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Mayor's Safer Communities Fund

The Fund provides grants to voluntary groups, charities and local partners working to prevent crime and improve safety in our neighbourhoods.

Find out how to apply for funding, connect with your local community safety partnership and see examples of successful projects making a real difference.

Click here to apply

The Mayor's Safer Communities Fund Grant Round 11 is now open

This grant round opened on Monday 9 November 2026 and closes at midday on Friday 11 December 2026. The awards evening for this round will be held on the evening of Thursday 8 April 2027.

Up to £400,000 is available in total and applicants can apply for a maximum grant of £10,000.

This grant round will support projects and interventions developed in partnership and centred on the needs, experiences and voices of victims, survivors and West Yorkshire’s communities. Further details are provided in the online application form.

Please email our Safer Communities Fund team if you have any questions.

To apply click here

How can I apply?

You can apply for a grant by completing the online application form.

Successful bidders must attend the Safer Communities Fund awards night to receive their grant.

Before starting your application, please ensure you:

Read the Guidance Notes 
Review the Terms and Conditions on this page 
Familiarise yourself with the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Plan 2024-2028

If you need copies of the Guidance Notes and Terms and Conditions documents please email our safer communities fund team.

The Mayor's Safer Communities Fund graphic

Previous rounds

Here's a summary of the organisations we supported in past rounds, with a full breakdown of projects and funding allocation.

Grant Round 10

Grant Round 9

Grant Round 8

Grant Round 7

Grant Round 6

Grant Round 5

Grant Round 4

Grant Round 3

Grant Round 2

Grant Round 1

Guidance notes

Funding rounds

Who can apply?

Voluntary and Community Groups, Charities and not-for-profit groups, West Yorkshire Local Authorities and Statutory Agencies.

Note: successful applicants to The People’s Fund, awarded June 2026 are eligible to apply to this grant round.

West Yorkshire Police employees must ensure that their application has been reviewed by the Income Development Team. This ensures that local delivery is in line with West Yorkshire Police objectives. They can also sign post you to other funding opportunities. West Yorkshire Police projects must be delivered in partnership with a Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise organisation.

Your application will not be considered if it has not been reviewed by a member of the Income Development Team, please email: incomedevelopment@westyorkshire.police.uk.

What the Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund won’t support

Private Companies, General appeals, funding for longer than 12 months, projects taking place outside West Yorkshire, pure academic research, bursaries, travel projects*, individuals, work that forms part of a statutory

requirement, food for foodbanks, refreshments including food and/or beverages, the replacement of statutory funding or retrospective grants. Long term capital projects or short-term capital projects over 12 months.

*Transport costs can be included if within West Yorkshire and as part of a wider project

**Long term capital projects are defined as those which require relatively large sums on monies to acquire, develop, improve, and/or maintain a capital asset (such as land or buildings). Short term projects which fit the fund limit and the provision that monies must be spent with a year of allocation will be considered.

Repeat or multiple applications

Applications for the same project, but which aim to cover more than one district must be submitted under one application.

You can only reapply to the fund once you have completed and returned a satisfactory evaluation and finance form.

Working with partners

Completing the online application

It is very important that you read all the information on this page before you start your application.

Tips to support your application - please read

Make sure the email addresses you provide are accurate, active and working; you must provide two different addresses or your application will be rejected. Note: This is our main method of contact.
You must not include any links to websites or supporting documents. Your application will be scored on the content alone. Applications with links will be rejected.
After progressing past page one, your application can be saved and returned to at a later date. On saving the application you will receive an email from Smart Survey. The email contains a web link that will take you back to your part finished application (please be aware that the email may be filtered into your junk mailbox).
You will have an option to print your form once you have completed the application, you should do this for your reference as you will be evaluated on this at the end of the project (if successful).
Be clear and to the point; take note of words which are underlined as they are valuable prompts as to what should be included in your answer.
Complete all required fields and stick to the word limits using them to your advantage - if you run over, the form will automatically generate an error.
Questions 3, 4 and 5 - We will map the location of projects to analyse the impact of the fund so you must be clear about the district(s) and ward(s) which your project will be working in.
Question 8, 9, 10 and 11 - When you describe your project you should provide clear evidence of the need for your project and the impact it will have in your community. Ensure you talk about the outcomes of your project, including how you will measure and deliver them.
Questions 13a and 13b - Ensure your project aligns to the cross-cutting themes and priorities/ areas of focus; you will need to explain and evidence why this is the case in Question 14. It is much better to provide strong evidence for one theme and one area of focus, than to provide weaker evidence for more.
Questions 15a, 15b, 16 and 17 - Be clear and specific about who will benefit from your project, where the project referrals are made from (if any) and give an estimate of the number of people who will be impacted.
In Questions 19 and 20, consider the amount you wish to apply for and the breakdown of these costs. Your project needs to demonstrate value for money, this could include staffing costs, venue hire etc. Your project will be compared against other similar projects.

