Overview
Grants for charitable organisations receiving/wishing to receive referrals through the designated NHS Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programmes across the North East and North Cumbria to address financial and cost of living issues experienced by individuals whilst waiting for planned surgery. The Fund will be run as a pilot project and its delivery will help to identify unmet needs and inform future priorities for support.
Context
There are five place-based Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programmes across the Northeast and North Cumbria: County Durham, North Integrated Care Partnership, North Cumbria, Sunderland & South Tyneside and Tees Valley. Each Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programme provides individualised packages of support to individuals awaiting planned surgery, such as hip or knee replacement, who are identified as either:
1) Living in the top 20% of most deprived areas in the region and who are impacted by other issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, a high BMI or are struggling to reduce smoking.
OR
2) Having a learning disability.
Packages of support focus on improving an individual’s preparation for surgery and post operative outcomes and include: a health assessment, holistic assessment of social needs/social prescribing and access to activities to support mental and physical wellbeing. Not all patients waiting for planned surgery are eligible for support. Those patients eligible for support are designated by and contacted specifically by the NHS.
The Waiting Well/Preparing Well Fund has been set-up as a pilot project to complement these programmes and to address gaps in support provision for eligible patients, particularly relating to financial concerns and cost of living impacts. Use of the funded services will be by referral only. Learning from the delivery of this Fund will inform future delivery models and funding decisions.
Patients will be referred, in general, to funded third sector organisations directly from the holistic assessment/social prescribing element of the Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programme delivery and funded groups will need to develop strong relationships with referrers.
Donor
North of England Care System Support (NECS), hosted by NHS England
Who can apply?
• charitable, not-for-profit organisations
It is anticipated that successful organisations will either be:
• already linked to local providers of Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programmes
• happy to build strong links with Programme staff undertaking holistic assessments/social prescribing to support and enable referrals (costs for dedicated time to developing relationships should be considered as part of the project approach).
Project examples:
• providing advice and help with budgeting, managing money and claiming benefits
• providing support to access food, equipment and energy poverty services
• providing advice and help to access small emergency grants for household equipment, travel costs etc.
What the Fund will not support in addition to our normal exclusions:
• individuals
How much can you apply for?
Grants will normally be up to £5,000 over 12 months.
Partnership applications are welcome and larger grant awards may be considered. Groups wishing to apply in partnership or who would like to discuss a potential application should contact the Foundation before applying.
Organisations already funded through the wider Waiting Well/Preparing Well Programme may apply to deliver additional provision that meets the criteria of this fund.
Timeline
Applications should be received no later than 29th September 2023
Projects should be prepared to roll out projects from November 2023
Applicants will be notified of funding outcome by 31st October 2023
Monitoring requirements
To effectively demonstrate impact, successful applicants will need to report numbers of referrals received, referrers worked with, numbers of people supported, estimated financial gain through benefits claimed and provision of anonymised case studies.
Reporting: interim project report due 30th May 2024 and final project report due 30th November 2024.
If you would like to know more about this fund please contact:
Sarah Thompson on 01900 820821 or email sarah@cumbriafoundation.org
Please refer to FAQs for additional information.