FAQs

The project aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged children. Building on the experience gained with twenty pilot schools during 2020-2021, INEOS committed to donate £20,000 per year to an additional 80 UK primary schools for three years.

INEOS would like to help schools to ameliorate the effects of deprivation on the children in their school.  We believe that headteachers are best placed to know how deprivation affects children in their school, collectively and individually, and the funds must be spent in ways which will have a positive impact on the children’s lives.

That is not the main concern for us.  We want to see schools take steps to help disadvantaged children in ways which will make a difference to their lives.

We understand that this may help to improve attainment but it is not what the project is focused on and we will not measure it.

INEOS is the UK’s largest privately-owned company and it is providing all the funding for this project. It also sponsors other charitable initiatives in schools, such as The Daily Mile, which we hope participating schools may be interested in.

Unfortunately, the 100 schools have now been chosen and there is no capacity for further schools to come onboard. However we welcome other schools to engage with the project and its learnings, and we have presented case studies of some of the initiatives on this website.

All of the 100 schools are located in areas of the country with high levels of deprivation. 

After applying a range of criteria, your school was selected by the project team as being one of the most eligible for support.

A single payment of £20,000 will be made each year once the project team has approved the school’s proposal. The gift should be regarded as being over and above any other funding received by the school and placed in a ring-fenced account.

We expect all spending decisions to be the responsibility of the headteacher, acting within the guidance set out in the Handbook. 

We would like to see a wide range of initiatives and interventions implemented over the course of the project – all with the focus of ameliorating the impact of poverty. In consultation with headteachers of schools across the country serving areas of high deprivation, the project team identified four main areas in which funding is most likely to have a significant impact – Enrichment & Life Experiences; Family Support; Food and Fuel; and Nurture and Mental Health – but these are not exhaustive and we hope to see many innovative ideas emerge during the project.

The funding should not be spent on capital projects or on mainstream staff salaries.

You are free to introduce as many initiatives as you feel are required for your children. 

During the pilot, schools usually identified between three and six initiatives.

This will be expected in a return from the school.  Guidance on how to do this can be found in the Handbook. In managing the account, good practice guidelines must be followed.

Each headteacher has been allocated a specific member of the project team to be your contact, answer your questions and to offer advice.  All of the team have a background in schools and education. We will speak regularly with each headteacher and catch up with how things are going.

There will be a newsletter, website and annual conference which will allow all schools to share their ideas.

We are very keen to hear what you, the children, staff and families have to say about the impact of your initiatives. Details of the returns we require are to be found in the Handbook.

Yes, we will collate everyone’s opinions and experiences as well as share good practice with other schools.  We will ask you what worked well for you and what might be changed in future years.