Advice for applicants
  • Join the
  • Take part in  to get a flavour of the National Education Nature Park
  • Plan how you will spend your grant with these Nature Park resources:

    • Ensure learners are involved in the intervention using the and on the National Education Nature Park website
    • Do the . This must be done before you apply for the grant
  • for further information
  • , which explore key elements of the nature park programme
  • , which will get you ready for the grants programme
  • Share information about the grant with relevant members of staff. Any member of staff can apply for this grant, but we expect that you consult with your stakeholders and include children and young people in the process

Reporting

What monitoring and reporting should I do?

You will be sent two or three reporting forms to fill in inside the grant portal. You will be able to find these on the release date by going to the and selecting the Reporting button.

The Nature Park grantee survey will be emailed to you on 27 June and the deadline is 15 July even if you are still spending the grant and your project is ongoing. This survey is optional and will ask for your feedback on the grant programme, project outcomes and case studies. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us to improve the grant programme to best support education settings through the grant programme next academic year.

The Annex Gii form will be emailed to you on 2 July. This form is required by the funder, the Department for Education. The deadline to submit is 26 July.

Some schools will also be asked to send a more detailed expenditure form – The Nature Park grant expenditure audit. This audit is required by the funder, the Department for Education. If you are chosen for an audit, the form will be sent to you on 2 July and the deadline to submit is 26 July.

Please note you have agreed in your grant agreement to keep all receipts and invoices for seven years.

Where do I find and start completing the reporting forms?
Go to the Application portal, select the Reporting button, find the form in the table, select the three little dots on the right side, select Complete Form.

Introduction to grants for the National Education Nature Park

Find out about when you’ll be able to apply, what you’ll be able to use the funding for and what you can do now to get ready for when applications open.

18.15

Download the grant webinar slides (1.75MB pdf)

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