Contents
1. About this fund
Under our current National Lottery Funding Plan (2023-26) we funded an 18-month programme, WorkWise For Screen, which has piloted activity and established a strong baseline of resources.
We have allocated £2,400,000 of National Lottery funding to the Good Work Progamme for Screen from 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2029 and intend to award this funding to a single organisation who will be required to design, implement and deliver a programme that builds on learning from WorkWise For Screen and commits to responding to recommendations to be made in our current Good Work Research (to be completed by March 2026).
In order to apply, you must have a track record and significant expertise in best practice HR and UK employment law. You must also be prepared to work with a range of specialists to ensure the next phase of the programme can be delivered to a breadth of businesses and individuals working across the screen sector.
You will need to tell us how you will build on learning and content created as part of the 2024-26 pilot to ensure that what has already been created is utilised and evolved to aid value for money. Content from the pilot programme has been established in such a way that makes it transferable for continued management and delivery purposes.
This is an open call for applications, meaning both current and new delivery partners may apply. All applications will be assessed equally on their merits against the assessment criteria set out below.
Fund aims and priorities
Delivery of this Programme is intended to respond to three of the sixteen key recommendations from the Good Work Review being:
- Build awareness of rights and responsibilities, customising mainstream resources and advancing targeted and tailored guidance and awareness campaigns for creative businesses and workers.
- Extend and customise resources and services, management development opportunities and financial support for creative businesses to enhance their capacity to drive improvements in workplace practices.
- Strengthen the representation of workers in business decision making, through enhanced representation, engagement, and reporting.
The programme should be designed with the specific challenges of the screen sector in mind and be targeted at screen sector SMEs as well as HoDs, including those working in:
- production
- animation
- VFX
- gaming
- distribution
- exhibition
The programme design should not duplicate any existing best practice but instead should continue to work towards becoming the single front door to both existing and new resources and support, whilst also proactively working with organisations and individuals to nurture the adoption of good work principles and practices.
You should have the ability and contacts to work with a consortium of skilled delivery partners to provide a suite of “good work” support. Those delivery partners may include universities, HR and employment law specialists, specialist training organisations, screen industry bodies, as well as other organisations and charities with specialist expertise in one or more of the Good Work themes set out in What you can use funding for. We also welcome partnerships with delivery partners that can extend support beyond these themes.
You will also be expected to work closely with relevant screen sector stakeholders in the development, collation and delivery of programme resources and activity to ensure the programme meets industry needs and expectations. The successful applicant will be responsible for the dissemination of programme resources and sector engagement will be a key measure of success; buy-in from key screen sector stakeholders will therefore be vital.
BFI National Lottery Strategy Outcomes
All activity funded through the Good Work Programme should contribute to achieving some or all of the following outcomes of the BFI National Lottery strategy:
3.3 Workforce retention is improved by building inclusive, flexible and supportive workplaces.
3.4 Vital skills for the sector that cannot be delivered by the commercial market are developed.
4.1 Better support available for small and medium-sized enterprises and independents to develop their businesses.
In addition, all National Lottery awards must deliver against our three principles for National Lottery funding:
- equity, diversity and inclusion
- UK-wide
- environmental sustainability
2. Check if you’re eligible
The lead applicant
Applications must be submitted by a single organisation that will be expected to identify and work with key delivery partners.
Your organisation
Your organisation must be a legally constituted organisation centrally managed in the UK. This includes:
- limited liability company or partnership registered at Companies House
- community interest company registered at Companies House
- combined or local authority or statutory body
- charity or trust registered with the Charity Commission (including UK universities and colleges)
Your organisation must be able to demonstrate specialist knowledge and expertise of HR and UK employment law, and either have relevant connections to the industry or be able to identify programme partners that do.
You must also have prior experience of managing publicly funded programmes and working in partnership with other organisations to deliver activity at scale, including across the UK.
Your proposed delivery partners should be selected based on their prior experience of providing support in or for one or more of the Good Work themes.
Individuals, non-registered partnerships and unincorporated associations cannot apply.
