Following on from a meeting between the Department for Education and representatives of the voluntary and community sector, which focussed on the way grants and contracts are agreed from DfE to the sector, the DfE's acting Chief Operating Officer Mike Green has written to confirm DfE's commitment to positive relationships with the sector. 

Read the full letter here.

Three priorities were agreed at the meeting, which will help to improve grant and contract processes:

1. Longer Term Grants which will help with planning, innovation and help us all improve the educational lives of children and adults, which isn’t easy to achieve in a single year
2. Standardised and Time-line processes – we aim to reduce the burden on the process of submitting bids for grants/contracts
3. Engage earlier with the sector and communicate a pipeline of opportunities to allow more time to produce bids, develop partnerships/consortia and garner understanding of the outcomes that can be delivered