Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications to the armed forces families fund were (a) received, (b) approved and (c) declined since its launch in September 2022.
The Armed Forces Families Fund is managed and administered by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust (AFCT) on behalf of Defence who fund the scheme. Defence sets the themes for the scheme’s funding criteria, which is then delivered by the AFCT. The funding is based on financial rather than calendar years and is subject to the same annual budgetary cycle checks and assurances as all other expenditure within Defence. The first round of funding concluded in March this year and publicly available details on the applications and funding were released by the AFCT (see link: https://covenantfund.org.uk/projects-weve-supported/) which showed:
Early Years programme: 18 grants totalling £903,546
Supporting Partners programme: 12 grants totalling £483,144
Education Support programme: 54 grants totalling £2,045,593
In addition, a grant of £119,647 was awarded to SSAFA over a two-year period for the e-Redbook project.