Get in touch with the team if you’re unsure that you are eligible: skills.coordinator@bfi.org.uk
3. What you can use funding for
You can apply for an award of up to £2,400,000 as follows:
- 2026/27: up to £750,000
- 2027/28: up to £800,000
- 2028/29: up to £850,000
Your proposed programme should respond directly to the Good Work Review set out at the start of these guidelines and be designed to support SMEs and individuals in the screen sector. It must also clearly set out how it will build on the learning, activities, and developed content from the 2024-2026 pilot WorkWise For Screen.
Good Work themes
The programme of activity should comprise individual strands, designed to support the following Good Work themes:
- improvements to workplace management including inclusive leadership practice, better skilled people managers, and improved approaches to wellbeing including anti-bullying and harassment, and anti-racism practices
- improved understanding of working with freelancers, including more appropriate contracting approaches and a good understanding of the different employment statuses
- the adoption of inclusive recruitment and procurement practices
- the development and adoption of HR policies and procedures that aid legal compliance and help to set inclusive working cultures
- improved feedback mechanisms, such as appraisal systems and opportunities for employee, worker, and self-employed contractor voice to help inform more inclusive workplace practices, alongside peer networking
- any other support that can aid the adoption of Good Work principles and practices, such as research
The programme should be visionary, evidence informed and designed to provide open-to-all advice, guidance and support that can be widely applied by organisations operating in the screen sector (and should therefore avoid being nuanced to any one organisation type). It may include 1:1 support that helps organisations and individuals working in the sector to adopt the advice, guidance and support delivered through the programme — for example, helping an organisation’s leader think about how to implement inclusive operating practices; or identifying the types of policies an organisation may want to consider developing and guiding them to appropriate training or guidance available through the programme of activity.
The programme should include performance management training and mentoring for people-managers, peer networking for leaders, as well as providing guidance on cultural operating practices that embed EDI and Environmental Sustainability as standard.
The programme should not support the provision of direct HR (or related) services, including legal services, to individual companies or personnel; this means that the programme of activity should not seek to respond to or comment on individual HR cases or grievances, directly write policies and procedures for any one organisation/individual, or get directly involved in providing legal advice to any one organisation/individual. Nor should the programme create bespoke training for any one beneficiary.
You will be expected to engage with the new DCMS-homed Freelance Champion, announced as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to help inform and respond to relevant and emerging priorities, as well as relevant sector initiatives and organisations undertaking work in the Good Work space to ensure complementarity and join-up.
Deliverables
In your application you will need to identify the specific activity you will deliver (your ‘deliverables’) using the funding, which will enable you to meet your KPIs. Your deliverables should include:
- free-to-access training and support, including performance management training
- open-to-all HR and workforce development advice, guidance and support including downloadable resources
- mentoring or training for people-managers
- peer networking for leaders (by leaders, we mean anyone who has responsibility for decision making and can influence the culture and working practices of a workplace).
Eligible costs
You can use this funding for programme costs such as:
- training
- stakeholder engagement
- resource development, collation and dissemination
- programme events (in person and online) including networking
- thought leadership
- marketing that is directly related to the promotion of the opportunities available through the programme
- contribution to overheads relating to the delivery of the programme (at a reasonable level, applicable to both the applicant organisation and associated delivery partners)
- new or existing staff responsible for the delivery of the programme (lead applicant and delivery partners)
All costs should be at a level to maximise the public benefit and value for money of the fund.
Costs we cannot support
Funds should not substitute or replace existing funding or income that would otherwise be available, or to fund similar activity that can start without an award. National Lottery funds are only awarded to applicants that demonstrate need and a clear public benefit from the activity. BFI National Lottery Funding is project-based, time-limited funding, and you should not expect ongoing support beyond the term of any awards made.
Examples of common ineligible costs are:
- core costs for day to day running of your organisation not associated with the activity
- staffing costs which are covered by other sources of funding
- costs relating to an extension of ongoing work
- capital expenditure
- filmmaking projects or workshops
- activity that is already specifically supported by another external source of funding
- proposals that focus on other art-forms such as literature, dance on film, theatre, poetry film, opera or artists’ moving image
- cost incurred prior to an offer of funding from BFI
- promotional or other activity (information stands, printed brochures) which does not support environmental sustainability
- sponsorship, grants or loans to organisations or individuals, including participants or other beneficiaries
This list is not exhaustive, and we may tell you that other types of activity within your application cannot be supported by a BFI award or ask that you amend specific activities and associated budget allocations.