Please note refreshments are not covered by the fund.

Make your financial information thorough, clear and easy to read - check and re-check the accuracy of any financial information and calculations before submitting your application. If you fail to provide an accurate, detailed breakdown your application will be rejected.

Example question 20 – Value up to £10,000.00

Item/resource	Quantity	Cost (per unit/resource)	Total Cost	Additional Notes (If required)
Room Hire/Rent	20hrs	£15 per hour	£300
Staffing, Session Sports Worker	20hrs	£15 per hour	£300
Volunteers expenses	20hrs	£5 per hour	£100
Art Equipment	1		£300	Paper, paint, brushes, pencils/crayons
Marketing	50 leaflets 20hrs website creation	50 x 0.5 = £25 20hrs x £15ph = £300	£325	Leaflets to promote sessions, website creation
Trip to bowling			£53	20 young people

Question 25 – Please note you must provide a copy of your safeguarding policy with your application.
In Question 27, you must declare any other funding to your project and its status.
The Policing and Crime Team can review your application once it has been started online. Once submitted the online system also provides data as to the length of time taken to complete the application submitted as well as the date and time submitted.

Understanding the application process

Child First Approach and Trauma Informed

Unsuccessful applications

Terms and conditions

Processing the grant

Using the grant

You must use any grant given for the purposes detailed and agreed in your application. The grant must not be used for any other purpose without prior written consent from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority – Policing and Crime team. If any changes to your original application were to take place throughout your project, this must be approved first by the Engagement Manager. Please refer to point 3 for further information.

Grants are allocated for a maximum 12-month term only. The applicant will need to be contactable for the duration of the grant. Grants cannot be passed to other individuals or departments without prior approval.

The applicant named on the application form (Organisation and Contact Name) is solely responsible for the project throughout the grant period, including completing the evaluation forms upon project completion.

You MUST notify the Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund Team if the person responsible for the project moves on/ leaves the organisation at the time the change takes place. The named applicant will be our point of contact to recover funding should the project not be delivered/ problems occur.

MSCF does not allow monies to be passported or subcontracted to other organisations without declaring this in your original application form. Monies from the MSCF fund cannot be given out as cash prizes. Refreshments are not eligible to be covered by the fund and must not be misrepresented under a different budget head, further information is included in the Guidance Notes document.

If you fail to comply with any of the conditions set out in the Terms and Conditions, we may require all or any part of the grant to be repaid. You must repay under this condition within 30 days of receiving the demand for repayment.

We may terminate this agreement immediately by serving a written notice on the recipient if:

The grant or any part of the grant is being used for any purpose other than the purpose set out in this Agreement.
You have been involved in any illegal activity or improper act in your administration

Changes to the project specification

Accountability

Monitoring

Publicity

Grant repayment

Special conditions

Data collection and use

We follow GDPR regulations. When you complete a Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund application, we may ask for your contact details, which could include personal information. We will only use this information for the purposes outlined in the application process.

All personal information you provide to West Yorkshire Combined Authority is stored securely. We will not share it with any external organisations (except those already mentioned) without your permission.

You can request that your details be removed once your project has finished. You also have the right to access any personal information we hold about you by writing to our Data Protection Officer at the address below.

We may send you information on news, events or alternative funding streams. If you would like to unsubscribe from this distribution you can do so by email, phone or letter. 

If you have any questions about our privacy policy please contact us at the details below:

Email: safercommunitiesfund.pc@westyorks-ca.gov.uk

Telephone: 0113 3481740
(Please leave a message and a member of our team will get back to you).

Postal address:

Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund Team,
Wellington House
40-50 Wellington Street
Leeds
LS1 2DE

The application form contains links to other sites and servers. West Yorkshire Combined Authority is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

View our privacy statement

Frequently asked questions

What is the Mayor's Safer Communities Fund?

Where does the funding come from?

I want to apply but I would like to speak to someone first

What should I do if I want to apply?

Can I save my online application and complete it later?

I have applied and received a notification, what happens next?

I've saved my application but I haven't been sent an email

How do I know if I qualify for funding?

What doesn't the Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund support?

Can I get a copy of my application form once I've submitted it?

Can I submit my Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund application using a hard copy?

How will I know if you have received my application?

I've left a message on the answerphone but no-one has got back in touch with me yet

I've submitted an application in error, can I resubmit it?

If I am unsuccessful, can I get some feedback as to why?

I have some feedback about the application process. How can I share it?

Get in touch

If you have any queries about the Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund or questions about making a bid please contact us via the details below. For a quicker response, please contact us via email.

Email: safercommunitiesfund.pc@westyorks-ca.gov.uk
Telephone: 011334 81740
Postal address:

Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund
West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Wellington House
40-50 Wellington Street
Leeds
LS1 2DE

The Mayor’s fund is financed from monies recovered by West Yorkshire Police under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 lets the police and prosecutors confiscate or recover the proceeds of crime from criminals.