Work and Health Grants for Leeds VCSE Sector

Applications open 22 May 2026

Applications close 15 June 2026 at 5 PM

Please read the guidance document in full before completing the online application form.

Contact [email protected] with any queries.

A further digital drop-in event will take place 4 June, 1pm – 2pm as an additional opportunity to recap information about the fund and also a time to ask questions about the fund.

Healthy Working Life – Grant Fund Launch (Webinar)

Date: 22 May 2026 at 10:00 am

This webinar lasted around 20 minutes and explained more about the fund by talking through the slide deck.

If you missed it or would like to see it again, you can view the webinar recording.

A number of questions were answered after the presentation, these have been saved in this document: Webinar Q&A document.

Healthy Working Life Grant Fund – (Digital Drop In – Q&A)

Date: Jun 4, 2026 at 1:00 pm

Online: Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 833 8619 2408

Passcode: 540215

About the fund – supporting people to be closer to work

This funding is specifically for locally rooted Leeds community organisations that support people who have significant health conditions and are economically inactive to start to progress them towards employment.

This fund is focused on self-employment support with a priority for young people.

Projects must show how they will increase participants’ confidence and self-esteem and inspire them to take the first steps into accessing support in safe and trusted environments. They should motivate participants to grow in confidence, ambition, resilience and develop new skills.

Activities should also connect residents with supportive community networks as they progress towards and into other activities such as further learning, volunteering and employment. All inventions should have a focus on moving people closer to the labour market through improved health and wellbeing.

This is part of the Work, Health and Skills Agenda and in line with the WYCA (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) Work, Health and Skills Plan.

The ‘Get Britain Working Trailblazer’ is a national programme, rolling out in a select few areas, that is designed to help people to move towards employment who are currently not working or looking for work. The programme uses the brand name ‘Healthy Working Life’.

The programme is funded by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) via West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) and is led locally by Leeds City Council. Forum Central is the grants manager and will be supporting grant holders for the duration of the programme.

Timeline:

Applications open 22 May 2026.
Open for 3 weeks.
Applications close at 5 PM on 15 June 2026.
Applications will be processed as quickly as possible. We intend that decisions will be made on 26 June 2026, and funding agreements will be issued as soon as possible after that.
Delivery can begin in August or September 2026.
Final Monitoring and reporting due by the 2nd week of March 2027. All activity must be completed by 31 March 2027.

This is our anticipated timeline, but may be subject to change, except the end date for all activity, which is set by the funders, DWP & WYCA.

Who can apply

Groups that apply must be a properly constituted VCSE organisation or group.

Applicants must also be providers who support:

Supporting people into self-employment (all age)

Applicants programmes must have a self employment element and a priority will be given to those that also support young people. If you do not have a self employment element to your proposal unfortunately not be eligible to apply for this fund.

Size of grants

Proposals are sought for projects at a value of:

A maximum of £72,000

Target groups

Proposals must target Leeds residents with a health condition or disability who are not in paid employment. This includes those who are classed ‘unemployed’ or ‘economically inactive’. Target populations include:

Autism
Learning difficulty or disability
Mental Health
Cardiovascular disease
Epilepsy
Progressive illness not included elsewhere (for example, cancer, multiple sclerosis, symptomatic HIV, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy)
Visual impairment
Severe disfigurement
Muscular Skeletal Condition
Speech
Other please state

How to apply:

Please read the guidance document in full, as this will help inform your application.
Complete the online application form – you may want to save and work on your answers in a document before pasting them into the form, in case it doesn’t save your progress (it should save it if you are logged into a Google account).
Email [email protected] with copies of your policies as listed in the form.

Application form and guidance:

Guidance VCSE Work and Health Trailblazer Grants_V2_170625 (word document download)

Healthy Working Life – VCSE Grant Fund 2026/27 (google form, no sign in required) online application form

FAQs (word document)

Further information

Detailed information about eligible activities, project costs and reporting requirements can all be found in the guidance document.

If you need the guidance document or application form in another format or have any problems, please let us know by contacting [email protected].