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Alpha

This site is an alpha version and is still being developed in the open - your feedback will help us improve it. See the roadmap. Last updated: 14 October 2026.

Version in force: 0.3.0 (6 October 2026).

Grants and schemes (proposed)

A proposed starting shape for configuring schemes, taking applications, managing agreements, checking claims and making payments.

Draft - to be confirmed

Exploratory, early work. Service patterns are starting points for discussion, not agreed designs, and have not been reviewed by the Technical Design Authority. Talk to the architecture team before building on one.

Technology capability: grants and scheme management, under Manufacturing & Delivery. Reusable grants components are still being established. Typical business capability: 07 Administer funds and grants.

Context

Defra runs many grant and payment schemes for farmers, land managers and others. Each new scheme risks becoming a new service built from scratch. Most share the same steps: check eligibility, apply, assess, agree, claim, verify, pay and sometimes recover.

Proposed shape

flowchart LR
    accTitle: Proposed grants and schemes service pattern
    accDescr: Scheme rules are configured rather than coded per scheme. Applicants use an application front end, built from reusable grants components, to check eligibility and apply, using customer identity and land data. Applications flow through events to assessment in case and workflow, then to agreements and claims. Verified claims go to payments in the finance system. Data flows to the data platform for reporting and fraud analytics.
    U(["Applicant or agent"]) --> FE["Application front end<br/>reusable grants components"]
    RULES[("Scheme configuration<br/>and rules")] --> FE
    FE --> ID["Customer identity"]
    FE --> LAND["Land and holdings data"]
    FE -->|"application events"| MSG["Messaging"]
    MSG --> ASSESS["Assessment<br/>Case and workflow"]
    ASSESS --> AGR["Agreements and claims"]
    AGR -->|"verified claims"| PAYM["Payments<br/>Finance"]
    MSG --> DP["Data platform<br/>reporting and fraud analytics"]

Questions to answer

To be confirmed

TODO: which reusable grants components exist on the Core Delivery Platform, who owns them, and how a new scheme team starts using them.

  • How are scheme rules configured, versioned and tested?
  • How do agreements, claims and payments connect to the finance system?
  • How is fraud and error risk managed across schemes?

Guardrails to pay attention to