If you’re registered for VAT
Your figures should not include VAT that you can claim back.
If you’re not registered for VAT, or you’re registered for VAT but cannot fully recover the VAT you incur on costs, your figures should include irrecoverable VAT. Grants we make are ‘outside the scope’ of VAT and should be listed in your accounts as a grant and not, for example, as a fee for any services supplied to the BFI. You should get financial advice from your own accountant or the relevant tax office.
Cashflow
Your application should be based on a single award running through to 31 March 2029. If you are successful, funding will be cashflowed in-line with spend over your proposed project delivery timeline subject to:
- satisfactory performance — you are able to continue to deliver your activity in line with your funding agreement and these guidelines
- receipt and approval by BFI of routine reporting including progress against KPIs and costs to date
- receipt and approval by BFI of updated annual delivery plans for 27/28 and 28/29
- demonstration that you can remain financially viable through to the end of the term
The amount of funding that BFI can make available for the second and third years (1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029) may be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels. If we have to reduce funding, we will ensure that we provide sufficient notice and work with you to modify plans accordingly.
Partnership funding
For your application to be eligible you will need to demonstrate an element of partnership support which can include cash or in-kind support. Partnership contributions are an important demonstration that there is genuine support for your project from your community, stakeholders and other partners.
As a guide, we would expect to see cash partnership funding at a minimum of 10% of the BFI funding allocation (that is a minimum of £240,000 over the three year period). If studios or other major commercial partners are on board and likely to benefit, we would expect to see a cash contribution from them proportionate to at least 50% of the value of the benefit they’ll receive. The minimum partnership funding does not have to be secured at the point of application but will need to be secured in advance of payment of any award from BFI and before the proposed project start date. Other BFI funds cannot be used as partnership funding (although we welcome the involvement of BFI funded organisations as delivery partners where appropriate) and UK National Lottery Funding from another distributor should not be the only form of partnership funding.
4. What your programme needs to achieve
Your programme
Your programme must build on learning, activities, and content from the 2024-2025 pilot WorkWise For Screen, and by March 2029 have established a single front door to high quality, best practice guidance, support, and activities that aid improved awareness of and adherence to good work principles and practices. Your programme must be visionary, designing and delivering interventions that help drive inclusive, fair, and compliant working cultures across the screen sector.
We expect you to tell us who your delivery partners are and why, along with how they will contribute to programme design and delivery. You will also need to tell us how you will work effectively with wider stakeholders to ensure the Good Work Programme for Screen complements and signposts existing high quality tools, guidance, and interventions for the screen sector.
You must also tell us how you will quality assure your programme content, especially in relation to best practice HR and employment law.
By the end of the funding term, we expect to see the principles of good work being adopted by SMEs across the screen sector, with evidence of increased compliance with best practice HR and employment law, including:
- improved management practices
- improved contracting compliance
- happier, healthier, safer and more inclusive workplaces.
Key Performance Indicators
We will measure the success of the fund using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You will need to propose your own measurable KPIs against your programme of activity, which might include:
- partnership funding secured for the programme – minimum target 10%
- number and type of training interventions delivered, for example one-to-one mentoring, masterclasses, workshops, group training, e-training
- number of SMEs and individuals benefitting from direct support
- diversity of beneficiaries (see below)
- location of beneficiaries (with representation across the UK)
- number of beneficiaries by screen sub sector
- level of online engagement with programme activity (for example, number of individuals accessing online resources)
- programme reach, including via social media engagement, based on your outreach and engagement strategies
Additional impact measures to be measured at 12-month intervals after engagement (targets set according to the priorities of the individual proposals):
- percentage of beneficiaries reporting the adoption of new or improved management practices
- percentage of beneficiaries reporting improved contracting compliance
- percentage of beneficiaries reporting improved working conditions (in line with good and fair work principles)
Equity, diversity and inclusion
Your activity will contribute towards achieving the BFI’s inclusion targets; you will be expected to set beneficiary targets in line with these in your application for funding. The programme should target the existing workforce including those with management responsibilities and HODs, with specific modules focused on inclusive recruitment. The core focus of this programme is to create fairer, more inclusive workplace practices in screen sector business across the UK, leading to increased representation and retention among the workforce.
