The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has made available a £10 million grant fund to support suicide prevention activities delivered in England by voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in 2023 to 2025.
About your project
You will be asked to provide a summary of the project, activity or service you are seeking to fund. As part of this you should include information on when it started or will start, the purpose of your project, what need your project seeks to address, how you identified this, and who the project is aimed at.
You are required to detail the kinds of outputs and outcomes you anticipate achieving, and what specific activities you will undertake to deliver them. Note, outcomes are defined as your overall objectives or aims, while outputs are the things you intend to deliver to meet those objectives or aims. For example, a desired outcome might be to raise awareness of the risks associated with suicide, so one of your intended outputs might be providing education and outreach programmes on suicide risks to the public.
You will also be asked to set out why your project is important and how many people you expect to benefit from it. You are encouraged to substantiate your answers to these questions with evidence where possible, including why you feel you are best placed to deliver this work, for example based on past experience or the specific skillset of your organisation. We appreciate that this will be more difficult for newer organisations and more innovative programmes of work.
You will be asked to show how your project aligns with the strategic objectives of the fund. As part of this, you should make a clear link between your project’s desired outcomes, outputs and activities and how these meet one or more of the objectives of the fund. Again, aim to use data and evidence where possible to support your answer.
If applicable, you will be asked to demonstrate how your project targets the groups of concern, how it meets geographical need and/or is tailored towards marginalised groups. Note, while this is not a requirement, it is critical that your work meets the strategic objectives of the fund (see the ‘Assessment criteria’ section above).
You will need to supply information on where you plan to deliver your project in England, for example local authority area or areas, or nationwide.
Before beginning your application, you should:
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read the application guidance carefully - this gives full details of the objectives of the fund, who is eligible to apply and what the application process involves, including what is required from you
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refer to the terms and conditions of the grant fund set out in the grant funding agreement template - this is for reference only at this stage and only successful organisations will be required to complete it
Find out more
The DHSC will be holding online events to summarise and answer any queries about the application process. If you would like to find out about these, or have any other queries, contact us at suicidepreventiongrant@dhsc.gov.uk.
