The 21m Department for Education and Skills (DfES) fund, which awarded 86 projects with three years of funding earlier this month (YPN, 9-15 February, p3), has rejected bids from organisations including The Woodcraft Folk, which is set to lose 52,000 a year - a fifth of its core funding.
Jess Cawley, chair of the charity's general council, said: "We received a terse letter from the DfES claiming that the charity was 'not good value for money'. It could mean radical changes."
Also at risk is the Frontier Youth Trust's six-year-old spiritual development project, Connect, which now faces closure. Dave Wiles, chief executive of the trust, said: "The DfES said we were duplicating work by The National Youth Agency and (the work) was also too secular. The DfES is looking for reasons to axe projects, but why axe one with good Ofsted reports?"
A loss of 70,000 in funding also came as a blow to the Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade's efforts to train and accredit its 1,000 volunteer leaders.
Tony Reed Screen, general secretary of the brigade, said: "We have been trying to keep volunteer leaders' skills up to date, but they expect us to do this without funding."
A DfES spokeswoman said: "It is regrettable that not all applications received funding. Bids were assessed against national significance, quality and value for money, with a strong focus on outcomes."
