What is the Mental Health Foundation?
The Mental Health Foundation is a leading UK charity that provides information, carries out research, campaigns and works to improve services for anyone affected by mental health problems, whatever their age and wherever they live. The Foundation was founded in 1949 and has offices in London and Glasgow.
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What is the 'Home Improvements' scheme about?
Home Improvements is a new scheme that has been announced by the Mental Health Foundation to provide grants for new and innovative projects based in care homes to benefit the lives of people with dementia who are living there.
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Does the name of the scheme mean the grants are for building or decorating projects?
Not usually. Grants are for new and innovative service improvement projects focused on the mental health needs of people with dementia who are living in care homes. We will not provide grants for projects which the home already gets funding for or which they are required to do to meet registration standards in order to provide an adequate service (such as work aimed at the physical upkeep of the environment).
Building or decorating projects would not therefore meet the selection criteria for the scheme, although we would not automatically rule out applications involving minor environmental changes, providing it met the scheme’s other criteria.
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Why is the Mental Health Foundation doing this?
Helping to improve the lives of people with dementia is an important issue for the Foundation to be addressing. It is estimated that two thirds of care home residents have some form of dementia (244,000 people) and a third of all people with dementia live in care homes. Many care homes don’t provide any specialist care for people with dementia. Recent media reports have drawn attention to the challenges faced by care homes of ensuring quality of care for people with dementia. The Government is currently in the process of developing a national strategy for dementia.
The Home Improvements scheme enables the Foundation to support new and innovative service improvement projects which could benefit the lives of people with dementia and their families as well as being of national interest and importance to the care homes sector, and those with an interest in the care of people with dementia in general. As well as being innovative, we hope that the projects will also be sustainable and potentially replicable elsewhere in the care home sector.
In the overall report to be produced at the end of the scheme, we hope we will be able to make recommendations based upon these projects for service improvements in care homes across the sector, for care home providers and staff, commissioners and service planners, monitoring and inspection bodies and policy makers in the field of dementia care.
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Are any other organisations helping the Mental Health Foundation with this scheme?
Yes. Home Improvements has an external reference group which includes representatives from the Alzheimer’s Society, Department of Health, Care Services Improvements Partnership (CSIP), Help the Aged, London Centre for Dementia Care and National Care Association, as well as people who work in and with care homes, and family carers.
The group was consulted while planning the scheme and gave lots of useful advice. We also consulted and took advice from members of the Alzheimer’s Society Living With Dementia (LWD) Group who are people with a diagnosis of dementia.
The reference group will continue to meet during the lifetime of the scheme and we hope assist us in selecting the projects which receive funding and providing ongoing advice and support. We also hope to involve members of the LWD Group in the selection process.
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How is it being funded?
Home Improvements is being funded by legacies left by very generous individuals to enable the Foundation to do work in this field.
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How much money can I apply for?
You can apply for any amount between £5,000 - £25,000 for a project.
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How long can projects be funded for?
Funding is available for projects lasting up to two years.
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Who can apply?
Any organisation can apply providing the proposed project itself focuses on the care of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias living in care homes and it meets the other criteria for the scheme.
Individuals can only apply as part of an organisation, not in their own right.
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Can I apply if my project is not based in England?
Home Improvements is open to applications from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Can I make more than one application?
Only one application per organisation can be made. The amount of money we have available for Home Improvements is relatively small and we therefore want to ensure that as many organisations as possible have the chance of being considered for funding and that the scheme funds a diverse range of organisations.
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How many projects will be funded?
We cannot give an exact number because this partly depends on the quantity and quality of applications we receive. However, we anticipate funding around ten projects.
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Do I have to be employed by or work in a care home to apply?
No. Providing the proposed project focuses on the care of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias living in care homes and it meets the other criteria for the scheme you don’t have to be employed by or work in a care home. We welcome applications from other organisations who are proposing a project that involves working in partnership with a care home(s).
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Does the care home(s) where the proposed project would take place have to be registered?
Yes. The care home(s) must be registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (or equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). However, care homes that have received the lowest quality rating according to their most recent inspection report (such as ‘poor’, ’failing to improve’, or ’unsatisfactory’) will not be eligible to receive a grant.
