Scaling Impactful Solutions
A staggering 4.2 million children are now living in poverty and at every stage of education, there are substantial and growing gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers. 2024 offers a unique opportunity for change, with the General Election spotlighting the need for systemic transformation.
We help effective solutions reach every child and young person who can benefit from them. We do this by nurturing new ideas that will tackle entrenched issues and scale impactful solutions to reach the young people who need them most.
Through our Awards, we take a collective approach to scaling impactful solutions. They leverage the expertise and connections of our membership, and the power of the network of 300 organisations to amplify and collaborate, enabling systemic change.
The Innovation Award
✔️ Open to anyone 👉 1 year of support 💰 £25,000 six-month salary contribution
📆 Open for applications in 2025/26
The Innovation Award, supported by Bloomberg, provides one year of hands-on support and a £25,000 six-month salary contribution for new solutions tackling educational inequality. Open to any member of the public and FEA members who want funding and training to develop, test and scale their new solution.
Our 2024 Innovation Award Winners:
Community Choice Award Winner 2024 - We are delighted to announce that our Community Choice Winner this year is The Firefly Project. The Community Choice Award Winner receives a prize of £500 to develop their initiative.
The Scaling Award
✔️ For FEA members only 👉 2.5 years of support
📆 Open for applications in 2025/26
We scale existing solutions within our member organisations that have proven impact. We provide a bespoke package of support to help Scaling Award Winners deepen their impact and accelerate their growth to areas of greatest need.
Our 2023 Scaling Award Winners:
With thanks to our Judges:
Thank you to our 46 judges and due diligence experts from across the sector who supported the selection process. We are grateful to have had the support of such a diverse group of expert judges, including those representing our member organisations e.g. ImpactEd, ASCL and Chiltern Learning Trust. We were also grateful to the wider sector for their input, with organisations such as Cambridge House, Aspiring Heads and One Degree Academy represented across the panels.
This year we were delighted to work with our Youth Steering Group as part of the selection process for the Innovation Award. They critiqued the applications at shortlisting phase, with Thomas and Angel representing the group at Shortlisting Panel and Mama and Keira as Final Judges.
Learn more about our experts for the Innovation Award here and The Scaling Award here.
With special thanks to our supporters:
THE INNOVATION AWARD IS MADE POSSIBLE DUE TO THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF BLOOMBERG
Caroline Rowley, Head of Corporate Philanthropy, Europe at Bloomberg said: “At Bloomberg, we know that innovation can play a vital role in unlocking opportunity. We’re incredibly proud of the transformative impact our partnership with the FEA has enabled, and remain committed to working alongside cross-sector partners to support impactful education programmes which drive opportunity for young people.”