Value AD
CAN BE
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INVESTMENT
Office for Place: Pathfinders Programme (Cohort 4) Support Grant
The Pathfinder Support Grant will fund an organisation to partner with Office for Place to deliver an expert advice and review function for Pathfinder authorities.
Through the Pathfinder Support Grant, we want the following outcomes to be delivered:
· Strengthened decision-making by pathfinder authorities through access to experienced, theme-specific advice.
· Identification and mitigation of potential risks associated with code development.
· Implementation of best practice approaches within code development by pathfinders, including around consultation with local communities to understand what is locally popular and thereby acceptable.
· Pathfinder authorities will develop a strong foundation of knowledge and practical skills in critical themes relevant to the Office for Place to be used as exemplars to support the wider adoption of design codes.
· A portfolio of design codes that are digitised or can be easily digitised, thereby continuing to build the evidence-base for promoting the use of digital design codes and the benefits of those like efficiencies within the coding process.
· Build the evidence base to promote a move away from verbal design codes, towards code that are both spatial and number led.
· The support should also help the Office for Place to distil learning around design coding at the local authority level, in particular any interdependencies or impact on the strategic themes listed below.
· Help the local authorities produce exemplar design codes across the strategic themes of Pathfinders cohort 4, which are:
1. Street design.
2. Coding for non-residential uses.
3. Development viability in areas of low land value.
4. Effective community engagement to bring democracy forward.
5. Cross-authority wide codes.
6. Design codes linked to a delivery mechanism.
7. Sustainability, Retrofit and climate adaption.
What are we looking for?
We would like to hear from applicants who have previously played a role in providing expert enabling support to local authorities across the country, to help them improve design outcomes in their local area.
We would like to see evidence demonstrating your experience of working in a partnership with another public sector organisation to deliver expertise.
We would like to see evidence of your knowledge of the Office for Place vision, objectives, and other outputs like the 10 Top Tips of Coding, and in particular evidence of the benefits of codes for areas of government priority like promoting housing growth.
We would like to see evidence that your organisation has experience in understanding what matters locally. By demonstrating how the views of local stakeholders on what is acceptable and popular has impacted outcomes, and also how local communities were consulted to understand their views.
We would like to see evidence demonstrating your organisation has championed the role of good design and has a national reach to be able to draw on a range of expertise including urban design, planning, architecture, masterplanning, street design and the themes of the Grant.
We would like to see evidence demonstrating your organisation has specific expertise supporting the development of design codes, with preference for demonstrable experience of coding at an authority-wide scale.
We would like to see evidence your organisation has experience in coding using numerical and spatial metrics, thereby understanding the value behind a move away from verbal coding and helping to promote the use of digital design codes.
The bidding organisation must be able to demonstrate experience of engaging organisations in issues around climate change and net zero, sustainable travel, community engagement (including diversity and inclusion). We want to see demonstration of addressing these issues in project work as well as research.
The expert input must demonstrate skills and experience to test and review different types of design code.
The expert input must be drawn from across England, and we are particularly interested in applications that can also demonstrated diversity in a range of areas other than geographical location.
We are also particularly interested in applications that can demonstrate how the expertise will be tailored to the particular focus of each of the Pathfinders
An organisation is eligible to apply for grant funding if:
• It is a third sector organisation that falls within the scope of the Charities Act 2006 definition of being a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic institution.
• The total grant received from Government (including this grant application) is less than 50 percent of the organisation’s annual income in its accounting year ended in 2024, as demonstrated through its audited annual accounts. This is to ensure that the organisation does not become liable for consideration as an Arm’s Length Body.
• It is a corporate body or has a formal constitution if not incorporated.
• It has a proven track record of delivering training and support to local authorities and community groups that will improve their inhouse capacity to produce design codes.
This list is not exhaustive, please contact the project team to seek advice should you have any queries on the above, e.g., the status of your organisation is not listed.
An ineligible organisation may wish to involve other partners in a consortium bid. The application should highlight the role envisaged for each body and the skills that they bring.
The Grant will ensure participating pathfinder organisations are able to produce exemplar design codes, which can serve as best practice to local authorities across England.
The key objectives of the Grant are:
· To ensure that Pathfinders are provided expert advice to develop exemplar codes responding to key Office for Place priorities which can be used as best practice examples and provide evidence base for Office for Place design code elements.
· To safeguard the delivery of exemplar design codes which can be used as best practice examples and provide evidence base for OfP design code elements.
· To provide the opportunity for the Pathfinder organisations to benefit from a range of technical expertise from built environment professionals with a wide geographical spread.
· To support the pathfinders to follow the coding process set out in the National Model Design Code.
· To enable the pathfinder organisations to set design standards which meet the aspirations of local communities who were appropriately engaged during the design coding process to understand what is locally popular and thereby acceptable.
· To empower the pathfinder organisations to produce design codes which are clearly defined, concise and include well-illustrated design requirements.
· To ensure design codes are sensitive to local context and translate policy themes proposed by the pathfinder organisations into clearly illustrated and explicit parameters.
· To ensure completed design codes are concise, practical, easy to use and consider viability considerations, focusing on spatial and numerical metrics and moving away from verbal.
Event
Date
Competition launch date
15 July 2024
Competition end date
12 August 2024
Application assessments including gateway criteria sift, scoring, clarifications, and interview with preferred applicants as necessary.
12 to 26 August 2024
Approval and confirmation of awards, and grantee mobilisation and completion of grant funding agreement
29 August to 08 September 2024
New Design Code Pathfinder Support grant agreement to commence
09 Sept 2024
To apply, please complete the application form on Find a Grant and submit pdf documents setting out your response to the questions in table 6 by 5pm on 12 August 2024, noting the page limits for each question.
Applicants will be able to raise questions and concerns with the Office for Place Pathfinders Project Team via the email above.
A list of questions asked by other applicants and responses from the Office for Place can be provided upon request.
