Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - Year 4 - Monitoring and reporting summary

Section C: Learning And Reflections

TSI Feedback

• TSIs have reflected on the first three years of the Fund’s administration process and fed this learning into Year 4 delivery.
• 87% of TSIs made changes to their Fund approach in Year 4. For example, providing further support to applicants to ensure they were meeting the criteria within their applications.
• The continuing appetite for the Fund is evidenced by TSIs reporting oversubscription for a fourth year running.

Partnership Plans Summary reflections

• Local Partnership Plans indicated an increase in membership across a range of organisations, including Local Authorities (mental health), Health and Social Care Partnerships and Community Planning Partnerships. This is a positive development having been an area highlighted for consideration in Year 3 of the Fund to boost participation.
• We did not note any areas of concern in relation to the administration of funds and the support given to organisations. Many TSIs have drawn productively on learning from the first three years of the Fund, to further improve systems which were already functioning well.
• Improvements based on Year 3 learning include amending the grant distribution, amending the application timeframe, increasing support to applicants of the Fund and expanding the membership of panel representatives.
• A number of TSIs noted that the capacity of panel members was a risk. This was an area highlighted for consideration at future TSI National Network meetings.

National Guidance

The guidance document was updated to incorporate comments from TSIs and to clarify on target groups. A new target group included in Year 4 was people with neurological conditions or learning disabilities, and from neurodiverse communities.

Further amendments have been made to the National Guidance for Years 5 and 6 following feedback to provide additional clarity on certain aspects, including due diligence and Fair Work First requirements.