Funding Opportunity to Promote Healthy and Respectful Relationships in Schools (UK)

The focus areas of this funding opportunity include promoting healthy and respectful relationships, preventing violence against women and girls, improving young people’s knowledge and attitudes towards healthy relationships and harmful behaviours, supporting healthy relationships education, strengthening school capacity, delivering Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) content, addressing respectful relationships, online safety and awareness, being safe and intimate and romantic relationships, and reducing harmful behaviours in teenage relationships. Funding of up to £20,000 is available.

The funding aims to support interventions and generate evidence on how secondary schools can best deliver healthy relationships content, improve young people’s understanding of positive relationships, and contribute to reducing violence against women and girls.

Applications are invited across two strands. Strand 1 focuses on building school capacity internally by strengthening the confidence, skills, and capacity of secondary school staff to deliver high-quality healthy relationships content as part of the RSHE curriculum.

Strand 1 projects are expected to provide training and support for teachers on sensitive topics within respectful relationships, online safety and awareness, being safe and intimate and romantic relationships. Projects may also include wider school approaches that strengthen school culture, leadership, and systems around healthy relationships.

Strand 2 focuses on delivery of healthy relationships content through external providers. Projects from experienced specialist providers will deliver universal healthy relationships content directly to young people in secondary schools as part of the RSHE curriculum.

Eligible interventions must be delivered in England and support young people aged 11–16 in state secondary schools. Eligible applicants include registered charities, companies, statutory bodies, and Community Interest Companies (CICs).

The programme is focused on interventions that aim to reduce violence against women and girls and harmful behaviours in teenage relationships over the long term. Projects should aim to improve young people’s knowledge and attitudes around healthy relationships, gender norms, and harmful behaviours.

Applicants must be able to reach enough schools to support a robust and meaningful evaluation. Strand 1 is expected to involve delivery across one or more year groups in 30 secondary schools, with another 30 schools continuing existing practice as a control group. Strand 2 is expected to involve delivery across one or more year groups in 20–30 schools, with additional schools potentially required for the control group depending on the evaluation design.

For more information, visit Youth Endowment Fund.