All activity supported by our funding should address the BFI Diversity Standards. If successful, you’ll need to report following the conclusion of your activity, evaluating how you’ve delivered against the aims of the Diversity Standards in practice.
UK-wide
Our funding supports national, regional, and local activity to ensure that communities throughout the UK feel the benefit of the screen industries and culture. You’ll need to ensure access to the programme across the UK and set targets in line with engagement from all four nations and a regional spread of beneficiaries.
Environmental sustainability
You’ll need to embed the principle of environmental sustainability throughout your funded activity.
You’ll need to consider how you’ll apply environmental sustainability (ES) principles to the funded activity or your organisation more generally. This could include:
- implementing good environmental practice for the project, for example, travel and events
- embedding sustainability within your organisation more broadly
- exploring environmental themes as part of the work, for example, programming, training or skills development
Due to the range of organisations and activity that we fund, we’re not prescriptive about what you should focus on. For guidance, you can refer to resources provided by Julie’s Bicycle, particularly the Sustainable Screen Resource Hub, which outlines good environmental practices. To support the beneficiaries of your programme, you can also explore resources provided by BAFTA albert.
If funded, you are required to submit environmental impact data and report how you have applied the ES principle. Find guidance on reporting on Julie’s Bicycle website.
5. How to apply
When you can apply
This fund is open from 1 2 January to midday on 3 April 2026.
Information you need to provide
In your main application you’ll need to provide some basic project details including:
- key project contacts
- organisation details
- total amount requested from BFI
- total programme budget
- a brief outline of your proposed Programme
- a summary of how your proposed Programme responds to each of our principles for National Lottery Funding
- a response to the BFI Diversity Standards
Documents you need to provide
You will need to attach a full proposal of no more than 25 pages to your application, detailing:
A: Your previous experience and proposed management structure
- why you are best placed to lead on delivery of this programme
- how you will build on learning from the WorkWise For Screen pilot
- the governance and management structure for the programme
- abridged CVs or bios for key personnel and the role they will play in managing the programme
- staff organogram for the programme, indicating the FTE for each staff member costed to programme delivery
B: A list of confirmed and proposed delivery partners
- which Good Work themes and activity strands (see above) each partner will support or lead on delivering and why
- whether their involvement has been secured
- details of their relevant expertise and prior track record of delivery to date
- any partnership funding, cash or in-kind, that delivery partners will contribute
C: Delivery plan
A clear, strategic plan for design and delivery of the Programme that identifies where key interventions are needed, including:
- key strands of activity within the programme aligned with the Good Work themes
- all training to be delivered and a rationale
- resources to be developed or collated and a rationale
- types of beneficiaries (businesses and individuals)
- any accessibility considerations
- where and how training and resources will be hosted and delivered
- how you will quality assure your programme content
- any legacy considerations
- associated implementation plan with clear deliverables
D: Timeline for delivery
That includes key milestones.
E: How you will measure impact
- intended outcomes and impacts
- proposed KPIs and Deliverables — you should clearly set out deliverables that relate to achieving your KPIs
- a monitoring and evaluation plan, including how you will collect experiential feedback from programme beneficiaries
F: Stakeholder and beneficiary engagement plan
That sets out:
- the range of organisations and individuals you will seek to engage with your programme activity
- how you intend to secure stakeholder and beneficiary engagement in 26/27, with your outline plan for 27/28 and 28/29.
