
Apply for up to £50,000 – £100,000 pa (£100,000 – £300,000 over 3 years) for initiatives to support the health and wellbeing of local people.
Through the Healthier Futures fund NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough is making £2 million available to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners across the area to deliver health and wellbeing improvements for their local people and communities.
The fund will be open for applications from 1st May 2023.
Key aims of the fund
Healthier Futures grants will support initiatives that focus on the key priorities for NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and the wider Integrated Care System, including:
- Children’s & young people’s mental health
- Frailty
- People who use health services very frequently
- People who have an irreversible progressive disease or medical condition that can significantly impact on quality of life
- Cardiovascular disease (including but not limited to smoking cessation)
- Supporting people are medically fit to leave hospital
ICS Design Principles

All schemes must use the ICS design principles:
We want to encourage wide engagement in the development and delivery of bids, with VCSE partners leading but joining with other system partners including other VCSE organisations.
Key Criteria
Applicants must be able to demonstrate that the following criteria has been considered whilst developing the scheme:
- Specification: Does the scheme meet one of the key objectives set out in the ICS vision?
- Innovation: Does the scheme introduce a new or original adaptive way of working?
- Understanding: Does the scheme demonstrate a knowledge of the issue it is trying to resolve and the people and communities it will focus on?
- Health Inequalities impact: Whether the scheme will have a significant impact in addressing health inequalities.
- Purchasing/employment: Does it widen access to work and/or purchase more locally and for social benefit?
- Environmental: Does it reduce carbon impact and use existing buildings, space and resources?
- Quality: Is the scheme fit for purpose and has the project met any relevant safety, governance, security or other applicable standards?
- Integration: Does the scheme evidence engagement and collaboration?
Eligibility
- Schemes must be delivered in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area to the benefit of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough people and communities and to target groups of people specified in the vision.
- VCSE is defined for the purposes of this bid process as a registered charity in the UK whose charity’s purposes include supporting people and communities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; A member of Social Enterprise UK; or a registered community interest company. Other organisations must partner with a lead member who fulfils this criteria.
- VCSE’s must be registered with the Real Living Wage in order to be eligible to receive this funding. Organisations can submit applications without being registered but no funds will be released until registration has been confirmed. It is permissible to include up to £60 registration fee as a line in the proposed project budget to cover this cost.
- Schemes must meet the principles set out in the criteria.
- Schemes can be developed with private sector, public sector bodies and NHS organisations , providing they have the support of the VCSE lead bidder (defined as above) who will be responsible for delivery.
- Schemes must be delivered with the involvement and contribution of the integrated neighbourhood partners relevant to the target groups of people in the local area.
- • Funding is non-recurrent and the grant process will be managed by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation Cambridgeshire Community Foundation | Inspiring Donors. Enabling Change. (cambscf.org.uk). Beyond this funding allocation, should the initiative be continued, an alternative source of funding should be identifie
Eligible expenditure
What funds can pay for:
- Materials related to your project
- Staff costs associated specifically and exclusively with the project
- Infrastructure crucial to the delivery or testing of your project such as equipment, internet subscriptions, etc
- Hire of venues or facilities to host activities directly related to the project
- Consultants or expert advice
- Web, media or marketing materials for your project
- Any activities beneficial to the development of your project
Ineligible Expenditure
What the funding cannot pay for:
- Organisational running costs, such as existing staffing, moving services online, installing or upgrading internet connectivity at your organisation’s office, or computers or mobile phones for staff that are not directly related to the project
- Wages for staff that are not at least the Real Living Wage
- As additional top-up funds to an existing project already funded by a public sector body, unless there is a clear rationale for this
- The continuation of business as usual for an organisation
- Anything already covered by core funding or otherwise already funded
More information
Download the briefing document here.
Download the FAQ document here.
Who can apply?
Registered not-for-profit organisations (Charity, Social Enterprise or CIC) that pay the Real Living Wage
Maximum grant
Up to £50,000 – £100,000 pa (Max £150,000 – £300,000 over 3 years)
Eligible area
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Applications Open from
1st May 2023
Deadlines
1st August 2023 (outcomes by end of November 2023), 1st November (outcomes by end of February 2024)
Apply for a Grant