Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: year 2 - monitoring and reporting summary

Executive Summary

Introduction and Background

Funding: In October 2021, as part of the £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund to support the delivery of the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, the Minister for Mental Wellbeing announced £15 million funding for 2021/22 for a new Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults (the Fund) to help tackle the impact of social isolation, loneliness and mental health inequalities made worse by the pandemic.

In February 2022, an additional £6 million was provided for 2021/2022 to the Fund to meet the demand for local mental health and wellbeing projects, bringing total funding made available in 2021-22 to £21 million.

On 6 May 2022, a further £15 million of funding for 2022/23 (Year 2) was announced, with a particular focus on responding to the cost of living crisis and an increased emphasis on those facing socio-economic disadvantage. This report relates to the delivery of Year 2 funding.

In April 2023, it was formally announced by the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Sport that £15 million for a third year of the Fund would be made available for 2023/24.

Aims: The Fund is aimed at tackling priority issues within the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan - such as suicide prevention, social isolation and loneliness, prevention and early intervention - and addressing the mental health inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and the cost crisis including a particular focus on needs of ‘at risk’ target groups locally such as:

• Women (particularly women and young women affected by gender based sexual violence)
• People with a long term health condition or disability
• People at higher risk from COVID
• People from a minority ethnic background
• Refugees and those with no recourse to public funds
• People facing socio-economic disadvantage
• People experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage, people with diagnosed mental illness
• People affected by psychological trauma (including adverse childhood experiences)
• People who have experienced bereavement or loss
• People disadvantaged by geographical location (particularly remote and rural areas)
• Older people (aged 50 and above)
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTQI+ ) communities.

Delivery: The Fund is being delivered through a locally focused and co-ordinated approach via Local Partnership Groups working together and building upon existing partnerships to ensure that support to community based organisations is directed appropriately and in a coherent way. Each regional Third Sector Interface (TSI) has overall accountability for the spend at local level and for working in collaboration with Integration Authorities and other existing local partners. Each TSI leads in the coordination of the local plan and undertakes fund administration, capacity building support and local monitoring and evaluation.

This summary outlines a national-level analysis of local monitoring and reporting data for Year 2 funding, provided by TSIs in their capacity as the lead partner for the delivery of the Fund.

Key Findings: Reach of funded projects

• Number of awards: 1458 grants have been awarded in Year 2 which has resulted in funding for 1441 organisations. This means that 3233 awards have been made across the first two years of the Fund.
• Balance of new and existing projects: It is clear that there has been a good balance achieved between sustaining Year 1 funded projects whilst also investing in new work. Of the project data returned, 38% were entirely new projects, 42% were existing projects (previous Fund grantee) and 20% were existing projects (previously in existence but new to the Communities Fund).
• Small grants: The majority (59%) of grants awarded were for grants of £10,000 or less, with only 0.1% of awards for grants of over £50,000. Year 2 has seen an increase in grants of between £10,000 - £20,000.
• Local organisations: All funding was delivered locally and the types of organisations delivering the work were mostly local organisations who operate at either locality or local authority/TSI level (83%).
• Smaller organisations: Most funding (89%) went to either small or medium sized organisations, with incomes less than £1 million. This is very much in line with the overall ethos of the Fund.
• Diverse: A wide range of types of community mental health and wellbeing projects have been funded with an increase in those focused around group activities and peer support. These and many other projects highlight the strong themes of community connection, social interaction and preventative approaches. Other projects focus on sport and exercise, nature, social spaces, art, befriending groups as well as therapeutic approaches and many more. Annexes A and B of the report provide a rich set of project examples.
• Target groups and priority issues
  • Targeting: 48% of projects were aimed at general population, with 28% open to all but with a focus on particular target groups and 23% aimed directly at particular target groups.
  • Spread: Awards were made to projects focused on a range of the Fund’s target groups as well as many others identified locally such as carers.
  • The most commonly target groups were: people facing socio-economic disadvantage (684), people with a long-term health condition or disability (548), older people (479), people with diagnosed mental illness (406), people disadvantaged by geographical location (particularly remote and rural areas) (277).
  • The least commonly target groups were: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and Intersex (LGBTQI+) communities (112), Refugees and those with no recourse to public funds (143), People at higher risk from COVID (190). It is positive to see the actions taken by TSIs to help reach target groups (see the Process section). It will be important for Year 3 of the Fund to further improve the accessibility of the Fund to these and all groups.
• Priority themes Overall, there is very strong coverage across the fund priorities, with prevention and early intervention, social isolation and loneliness, and tackling poverty and inequality the most prominent. Suicide prevention continues to be a focus for some, but is less commonly cited.
  • Prevention and early intervention are a focus of all projects, with 923 projects citing both of these themes.
  • Social isolation and loneliness was a strong theme, with 1239 projects including a focus on this
  • Tackling poverty and inequality (an increased focus in year 2 to in response to the cost of living crisis) was the focus of 723 projects, and a shared theme of many others.
  • Suicide prevention is the least common theme to be adopted (with 299 having this as a sole focus although many included this as a shared theme)
  • Additional local priorities were noted such as improved community resilience and learning and personal development.

