The new Department of Health Volunteering Fund for Health and Social Care provides a combination of grant funding and support to third-sector organisations working with volunteers in the health and social care field.

Local Funding Priorities

This local grant scheme aims to support volunteering in health and social care. Awards will be made subject to applicants being connected at local level to commissioners. All successful applications will need to be able to demonstrate one or more of the following:

 

• Innovation in volunteering practice
• Clear potential to develop, for example in terms of scale of operation, delivering to a new area or in engaging new groups of volunteers
• Participation in local partnerships which may develop into more formal arrangements as part of longer-term sustainability strategies
• Capacity to embed support, deliver long-term sustainability and maximise dissemination of effective practice.

 

In addition projects will need to be applying under a theme. These are:

 

• Cross cutting theme 1: Addressing Social Care priorities – in particular the priorities from the DH strategy 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say'.
• Cross cutting theme 2: Addressing Health Inequalities - Local projects applying under this cross cutting theme will need to outline how their proposed activities will address health inequalities within their local authority and PCT area.  All applicants will need to outline how their proposed activities will address effective contribution towards Health related priorities within their area's Local Area Agreement (LAA).

 

Where there is a high level of demand, priority will be given to projects operating in areas of greatest health inequality.

Detailed information on the Volunteering Fund’s strategic priorities and how projects should be targeted can be downloaded here.

 

Guidance for local project applications

Guidance notes for local project applications can be downloaded here. This document must be read alongside the Volunteering Fund Strategic Priorities document.  The application portal for completion of proposals for the first eligible regions will be open from Monday 8 February 2010.

Eligibility Criteria
It is anticipated that between 6-8 grants of up to £35,000 over 3 years will be available in each region. This means there is a strict eligibility criteria in place that organisations should be aware of prior to applying to the fund. This includes: being a constituted third sector organization, and having key policies on equality, health and safety and safeguarding of children and adults already in place.

 

Click here to access the eligibility questionnaire to find out whether your organisation is eligible to apply for Volunteering Fund money. At this stage the questionnaire is for your information only – please do not send it back to us.

Please answer the questions honestly as only organisations meeting these initial criteria will be eligible to submit an application through the online application portal.

 

National organisations cannot apply under the local funding round. Please see third sector press for announcements of the national grants scheme later in the year.