Submissions for Expressions of Interest for this grant are currently closed. The grant may be opened to Expressions of Interest again should any funding become available for reallocation.

This is one of six UK Shared Prosperity Key Funds available in Wrexham County Borough. Funding for the grant is provided by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

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This funding can help make a difference in your local community. The scheme offers funding from £2,000 - £125,000 to support projects that will:

  • Boost core skills and support adults to progress in work, by targeting adults with no or low level qualifications and skills in maths, and upskill the working population, by encouraging innovative approaches to reducing adult learning barriers.
  • Reduce levels of economic inactivity through investment in bespoke intensive life and employment support tailored to local need.
  • Fund gaps in local skills provision to support people to progress in work and supplement local adult IT skills provision (for example by delivering provision through a wider range of routes or to allow more intensive / innovative provision, both qualification based and non-qualification based).

Projects should be supplementary to provision available through national employment and skills programme.

Who can apply

  • constituted voluntary or community organisations
  • registered charities
  • constituted groups or clubs
  • not-for-profit companies or Community Interest Companies (social enterprises)
  • schools (as long as your project benefits and involves the local community)
  • statutory body (including town, parish and community council)
  • public bodies

What you can spend the money on

  • equipment
  • one-off events
  • staff costs related to the project
  • training costs
  • transport related to the project
  • utilities or running costs related to the project
  • volunteer expenses
  • costs for delivering your project bilingually such as translation costs
  • small land or building projects
  • building refurbishments

What we cannot fund

  • Projects with the main aim of generating income for your organisation (the business grant key fund is available for this type of activity)
  • contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
  • religious activities
  • profit-making or fundraising activities
  • VAT you can reclaim
  • statutory activities
  • overseas travel
  • alcohol

How to apply

Applications for funding will follow a two-stage process:

Stage 1

Submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to outline your project which will allow us to verify if your organisation and proposed project is eligible to apply to the key fund.  

You will need to register an account for your organisation on MyAccount to be able to do this.

Stage 2  

After submitting your EOI, we will assess whether your organisation and project is eligible to apply to the key fund.

If it is eligible you will receive an email with a link to access the full application form.  The form will be provided through MyAccount, which allows you to save progress, upload evidence and prepare your full application for submission.

Once full applications are received, the next steps will be:

  1. The full application will be appraised by the relevant key fund team.
  2. Views sought from relevant stakeholders.
  3. The Local Advisory Panel will assess and prioritise the project, then approve or reject the full application.
  4. All applicants will be advised of a decision.
  5. We will then issue formal grant funding agreements for successful applications

By submitting a full application, you authorise us (Wrexham Council) to make any necessary enquiries to check any information that is required for the administration of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund programme. The information you provide may also be shared with others as stated within Wrexham’s Key Fund Privacy Notice.

Deadlines and timeframe for applications

The initial application (stage 1 – EOI) is to be submitted within 10 working days from January 22, 2024.

Once all applications are assessed, successful projects will have 15 working days to submit a full application.

Future opportunities to submit bids may be opened, if funds remain available.

How applications will be assessed

The full applications will be assessed on a first come first served basis and considered in terms of:

  • eligibility
  • value for money based on outputs / outcomes to be achieved and in line with the scheme’s aims and objectives