- how you will work closely with relevant BFI funded partners, including the BFI Skills Clusters, to aid local level sector engagement with your programme of activity
- how you will work with the BFI skills partners to ensure authentic join up between BFI skills programmes
G: A clear communications plan
That sets out:
- the approach you will take to promoting the Good Work Programme
- the different audiences you plan to communicate with and why
- which methods and channels you will use
Supporting documents
- programme risk register
- organisational risk register
- your organisation’s sustainability policy or other relevant document
Financial information
You will also need to attach the following to your application
- a detailed programme budget and indicative cashflow, clearly setting out proposed use of BFI funds and detailing the source and status of all partnership funding
- your last set of independently certified or audited accounts
- if more than 12 months has passed since the year end covered in your last filed statutory accounts, please additionally provide draft accounts for the intervening auditable period as approved by your board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet)
- if your organisation is less than 12 months old and has not yet filed accounts, please provide evidence of a bank account
- your most recent budget and management accounts for the current financial year as approved by your Board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet), as well as any subsequent budget reforecast since board approval was provided.
- budget/forecast for your organisation to cover the full period of programme delivery (e.g. 1 April 2026 – 31 March 2029) accompanied by notes highlighting the assumptions made and key risks (for instance around renewal of funding from other sources)
Equality monitoring form
You may be asked to provide equality monitoring data relating to your organisation’s leadership or project staff at the point of application or during your project. The data you submit on this form will be confidential, anonymous and not seen by the fund staff.
Submitting your application
To apply, you’ll need to create an account. You’ll then need to complete and submit the online application form. You can save your application and return to it when you need to. Make sure you complete all the sections as incomplete forms will be automatically ineligible.
If you have any questions when completing the application form please contact us on Skills.Coordinator@bfi.org.uk
For guidance about how to use our new BFI applicant portal:
You can view a PDF preview of the application form to see the questions you will be asked in full:
6. What happens after you apply
You’ll get:
- confirmation we’ve received your application within 1 to 2 working days
- a unique ID number for your application
- confirmation that your application is eligible within 2 weeks
- a decision by 12 June 2026
If your application is ineligible
We’ll let you know that we cannot consider it for funding. If you’ve made a mistake in your application, and that’s the only reason it’s ineligible, we may get in touch with you so that you can correct it.
How your application is assessed
We’ll assess:
- evidence of the organisation’s ability to deliver the programme, including:
- experience of leading a programme or project with a shared delivery model (for example, previous experience managing a consortium, network of organisations, task force or similar)
- experience in leading delivery of similar programmes at an appropriate scale and to a high quality
- proposed governance structure
- financial viability of the organisation
- evidence that the programme can be successfully delivered via the consortium of delivery partners, including:
- expert knowledge of the UK Screen Sector
- expert knowledge of Good Work principles, best practice approaches in HR and current knowledge of UK employment law
- experience in successfully engaging a wide range of beneficiaries across the screen sector in activity
- relevant experience in developing and delivering Good-Work related training, resources and guidance, alongside prior experience and evidence of supporting positive cultural change across the operation of external business’
- ability to deliver UK-wide
- how the proposal responds to the funding objectives and outcomes, including:
- the quality and feasibility of the delivery plan and timeline
- the reach and ambition of proposed deliverables and KPIs
- the quality and relevance of the plans for monitoring and evaluation
- quality and ambition of:
- the plan for stakeholder and beneficiary engagement throughout project delivery
- the communications plan outlining how you will reach underrepresented groups as well as beneficiaries across the UK
- proposed budget/expenditure and resource allocation, including:
- the level of partnership funding secured
- whether the programme represents value for money
- the proposed organogram
- commitment to environmental sustainability, and equity, diversity and inclusion
- how you have managed any previous BFI awards
- your demonstration of need for National Lottery funding
- whether there is a clear public benefit to the proposed activity.
We may share parts of your application with other BFI teams or external consultants to help us assess it.
If we need more information
Once submitted, we will review your application and if necessary, may write to you or request to meet with you to obtain more information about your application. If we need additional information from you, it may take us longer to reach a decision on your application.
How we’ll prioritise applications
We prioritise proposals that:
- we think will have the biggest impact on positively influencing good work practices in the sector
- are closest to the Fund objectives and outcomes
- offer value for money
- take risks and try new approaches
- aim for ongoing, sustainable delivery
Identity checks
We undertake due diligence assessments of the applications we are recommending to our decision-making committee for funding. We will request the personal address and date of birth of the CEO or Managing Director of the organisation applying. We will use this data to run an identity check. Please note that our request for this information is not an indication or confirmation of funding and you will be informed separately of the funding decision on your application. Please note that this is not a credit check. We will be unable to submit your application to our decision-making committee until we have received your completed form.
