HPC Community Fund: Youth Pathways Partnership

Communities near Hinkley Point C already have real strengths: young people have access to education, training and skills opportunities that surpass most of the country including over 1,700 apprentices, mostly in the Southwest through HPC. Our aim with Youth Pathways is to help more young people take up these unique opportunities, and to build on that strength at a time when young people across Somerset and the UK are under new pressure.

Across stakeholder interviews and community research, young people came up as one of the most consistent priorities. Most interviewees flagged the need for ongoing investment in activities, services and support for children and young people. You can read the full report here.

These barriers aren’t unique to areas near HPC, and living close to a nuclear power station under construction brings its own pressures. That’s why we’re introducing Youth Pathways: to help young people make the most of the opportunities already here, while tackling what’s standing in the way.

Rather than organisations applying individually for separate, short-term funding, we’re bringing together a number of key partners to deliver a joined-up pathway for young people across the area. Working together, we want partners to address:

1. A sense of belonging

• Safe, regular places to meet, including support for young people who struggle to travel to activities outside their local area.
• Mentors who help young people build relationships with people outside their usual circle, including trusted adults and potential employers.
• Regular music, art and creative sessions, that young people choose to take part in and that also open the door to skills support, mentoring and mental health help.

2. Confidence and life skills development

• Confidence-building and life skills support that helps young people take their next step, whatever that looks like for them.
• Help with transport so that young people can access training, education or employment opportunities.
• Direct routes into apprenticeships and local jobs, plus flexible options for young people for whom mainstream education hasn’t worked.

3. Mental health support

• Everyday mental health support built into normal youth work, not only through referral to clinical services.
• Peer support, with young people trained to support each other.
• Specialised support for young people, including support tailored to specific needs.

This list shouldn’t be seen as limiting. This is what we’ve heard from the research and consultation conclusion in 2025 but this should be seen as the starting point for a partnership approach.

As part of the application stage, partnerships should define which ages are the priority for this work.

We want a number of voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE)organisations to come together that have shared values to support young people. We’d like to see organisations of different sizes be part of this partnership and we expect most of them to be Somerset-based groups, already working on the ground in communities experiencing the intangible and residual impacts of HPC.

Key priority areas should include:

• Bridgwater.
• Burnham and Highbridge.
• Dowsborough LCN area. 

The Youth Pathways Partnership has been designed to hand over resource and trust to organisations working with young people to support the best outcomes. We expect to have one organisation act as the accountable body for the partnership who will need to meet our due diligence checks and manage agreements with other organisations involved. The accountable body will also hold the monitoring responsibilities for the partnership.

Partnerships are being asked to first submit an expression of interest (EOI), which will be shortlisted against the following criteria. Please note: we’ll use the scoring system as part of our assessment with score 4 being the highest.

There will be 3 stages to the Youth Pathways Partnership:

1. Expression of interest

Proposed partnerships first need to submit an EOI, which asks you to outline who is involved, what you think you might deliver, and why you’re well placed to deliver it.

2. Development stage

Up to 3 proposed partnerships will be shortlisted using our criteria and invited to further develop the approach. A grant of up to £10,000 will be offered to support the development of the partnership. We will work with your partnership to define how best a development grant could be used. For example:

• Review any governance requirements from the accountable body.
• Identify any skills and/or training needed within the partnership.
• Work with young people to define their vision and outcomes from this funding.
• Support and define the monitoring model of the partnership.

3. Partnership submission, assessment and decision (HPC Community Fund Panel)

Following the development stage, we’ll ask partnerships to submit their full proposal and budget for the HPC Community Fund Panel to review.

We’re inviting partnership groups to submit an EOI outlining their approach to the priorities of the Youth Pathways Partnership.

Following an EOI submission we’ll get in touch to meet with the partnership organisations as part of our assessment with informal interviews.

At EOI stage we aren’t asking for a full breakdown of the partnership, just an outline of who is involved, who will be the accountable body, key delivery areas and an outline of how you’ll engage with young people as part of the process.

Please note: The window for expressions of interest has now closed. We’ll announce the successful partnership in early 2027.

If you have any questions, please email: amelia.thompson@somersetcf.org.uk