How it works
Who is it for?
The Innovation Fund is open only to employees of BDP.
It's for BDP staff within Horizons. Turning Point has had its own distinct fund before. In practice, it won't be so clearly defined. This is a partnership, and obviously BDP innovations will support the Horizons mission; but the money is drawn from our invested reserves, not from our commissioners, so we have more freedom and agency in where we spend it.
How does it work?
In brief: there is an application form. You can apply for one of three tiers of funding.
Ideas within Tier 1 are voted on by the Senior Leadership Team. Ideas within Tiers 2 and 3 are voted on by members of the Board of Trustees.
There is a panel, which will always include a staff member, a board member, an SLT member, and a lived experience peer. The panel will be convened for ideas in tiers 2 and 3, and tier 1 ideas will be reported for oversight. The panel does not rule on funding: the panel can just make recommendations on funding to trustees.
There are specific scoring criteria for applications, which are shared for transparency. There will be continued monitoring of innovations by the panel, including key milestones and success metrics.
Not everything is set in stone yet. We're still working out a few little administrative details, but we can cross some of those bridges when we come to them. If you have an idea to make this clearer or more accessible, we're open to that too!
What can the fund support?
Once again, this isn't totally set in stone. The real world is quite hard to categorise, and this is a new project. If you're not sure if something fits the criteria, then once again you can email Charlie and chat about it. But some basic rules of thumb are:
- ✓All sorts of new projects, pilots, initiatives, services – especially if we can figure out a way to get it funded elsewhere once the concept is proven!
- ✓Peer coproduction partnerships and projects
- ✓New trainings or investments in our staff and systems
- ✓Time-limited implementation staff to get new things off the ground
- ✓External support in pursuing bids, big funding sources, or new initiatives
- ✓Hopefully a lot of things we have not yet thought of, and that you will think of as we go
- ✕Existing deficits in our services
- ✕Indefinite, recurring expenses with no route to sustainability
- ✕Ideas that cannot be linked to BDP's five year strategy
- ✕Anything that might be called 'business as usual'
How do I apply?
You apply via this application form.
If you'd like, you're very welcome to submit a short expression of interest beforehand! The fund needs to be accessible, and we don't want anyone to be discouraged. If you email Charlie, you can workshop the application together to figure out how best to communicate your idea and what it offers.
We're going to try to keep this proportionate. For lower cost ideas (tier 1 is anything below £5,000) we'll try to keep the process really simple to enable as many applications as possible.
The detail required in your application will vary depending on the tier you're applying for. What happens after you apply also depends on the tier! There won't be a panel meeting for tier 1 ideas, and the decision will be made by the SLT.
Tiers 2 and 3 will go before the panel, and the panel makes recommendations for the decision-makers. In tier 2, the decision will be made by two board members. In tier 3, the decision will be made by the whole board.
Applications for tiers 2 and 3 are expected to open on November 9th.