WHAT WILL IT FUND?
The fund can be used for the costs of training for SAR volunteers. This training must be directly related to operational SAR activities. Costs may be incurred by individuals, SAR units, or umbrella SAR bodies and may cover, but not be limited to individuals paying for courses, administration costs incurred by an organisation providing a course, the cost of hiring external trainers, travel costs and the costs of training equipment (e.g. dummies or training defibrillators).
We encourage collaborative approaches where joint training with other organisations could demonstrate increased value for money.
The Fund supports UK SAR activities. It will not support any training intended for overseas search and rescue work. We would expect as a rule any training supported by the Fund to be undertaken in the UK, unless there is an exceptional reason why this training needs to be undertaken overseas.
Different grant funding rounds may have a different strategic focus within these broader parameters of what can be funded. This will be communicated at the opening of each funding round. This current round is an open call for all training activities.
The applicant must commit and contribute at least 20% of the total training cost in the request.
The fund is seeking applications which demonstrate one or more of the following:
- volunteer development
- high quality training in the search and rescue sector
- good value for money and quality of service
- collaborative approaches – i.e. several organisations/branches can apply within one application
- innovative, replicable approaches and community and organisational impact
- sustainable development for SAR volunteers training
- supporting a tasking service to deliver Search and Rescue operations.
We would expect that, prior to an application, any operational equipment or assets required to implement the training/learning are already in place. For example if you are applying for a number of your team to gain
DEFRA Flood Rescue Concept of Operations Module 3 (Water Rescue Technician) training the expectation
would be that your organisation has ready access to boats, ropes and appropriate rescue equipment.
Funds are to be spent within 12 months of receiving the grant, unless there is a specific justification for a longer timeframe.
WHAT WILL IT NOT FUND?
- Non charitable organisations
- Organisations outside the UK
- Organisations not working in the search and rescue sector and/or not recognised as viable SAR assets
- Applications not addressing volunteer training needs
- Applications where the request or amount required are unrealistic
- Applications from individuals
- Equipment not directly related to the provision of training
- Organisations seeking over 80% of the total training cost.