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What types of project will you fund?
We hope to fund a wide variety of projects through this scheme but they must meet the following essential criteria:
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Projects must focus on the care of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias living in care homes.
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Projects must have a focus on people’s mental health needs (as opposed to physical health needs)
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Projects must be based in a care home(s) – any registered care home (or care home with nursing) run either by statutory or by non-statutory organisations. Hospitals, hospices, ward-based care settings (including ones in the community) are not eligible to apply.
In addition to these criteria projects should also meet, as far as possible, the following criteria:
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Address identified unmet needs, difficulties or problems
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Directly benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and, if possible, involve them in coming up with the idea for the project
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Add value, and improve the quality of care and quality of life for people living in the home
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Support and promote key outcomes of both person-centred and relationship-centred care
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Meet the different needs of residents, especially those who may be more difficult to engage with or who are from diverse groups (e.g. younger people with dementia, culture/ethnicity)
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Increase choice and control for residents, including those who may lack mental capacity
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Make residents’ lives more fulfilling and stimulating
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Demonstrate in practical ways dignity and respect for residents
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Be innovative i.e. – demonstrating new or different ways of working, imaginative approaches, etc.
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Have the potential to have positive impacts on indirect beneficiaries of the project (.e.g. families including children, other carers, other social networks) and involve them with the project
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Work in partnership with other organisations or local communities
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Have the potential to be sustained after the grant funding finishes or how it might have a lasting impact
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Have the potential to be used or replicated in other settings
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Demonstrate that staff were involved in developing the project
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Be managed and implemented according to the project timeline and budget, and ensuring that staff commitment will be maintained
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Be realistic in their aims and represent value for money.
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Can I get additional funding for projects from other sources?
Yes. Grants can be combined with funding from other sources providing the project meets the criteria for the scheme.
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Are there any types of project you won’t fund?
Grants are not available as additional funding for existing projects. Grants are not available to fund projects which will be a substitution or replication of essential elements of the service. Grants therefore will not be awarded to a project involving any aspect of service provision that is funded out of revenue ordinarily received by the home or required to meet registration standards in order to provide an adequate service.
This includes:
Grants will not be awarded for audits or evaluations of existing service improvement projects.
Grants are not available for care homes that have received the lowest quality rating according to their most recent inspection report (such as ‘poor’, ’failing to improve’, or ’unsatisfactory’).
Grants will not be available for projects which contravene legislation that applies to care homes such as the Care Standards Act 2000 (and equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland), health and safety legislation, or clearly puts residents at risk.
Where could I find more information that would help me think about possible projects?
This website has useful information – for example you can download a copy of Better Prepared to Care which considers the training needs of non-specialist staff (including unqualified staff) working with older people with mental ill health.
There are also a number of organisations that are advising the Foundation about this scheme including the Alzheimer’s Society, Department of Health, Care Services Improvements Partnership (CSIP), London Centre for Dementia Care and National Care Association.
It would be worth looking at their websites to find more information. We also suggest that you look at the project run by Help the Aged and City University, London, called My Home Life. This project is a UK-wide initiative specifically 'aimed at improving the quality of life of those who are living, dying, visiting and working in care homes for older people'. They have identified important themes based upon available evidence, to help care homes develop and improve. You can find more information on the My Home Life website.
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What ongoing support will projects get if they are funded?
The Foundation wants all the projects that are funded through the Home Improvements scheme to be successful so we will be available to provide advice, support and guidance. Members of the external reference groups may also be available to provide advice and support. The Associate Head of Service Improvement & Workforce Development at the Foundation will also be in regular contact with each project by email and telephone.
In addition to this, the Foundation will run 2-3 action learning sets/peer support meetings which all the projects will be invited to and expected to attend. These will provide opportunities to meet staff from other projects, share experiences and learning, and address any obstacles that individual projects might be encountering. Grant funding should not be used to pay for staff to attend these events or to pay for staff cover so organisations need to have sufficient resources themselves to enable staff to attend.
Projects will also be monitored by the Mental Health Foundation, not only to ensure they are doing what they said they would do, but also to help address any problems or difficulties they may be encountering.
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How will projects be monitored?
