7 Public Sector Grant Software Factors for 2026

This guide is written for UK councils and public funding bodies. If you are procuring for an Irish public body, the accountability and procurement rules are different, so use the companion Ireland guide instead.

Most councils and public funding bodies do not start with software. They start with a spreadsheet, a shared inbox and a review meeting, and it works until the number of schemes grows, the audit questions get harder, and a key member of staff leaves with the process in their head.

By 2026 the pressure comes from two directions at once. Grant volumes are rising on flat budgets, and the rules around fairness, transparency and accessibility are more explicit than they were five years ago. The National Audit Office estimates that good grant management could save up to 4% of a scheme’s value, worth up to £1.9 billion a year across government based on 2022-23 figures (National Audit Office). Central government grant spending is not a rounding error either: around £155.6 billion, roughly 14% of total expenditure, went out as grants in 2022-23 (ICAEW).

So the question is not whether to move off spreadsheets. It is which system to trust with public money and a public audit trail. Here are the seven factors that should decide it.

1. Can it prove governance to the Grants Functional Standard?

GovS 015, the Grants Functional Standard, sets out how UK central government and its arm’s length bodies are expected to manage grants, from design through to closure, with clear governance, decision records and assurance at each step (GOV.UK). Councils are not always formally bound by it, but funders that channel money through local authorities increasingly expect the same discipline.

In practice, that means the software has to remember things people forget. Who approved this award. Which version of the form the applicant completed. When the eligibility check was signed off. If that history lives across three inboxes and a spreadsheet, you do not have an audit trail, you have a reconstruction project.

Buyer test: could you produce the complete history of a single application, from submission to award, without leaving the system?

2. Does it capture what subsidy control asks you to publish?

The Subsidy Control Act 2022 changed what public authorities have to record when they give financial support. Many awards must go on the subsidy transparency database, and awards given as Minimal Financial Assistance or under the SPEIA rules have to be uploaded where they exceed £100,000, within three months of the decision (GOV.UK).

That deadline is where spreadsheets quietly fail. The award value is easy to find. The exact date the decision was confirmed, the recipient’s details in the right format, the scheme reference: those are the fields people scramble for months later.

Buyer test: can the system tell you the decision date and export the subsidy fields in one step, or will someone rebuild the record from emails?

3. Will it produce your transparency and audit reports?

Reporting is where public sector grant management differs most from the private sector. The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires councils to publish spending over £500 and contracts over £5,000, as regularly updated and reusable data (GOV.UK).

Beyond the Code, any award can later face a freedom of information request or an internal audit. The real question is whether you can answer with an export in minutes, or a manual trawl over days.

Buyer test: could you satisfy the Transparency Code, a freedom of information request or an audit with an export, rather than a manual trawl?

4. Does it meet accessibility and Welsh language duties?

If your applicants include disabled people or Welsh speakers, accessibility and language are not optional extras. Public sector digital services in the UK must meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard and publish an accessibility statement (GOV.UK). In Wales, the Welsh Language Standards require Welsh to be treated no less favourably than English in digital services (Welsh Government).

A translated PDF does not clear this bar. What clears it is an applicant portal a screen reader can navigate and a form an applicant can complete end to end in Welsh. Submit.com supports in-form switching across English, Welsh and other languages, so one build can serve more than one language community.

When you assess a vendor, ask for their accessibility statement and the conformance level they test against, rather than taking the word “accessible” at face value.

Buyer test: can an applicant finish the whole form in Welsh, and will the vendor show you their accessibility statement?

5. Can you buy it through a compliant procurement route?

A product you cannot buy compliantly is not really on the shortlist. Cloud software like this is usually called off through the G-Cloud framework, which avoids a full tender, while the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, now governs most other public contracts (Local Government Association).

Submit.com is available on G-Cloud, which lets UK public bodies procure without starting from scratch.

Buyer test: is the product on a framework you can call off from, and does the vendor understand your procurement rules?

6. Does it let you defend every funding decision?

Public money invites scrutiny, and the hardest question at audit is usually not how much you spent but how you decided. Audit bodies are consistent on this: no one should approve their own claim, assessors should declare conflicts of interest, and the reasoning behind an award should survive a freedom of information request (Northern Ireland Audit Office).

This is where role-based permissions and separation of duties earn their place. The software should stop a reviewer scoring an application they are connected to, support blind or anonymised review so bias is harder to introduce, and record weighted scoring so the reasoning behind a decision stays visible later.

Buyer test: can you stop the wrong person marking the wrong application, and can you show both the score and the reasoning behind an award months later?

7. Where will your data live, and can the vendor prove it is secure?

Your information governance team will ask two questions before anyone signs: where is the data, and can the vendor prove it is handled properly. UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 do not force data to stay in the UK, but they do regulate transfers, and public bodies increasingly want UK or EEA hosting and clear answers on who can access the data (GOV.UK security guidance).

Certifications are the shorthand here. Submit.com holds SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, Cyber Essentials and GDPR compliance, and is an AWS Technology Partner. Ask any vendor to tell you exactly where data is stored and to show current certificates, not expired ones.

Buyer test: can the vendor state where your data lives and produce in-date security certifications on request?

The seven factors mapped to what to check

Swipe left or right to see the full table on mobile.

None of these factors is about chasing the longest feature list. They are about being able to stand behind a decision when someone asks. A spreadsheet cannot do that on its own. A grant management system built for public bodies can, provided you check it against the seven factors above before you buy or renew.

Frequently asked questions

What is grant management software?

Grant management software is a system that runs the full grant life cycle in one place: application intake, eligibility checks, review and scoring, award decisions, payments and reporting. For public sector teams it replaces spreadsheets and email with a single record that captures who decided what, and when.

Do UK councils have to follow the Grants Functional Standard?

The Grants Functional Standard, GovS 015, sets the mandatory expectations for managing grants across UK central government and its arm’s length bodies. Many councils and public funding bodies apply it as good practice, and grant funders that pass money to local authorities often expect the same governance, decision records and assurance.

What must UK councils publish about the grants they award?

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires councils to publish spending over £500 and contracts over £5,000 as regularly updated data. Separately, qualifying subsidies must be recorded on the subsidy transparency database under the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Does grant management software need to support Welsh?

If you serve Welsh speakers, yes. Welsh Language Standards require Welsh to be treated no less favourably than English in digital services, so a form an applicant can complete end to end in Welsh meets the duty better than a translated PDF.

Is spreadsheet-based grant tracking still compliant?

A spreadsheet can hold data, but it cannot prove a fair decision, control who saw what, or produce a reliable audit trail on demand. As transparency, subsidy and accessibility duties tighten, most public sector teams find spreadsheets and shared inboxes hard to defend at audit, which is the main reason they move to a grant management system.