What is the Career Ready Fund?
The Career Ready Fund provides multi‑year funding to organisations working with young people with learning disabilities. It supports organisations to deliver high‑quality, job coach‑led careers education in mainstream and SEND school settings.
The fund focuses on early, structured support that helps young people build real‑world experience and move towards paid employment.
Why is the fund focused on young people with learning disabilities?
Young people with learning disabilities continue to face significant barriers to paid work, including limited access to meaningful work experience and low expectations around employment. The Career Ready Fund is designed to start earlier – from around age 14 – so young people have time, support and exposure to workplaces before leaving education.
What types of work will the programme fund?
We are looking to fund work that:
- Embeds qualified job coaches within school settings
- Delivers early, structured vocational profiling
- Creates meaningful, wellmatched work experiences with employers
- Builds strong partnerships between schools, families, employers and specialist providers
- Strengthens pathways into supported internships, employment and paid work
All work should be grounded in supported employment principles and personcentred practice.
What won’t the fund support?
The Career Ready Fund is not intended to fund:
- Oneoff careers days or shortterm interventions
- General employability sessions without workplace exposure
- Unpaid, repetitive or tokenistic placements
- Work that sits entirely outside school settings
- Activity not grounded in supported employment practice
Who is the fund for?
We welcome applications from organisations that:
- Have experience working with young people with learning disabilities
- Deliver (or are developing) supported employment practice
- Can work in close partnership with schools, families and employers
- Are rooted in their local communities
Do applicants need to already be delivering this work in schools?
No. We welcome applications from organisations already delivering high‑quality work in schools and those building this capability, as long as applications demonstrate clearly how they will develop, resource and deliver models well.
Can schools apply directly?
No. Schools may be involved as partners, but applications should come from an organisation with expertise in supported employment and delivery beyond the school environment.
Do you expect the work to be delivered in mainstream or SEND schools?
Either. We hope to fund a mixture of settings. We recognise that this will help us reach a wider range of young people.
What do you mean by youth voice?
Young people are the experts of their own lives. Centring youth voice means young people’s own words, experiences and priorities drive the work that supports them, not assumptions made on their behalf. This can happen through ongoing, meaningful engagement such as roundtables, youth boards, research, and more.
What do you mean by trusted adult?
A trusted adult is a consistent, supportive and non-judgmental person in a young person’s life who provides safe guidance and help them navigate life’s challenges, especially important during the transition into adulthood. This could be a parent, carer, teacher, mentor, relative, social worker, coach or any adult the young person feels safe turning to.
What do you mean by lived experience?
This refers to the direct, personal knowledge and understanding gained through navigating life’s challenges firsthand. Similar to centring youth voice, this means that those who have personally experienced the issues you work on are active contributors to shaping the support, decisions and/or direction of what you do.
How much funding is available?
Grants are typically £200,000 over 4 years (£50,000 per year) and can include core costs such as salaries, rent, utilities, and staff wellbeing.
Who is eligible to apply?
Your organisation must:
- Be a registered charity, CIC, or community benefit society
- Have at least one year of audited or independently examined accounts
- Have an annual income of £3 million or less
- Be based in and delivering services in the UK
What is the application process?
The process includes:
- Eligibility quiz
- Expression of Interest
- Full application (if invited)
- A conversation with the team
- Grant decision
When do applications open?
The fund opens on 22nd July 2026, 9am.
What are the deadlines?
- EOI deadline: 2 September 2026 at 5pm
- Full application deadline: 23 October 2026 at 5pm
Will applicants receive feedback?
- Unsuccessful EOI applicants may not receive detailed feedback.
- If you are invited to submit a full application but we decide not to fund you, we will offer a feedback call.
What happens if we’re invited to the next stage?
You will be asked for:
- A detailed application
- A call with the grants team
- Background checks
What happens if our application is successful?
You will need to:
- Provide recent bank details
- Submit annual and final reports
- Join an annual learning call
- Host a mid-grant visit
Can organisations with an existing grant apply?
Yes—if the proposed work clearly aligns with the aims of this fund. However, an additional grant must fund a different area of work and must not duplicate existing funding.
Is accessibility support available for applicants?
Yes. Organisations can request:
- Up to £250 at EOI stage
- Up to £500 at full application stage. This can cover BSL interpreters, translation, scribes, assistive tech, and more.
Can AI be used in applications?
We understand that organisations may use AI tools to support bid writing. However, applications must accurately reflect your organisation’s work, experience and plans. We expect clear, specific and authentic responses. For more information, read our approach to AI.
Who can we contact with questions?
You can contact the team by phone, email, or request a callback before submitting your EOI. buildingindependence@henrysmith.foundation