VCSE Early help alternatives to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) - provision Grant

Background

In 2016 all areas across the United Kingdom introduced a Local Transformation Plan (LTP) to support children and young people’s emotional and mental health needs. Every year the local transformation plan has been refreshed.

In 2020 Dorset’s LTP was reviewed in terms of progress made. As a result a comprehensive Health Needs Assessment was undertaken by Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and in consultation with young people and statutory partners in Dorset a Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Strategy was developed to continue the transformation. The comprehensive Health Needs Assessment made a number of recommendations. Of particular relevance to this grant were the following:

• understanding increased risk to wellbeing and mental health present in adolescence (including increased rates of risk-behaviours, health, healthy weight)
• understanding the influence of protective factors, specifically during adolescence and young adulthood, such as education/training/employment and those which may decline such as physical activity, healthy eating and sleep
• establish effective mechanisms in identifying and supporting children whose behaviours increase the risk of persistent absence or exclusion to reduce wider impacts on children and young people (primary as well as secondary settings)
• continued development of whole-school approach, working together with MHST schools counselling and educational psychology services, to maximise effectiveness in improving wellbeing and resilience

The strategy also recognises there are a number of Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations who do brilliant work with children and young people to enhance their skills, build their confidence and provide them with the ability to grow, develop and thrive. We want to tap into that sector’s expertise to improve outcomes, generate innovation and develop best practice approaches. Our aim is to demonstrate approaches that work through robust evaluation.

Funding available

Dorset Council, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council together with Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group have agreed to utilise £495,000 of non-recurrent funding for the purposes of this grant fund for the financial year 2022/23 and 2023/24. 

The maximum individual grant that will be made available is £82,500 to cover the whole of this two year period.

This grant is available to VCSE organisations working pan Dorset with whom we wish to build partnerships with, this is in order to provide evidence-based support interventions and work to improve children and young people’s mental health and help them to develop coping skills. The overarching aim is to provide an alternative support and personalised programme for children and young people which prevents them from reaching crisis point.

Aims of the fund

We are hoping to fund a small number of VCSE’s support and personalised programmes across Dorset. Programmes who are already working with children and young people up to the age of 18, or up to age 25 for those with SEND around emotional wellbeing and mental health issues.

Grant funding can only be used to help cover the direct costs of delivering a programme of intervention i.e. staff costs, equipment, consumables, travel etc.

Priority aims of the grant funding:

• to support
  • children and young people who need a programme of alternative support and are outside of the current core CAMHS threshold
  • young people who would benefit from NHS CAMHS interventions but need support in order to prepare them to attend  CAMHS
  • to the development of support skills, confidence and coping strategies in young people at risk
• to Increase access to mental health and emotional wellbeing support for young people across Dorset
• to reduce the number of children and young people who experience crisis, because through the delivery of early help intervention they have built personal resilience and, learned other ways of coping and thereby do not reach crisis point

Our desired outcomes for the grant

Your programme will deliver support intervention(s) that make a positive impact or difference to a child or young person and evidence the following outcomes:

• improved emotional wellbeing and mental health resilience
• improved relationships, self-belief and self-confidence
• reduction in problematic behaviour through learning other coping skills
• improved attendance, participation and learning in school

By achieving these outcomes we expect your programme  to contribute to the delivery the following: 

• reduction in the number of children young people waiting for CAMHS interventions
• identified young people learning skills that builds their confidence and develop coping mechanisms/strategies
• reduce the number of young people requiring CAMHS because of an early help offer
• reduction in the number of young people who present to emergency services due to their mental health

Who can apply 

The fund is available to VCSE organisations that operate within Dorset and their programme will benefit children and young people resident in Dorset.

Organisations who can apply are:

• constituted organisations
• non-profit making organisations operated with no undue restriction on membership, for example charities
• charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs)
• community interest companies (CICs); we will only fund CICs with a minimum of 3 directors, two of whom must be unrelated. We need to see a clear 'asset lock' statement, memorandums and articles of association
• company limited by guarantee (not for profit)
• Collaborative bids can be made by a partnership of organisations with a written partnership agreement and all requirements of the grant funding process can be met

Grant eligibility

We are seeking VCSE organisations that:

• are already experienced providers supporting children and young people with emotional wellbeing and mental health challenges, that if left might need CAHMS intervention in the longer term
• have an evidence base for successful interventions and are able to fully participate in the evaluation of their approaches in terms of building a business case for future sustainability
• can offer trauma informed approaches within the interventions delivered even if not using that language

You can only apply for the Alternative to CAMHS grant fund once within the financial year 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, however the grant period is for two years, which will commence from the date the grant is issued. The grant must be fully spent within this two-year period during which it is expected that providers will fully engage in the evaluation of impact and efficacy of interventions being delivered.

If your organisation is revenue funded by Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, Dorset Council, or Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council you may apply for funding provided your organisation can demonstrate how the grant funding will add value or enhances both your organisation's capacity to reach more children and young people and increases  social impact.

Organisations must be able to demonstrate a clear financial need for this grant funding and how this  will be utilised to support the delivery of alternative interventions to CAHMS.

