YOUTH MUSIC: SHIFT THE SCENE FUND (ADVANCE NOTICE)
Grants over a 3-4- year period are available to organisations in England working in creative disciples with d/Deaf, Disabled, or Neurodivergent young people aged between 9 to 30 years old.
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o Application deadline: FRIDAY 28th NOVEMBER 2025. The Fund will open to applications on Friday 31st October 2025.
o Funder: The National Foundation for Youth Music (founded 1999. Charity number 1075032. Total charitable expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2024: £12,194,248 (2023: £12,551,075; 2022: £14,391,927; 2021: £12,753,630)).
o Who can apply: organisations in England working in creative disciples with d/Deaf, Disabled, or Neurodivergent young people aged between 9 to 30 years old.
o Key words: d/Deaf, Disabled, Neurodivergent and Disabled Children and Young People Aged 9-30, Improving Access to the Arts and Creative Education, England.
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Youth Music has announced a new one-off £2.25 million fund, Shift the Scene (scroll down the page for details), to improve access to the arts and creative education for disabled children and young people in England.
Youth Music is the charity that helps marginalised young people make and monetise music. Alongside the fund, it has published a report, Excluded by Design, which exposes the systemic barriers Disabled young people face when accessing the arts.
The charity already invests £1.5 million per year into music projects for disabled children, young people, and adults. However, the charity recognised that it needed to commit to providing additional support following concerning findings in the report which revealed that disabled young people:
o Participate less in the arts than their non-disabled peers
o Have shorter-term engagement
o Are less likely to be involved in community-based activity outside of the home, and are more likely to think there are not enough clubs and activities in their local area, and
o Are far less likely to be employed in the arts.
Shift the Scene will fund creative opportunities for disabled young people, pushing for “genuine inclusion, ambition and accessibility”. Through advocacy, creativity, and community, Youth Music is looking for organisations to ‘shift the scene’ and create spaces where disabled voices lead.
Grants will be made to organisations for work that is sustained over a 3-4-year period. Opportunities can be funded across all art forms, not just music.
The Fund is for organisations that:
o Work across any creative discipline – not just music. Youth Music envisages funding a couple of music projects, but music will not be the majority focus of this fund.
o Are already actively work with Disabled people across all parts of their organisation (i.e. as participants, volunteers, freelancers, and staff).
o Have built trust with Disabled people.
o Are anti-ableist, advocate for the rights of Disabled people, and operate in line with the social model of disability.
o Can amplify young Disabled voices and already have established ways of co-creating with Disabled young people.
o Are ambitious, who want to push boundaries within their creative practice, with Disabled young people’s creative ambitions at the heart.
o Prioritise Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access. In particular, those who design-in access from the start, and think about diversity and inclusion through an intersectional lens.
o Prioritise participant and staff wellbeing and safety.
o Actively reflect on what they do, and are open to learning and change, and
o Have strong partnerships in place. One element of the programme criteria will be the development of partnerships for progression.
Grants can be used for:
o Community-based, long-term creative programmes for d/Deaf, Disabled, or Neurodivergent young people aged between 9 to 30 years old (please note that individual projects do not need to work with people across the whole age range but the final funded portfolio will include a mix of projects that work across all those ages).
o Those that provide a broad range of opportunities that are tailored to individual needs. That include different ways for participants to get involved, provide pathways into creative careers if desired, and offer 1:1 support and mentoring.
o Work that is co-produced in genuine partnership with young people, ensuring they have real power, choice, and agency throughout the process.
o Work that gives financial support or agency to Disabled people, for example through paid employment, bursaries, or micro-grants; or a say in how programme budgets are put together.
o Programmes that have good representation of Disabled people on the delivery team, and
o Partnerships that support young people’s creative progression and integration.
Funding is not available for:
o Individuals.
o New organisations.
o Organisations in Scotland and Wales.
o One-off or short-term projects, or
o Organisations that don’t have a track record of creative work with disabled young people.
The application guidance and application form questions will be published on Wednesday 1st October 2025. You can sign up at this LINK to receive a copy as soon as the guidance goes live.
Key dates for the Fund are:
1. Fund opens: Friday 31st October 2025.
2. Deadline for applications: Friday 28th November 2025.
3. Successful applicants notified by: Friday 27th March 2026.
Further information is available on the Youth Music website (you’ll need to scroll down the page to access the information about the Shift the Scene Fund).
Contact details for Youth Music are:
The Grants and Learning Team
The National Foundation for Youth Music
Suites 3-5 Swan Court
9 Tanner Street
London
SE1 3LE
Tel: 020 7902 1060
Email: grants@youthmusic.org.uk