Lottery Finance Committee Consideration
Following assessment of each application, funding recommendations will be made to the BFI Lottery Finance Committee. This is the final stage of the funding decision process. All applicants will be informed in writing of the decision on their application.
7. Getting a decision
If you’re successful
You’ll receive a written offer of funding. You’ll need to sign the offer of funding and return it to the BFI within 21 days.
Your offer of funding will set out details of how you’ll receive the funding, how to use it and how we expect you to report to us.
Read the conditions of funding section below and general conditions of National Lottery funding to find out what you will have to do if you are offered an award.
If you’re unsuccessful
We may have turned down your application because we determined that the proposal:
- did not fit our funding objectives and outcomes
- did not demonstrate a strong enough commitment to one or all of the following principles: equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); environmental sustainability; UK-wide
- did not demonstrate enough relevant experience
- was too ambitious for the budget
- was not yet developed enough
- did not demonstrate sufficient need for National Lottery support and should be financed by other means
- did not meet with the BFI Diversity Standards
Unless there’s a significant change to your original proposal, you will not be able to resubmit it.
If no application sufficiently meets the assessment criteria outlined above, BFI reserves the right not to make an award of funding for the Programme.
Feedback on an unsuccessful application
If we had a meeting with you to discuss your application, you can ask for feedback on your application. We’re a small team and unfortunately that means we’re unable to give feedback to other applicants. We will keep the data and supporting materials you sent to us in line with our records retention policy.
We welcome your feedback on the application process and how we might improve it: skillscoordinator@bfi.org.uk
8. Conditions of funding
If you are offered an award from us, in addition to the general conditions of National Lottery funding, the following conditions will apply to your award:
You will be required to report on progress against all KPIs on a quarterly basis and attend an annual performance review as well as other routine or specific meetings with BFI colleagues to discuss progress.
BFI will require approval over the provision of all partnership funding including the identity of the providers and terms of funding to ensure that all associations are appropriate for the BFI and the National Lottery and to ensure that such relationships do not bring you, or by association the BFI and the National Lottery into disrepute.
Where you have included unsecured partnership funding within your budget, you will need to provide updates on securing this finance to the BFI (normally as part of your performance reporting but, where such partnership funding is intrinsic to delivery of the activity, as a pre-condition to the funding agreement). The BFI may elect to withhold or withdraw your award if you are unable to secure the level of partnership funding required to deliver the activity as planned or require that you submit revised plans and budget showing how the activity could be delivered without the planned partnership funding.
You will be required to work collaboratively with relevant BFI departments and partners, including those not identified in your application, to ensure widest possible dissemination of the Programme activity to potential users.
You will be required to gain BFI approval for any marketing or related materials for your funded activity, in line with branding guidelines that the BFI will provide to you. You must share resources, data insights, data reports and learnings with the screen sector, as facilitated by BFI.
You will be required to provide any resources that are developed under the funded activity to the BFI and ensure any resources developed using National Lottery funding are made publicly available both during and after the term of the funding.
You will need to ensure that data on all participants in, and beneficiaries of, the Programme can be shared with BFI in compliance with data protection legislation.
You will be required to take part in an evaluation of the Fund by the BFI (or its contracted party). You must retain all data relating to your programme, its participants and its impact until the end of the BFI Screen Culture Strategy in March 2033.
You will need to adopt safeguarding provisions for protecting children and vulnerable adults.
You will be required to work with our designated cultural sustainability partner to assess the environmental impact of the programme and calculate your carbon footprint. Further guidance and support will be provided to you once the award period begins.
The BFI National Lottery Funding Plan 2023-2026 has been developed based on full use of predicted income from National Lottery ticket sales due to BFI. In the event that receipts to BFI are lower than predicted we may have to make a pro-rated reduction across all funding plan programmes. The amount of funding that we can make available for the second or third years may therefore be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels. If we have to reduce funding for this reason we will ensure that we provide sufficient notice and work with you to modify plans accordingly.