What we will fund

We will fund interventions that are available to children and young people Pan-Dorset (i.e. the areas covered by both Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council and Dorset Council) :

• provide mental health and emotional wellbeing support for young people
• deliver support to young people who need a programme of support but do not meet core CAMHS threshold  
• deliver support to young people who would benefit from NHS CAMHS interventions but need support in order to attend CAMHS
• develop support skills, confidence and coping mechanisms in young people at risk
• support young people to learn ad develop coping mechanisms, leading to a reduction or prevention in crisis situations

How to apply

Application evaluation process

Officers from Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, Dorset Council, Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group and Public Health Dorset will undertake an initial evaluation of applications, shortlist, review, assess and make recommendations for funding via a Grant Panel. The Grant Panel will consist of :

• Claire Shiels – Corporate Director of Commissioning and Partnerships Dorset Council
• Sarah Langdale Interim Head of Children’s Commissioning  Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council
• Elaine Hurll  Principal Programme Lead Mental Health Primary and Community Care Directorate Dorset CCG

Each member of the grant evaluation panel will screen the applications to ensure fairness.

Where a conflict of interest occurs the relevant officer or representative will not take part in the assessment and the conflict of interest will be recorded.

Commissioning staff within Dorset Council and BCP Council and Public Health Dorset will put forward an assessment summary of all eligible and shortlisted applications with officer recommendations to be considered by the grant panel. The recommendation by the commissioning staff is for guidance only.

The Panel will assess each application against the funding award criteria and the scoring matrix (detailed below) to evaluate and prioritise awards.

Decisions will be made by a majority vote. Where there is no majority the Dorset Clinical Commissioning representative will have the deciding vote. The panel decision is final and there is no appeal.

The scoring matrix is at the end of this information and provided for information purposes

If an organisation withdraws their application after the panel decision has been made, the Chair, in consultation with the other panel members, can agree to award the grant to another organisation.

Any decision to amend the award if an organisation has changed, or new information comes to light that affects the application, this will be considered by the Commissioning staff and Panel Chair, in consultation with other panel members as appropriate.

Timescales

Key dates:

• grant opens Monday 25 April 2022
• applications must be received by 12 Noon on Friday 20 May 2022
• grant evaluation and screening by commissioning staff 23 to 27 May 2022
• grant panel meets 23 May to 8 June 2022
• final checking 8 to 10 June 2022
• funding decisions communicated Monday 13 June 2022

Scoring matrix

Applications will be scored according to the following criteria being demonstrated:

Experience

• experience provider can demonstrate in supporting children and young people with emotional wellbeing and mental health challenges, that if left might need CAHMS intervention in the longer term
• demonstration of provider’s ability to offer trauma informed approaches within the interventions delivered even if not using that language

Evidence base and evaluation

• the evidence base that can be demonstrated for successful interventions
• demonstration of provider’s ability to fully participate in the evaluation of their approaches

Delivery of outcomes

• improved emotional wellbeing and mental health
• improved relationships, self-belief and self-confidence
• reduction in problematic behaviour through enabling confidence and  learning other coping skills
• improved attendance, participation and learning in school/college 

Financial support required

• the need for financial support for delivery of the intervention ( financial plan submitted) giving:
  • overview of how money will be used (majority on increased service delivery
  • breakdown of costs with clear explanation of  how unit cost of intervention is calculated
  • Volume of interventions that can be delivered in the two-year funding period
• Any additional funding from other sources available to supplement grant provided

Implementation plan

• submission of an implementation plan
• how soon can the first funded intervention be delivered following grant award

Due diligence

• organisation is
  • democratically managed and has a written constitution
  • has a bank statement and at least one year’s worth of accounts (not less than 12 months old)
• confirmation of Insurances in place:
  • public liability
  • employers liability
• confirmation of policies in place and available for inspection if requested
  • safeguarding
  • safer Recruitment
  • equalities
  • environment and sustainable practice
  • GDPR and data protection

Scoring

• 5 - exceeds the requirement
• 3 - meets the requirement
• 1 - partially meets the requirement
• 0 - fails to meet the requirement

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions for all awards are:  

• the grant can be claimed in full prior to delivery of the first intervention under this funding. To claim the grant the recipient must accept all the terms and conditions of the grant offer and complete all sections of the declaration
• If there is a significant material change made to the intervention being delivered you must consult with Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, failure to do so may result in part or all of the grant awarded having to be returned
• applicants will be required to submit a frequency delivery report, including but not limited to:
  • numbers of interventions delivered broken down by age, protected characteristics
  • outcomes achieved
  • minimum of two in depth case studies
  • a comprehensive record of the feedback from young people on the intervention received

• applicants will be asked to sign a standard grant agreement with full details of their grants award including terms and conditions
• applications must be submitted on the online form provided by Dorset Council
• applicants will need to demonstrate and evidence impact of the intervention in relation to the intended beneficiaries and whether their intervention helped in a way that meant that input from CAHMS was no longer needed:
  • improved relationships and self-belief and self-confidence
  • reduction in problematic behaviour through learning other coping skills
  • improved attendance, participation and learning in school
• decisions made by the Grants Panel for the spending of this S256 funding are final. There is no appeals process
• Dorset Council will not accept/consider any applications received after the closing date of 12 o’clock noon on Friday 20th May  
• partial grant awards may be made (if this has a detrimental impact on the delivery of the planned intervention, we will be open to a discussion about a change to the proposal)
• we will accept collaborative partnership applications between VCSE organisations. However, one organisation must be prepared to act as the lead organisation with which the grant agreement can be made
• we reserve the right to make changes to the guidance and/or programme after its launch. We will communicate any changes as quickly as we can