Financial assistance for young people

For Outdoor Centres managed by Culture, Communities and Business Services

Application forms should be filled in and completed by teachers/youth workers only. Parents, carers and individual families are not able to apply separately, and should talk to their child's teacher or school to initiate and complete the process.

These notes should be read in conjunction with a copy of the Support Application Form for young people attending Hampshire County Council schools who may require financial assistance in order to facilitate visits to any of the five outdoor education centres managed and funded by the Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs Department of Hampshire County Council. This is a small fund that was set up by the Outdoor Activities Service some years ago, with a fairly simple application process which relies purely upon your professional judgement of an individual young person’s home background and ability to fund attendance on a planned curriculum visit.

For this year the fund is able to support up to 20% of the cost of attending the identified Outdoor Centre, for young people who may find access difficult due to financial issues.

Please note that coach costs to/from the centre, and tuition and/or activities or excursions not provided by the centre are not covered by this support system.

At Calshot, all accommodation, tuition and board/food costs are included within a single centre charge. At the Tile Barn Centre, the Hampshire Mountain Centre and Runway’s End Outdoor Centre, food and tuition costs will be separate from the accommodation fee. The tuition fee should be added to the accommodation fee on the form. Where groups will need to cater for themselves, an element of the food cost to the young person can be included in the support request. The Mountain Centre also includes an additional charge where Centre transport is used. This may also be included in the application.

Beaulieu Development Centre, as a Day Use Centre, will only levy tuition costs.

Please note that the above support aid is not available for students attending the two Children’s Services centres, Minstead and Stubbington. Those centres are managed and funded directly by Children’s Services, and are not part of the Outdoor Activities Service within Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs. Funding is not available for groups using Centres that were formally part of Southampton City Council or Portsmouth City Council. Additionally, this fund is only accessible to young people within Hampshire Children’s Services schools/youth service.

Applications should ideally be made 8 weeks prior to a visit taking place. It is not possible to fund visits post-event.

Finally, please be aware that this fund is not large. It is intended to support those young people who would find it very difficult to be involved in outdoor education, particularly where the visit involves a residential element. Clearly, the overwhelming balance of the discretionary budget for education now lies firmly with schools themselves, and this fund is intended to provide a supplement in very specific cases. Consequently, I would ask you to consider carefully before identifying those who you feel may be eligible. However, once the application is made by you I will ensure, as far as funds allow, that support is provided.

Once approved, a letter acknowledging your application will be sent, and the agreed financial aid will be transferred to your school via the SAPS system. This may take a little time but be assured that, once approved, the funding will be provided.

I do hope that you will be able to make use of the system on offer to help the young people you work with. Please copy the form to cover as many visits or young people as you need within this next financial year, and return completed copies to me either by email, post or fax. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Dr Stuart Nundy
Outdoor Activities Officer.