Overall, there is very strong coverage across the fund priorities, with prevention and early intervention, social isolation and loneliness, and tackling poverty and inequality the most prominent. Suicide prevention continues to be a focus for some, but is less commonly cited.

Key Findings: Process – Fund delivery approach

• Local partnership plans: Overall, Local Partnership Plans showed a clear progression from Year 1 planning, with TSIs building positively on existing partnership arrangements and their approach to managing the Fund.
• Fund management: Positive feedback was provided by TSIs on the effectiveness of their Fund management, with challenges similar to the first year, with time, competing demands and resource restraints being the most common issues.
• Reflection from Year 1: TSIs have built on the experience of delivering Year 1 of the Fund, leading to a range of improvements such as changing the structure of the Fund (including use of tiers of funding), the size of grants (with many opting for more use of smaller grants) as well as changes to application approaches and capacity building support.
• Value of the administration and capacity building grant: A range of uses and benefits of this grant provided to TSIs have been highlighted. It has ensured the Fund has been managed effectively, and meets its aims around accessibility to small grassroots organisations who are often less experienced in applying for funding. Key uses are staff employment, training and support to applicants and awardees, fund promotion, software and expenses to involve those with lived experience.
• Partnership working: This has been strengthened over the course of the second year of the Fund, with a broadening range of partners involved, including 100% involvement of local Health and Social Care Partnerships. Challenges to effective local partnership working were very similar to last year, with time, competing demands and resource restraints being the most common issues.
• Lived experience: An improved approach to lived experience has developed over Year 2, with 100% involving those with lived experience of mental health and wellbeing in the implementation of the Fund and 81% specifically involving this group in the local partnership groups.
• Reaching target groups: The report provides a range of good practice in actions taken by TSIs to reach target groups, with TSIs building on work undertaken in Year 1. As well as improving accessibility to the Fund overall, a key development has been in the more targeted approaches to ensuring specific target groups are supported.
• Equalities considerations of funded projects: There is some encouraging feedback from projects about their consideration of accessibility and inclusion, with a wide variety of actions such as raising awareness of the services, physical accessibility and transport, and providing inclusive, affordable spaces. The most common groups which accessibility measures targeted were people with socio-economic disadvantage, people with long-term conditions/disabilities, older people (50+) and women. Some good examples of accessible projects and those considering human rights and intersectionality are detailed in the main report.

Key Findings: Learning and Reflections

• TSI feedback: TSIs have reflected well on the Year 1 Fund administration process and fed this learning into Year 2 processes. It is encouraging to see the range of positive comments that were made around Year 2 guidance and the support provided by the National TSI Network meetings. TSIs have provided a range of constructive comments around the need for further clarity and earlier guidance, as well as process improvements on reporting which can be used to directly inform Year 3 guidance and monitoring requirements.
• Next Steps: For Year 3 of the Fund, it will be important to build on the successes of Year 1 and 2 such as the development of sustainable partnerships and the good practice shown in terms of TSI capacity building support to less experienced applicants.