Projects will be expected to submit a mid-way project report to the Foundation half way through the lifetime of the project. A member of staff from the Foundation will make at least one visit to each project. Monitoring may also be done via email and/or telephone.
As part of the more detailed application that organisations will be expected to provide, a budget and step by step timeline will need to be produced. These will be used to monitor the projects and the grant will be paid in instalments as the project progresses. Grant payments may be withheld if the project is not proceeding according to plan.
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Will projects be evaluated?
Yes, each project will be evaluated.
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How will projects be evaluated?
The Mental Heath Foundation has extensive experience of evaluating services and will lead on the evaluations to ensure independence. The evaluation will be based partly on finding out how far the particular need, difficulty or problem that the project is aimed at has been addressed and what improvements have been achieved in both the quality of care and quality of life for people living in the home(s).
Foundation staff will work with each project to help them develop a way of self-evaluating which can then be verified by the Foundation when the project finishes. Planning the evaluation will begin as soon as possible after it has been announced that a project has been funded.
Evaluations will involve collecting some demographic information about the people who benefited from the project and also information about how they benefitted. Project reports and visits by Foundation staff will also help contribute to the evaluations.
Individual project evaluations will be made available to each project, but will not be shared by the Foundation with other projects. However, some evaluation information may be used in the overall scheme report that the Foundation will produce when the scheme has come to an end – this information will focus on the successes that individual projects have achieved.
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Apart from spending the money on the project, are there any other requirements to receiving a grant, if I am successful?
For projects that are successful in obtaining funding a named person in the organisation will need to be identified to be the named grantholder. A condition of receiving the grant on behalf of the organisation will be their signed agreement with the Mental Health Foundation’s Terms and Conditions for grantholders. This agreement will cover financial instructions (including staggered payments), project management issues, disputes, reporting requirements, publicity and media coverage, intellectual property rights and general copyright.
Key requirements also include:
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Each project submits a project report when the project comes to an end as well as a mid way progress report.
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That a member of staff from the Foundation makes at least one visit to each project
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That project staff attend an action learning set/peer support network (organised and facilitated by the Mental Health Foundation) 2-3 times a year
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That project staff contribute to and participate in a project evaluation as guided and undertaken by Mental Health Foundation staff.
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Will I have to write a report on the project?
A member of the project will have to write a mid-way progress report halfway through the lifetime of the project, as well as a report on the project when it has finished. These will not be complicated reports to write but will just involve describing he project and what it has achieved. The Foundation will be able to provide advice and guidance to project staff to help them write these reports.
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Will there be publicity about successful projects?
The Foundation has an experienced communications team so where it is agreed that projects have been successful the Foundation may help publicise the project or advise the project on how it can publicise itself.
The Foundation wants the projects that are funded through the Home Improvements scheme to be successful and to be of potential wider interest to the care home sector and others involved in dementia services as well as policy makers, people with dementia and their families. To do this, we will be producing an overall report about the Home Improvements scheme when all the projects are finished. This will provide an opportunity to publicise what the scheme has achieved, potentially to a national audience, and we would anticipate that the report will highlight the successes of individual projects and possibly make recommendations for service improvements in care homes for people with dementia.
We would expect any organisation that is doing publicity work itself about its projects to ensure that there are appropriate references to the Mental Health Foundation.
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When must projects be completed?
All projects must have completed by the autumn of 2010.
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What happens if the project cannot be completed or needs to be changed?
If for any reason a project cannot be completed or needs to be changed the person who is named as being responsible for the project should contact the Associate Head of Service Improvement & Workforce Development at the Foundation as soon as possible to discuss this.
If the changes being proposed are relatively minor then it may be possible to agree them straight away. However if the changes will significantly affect the overall objectives, timescale or costs of the project, or the impact of the changes are unclear, or the project cannot be completed as planned, then they will have to be discussed further with the Foundation’s internal team responsible for the Home Improvements scheme.
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What happens if there is a disagreement between a project and the Mental Health Foundation?
The grant holder’s handbook which contains the terms and conditions for receiving a grant includes a procedure for dealing with disputes.
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When will a project be expected to start?
It is expected that projects will start in the autumn of 2008. We hope to have a launch event at this time to which the project will be invited.
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How do I apply?
You can apply online.
The first part of the online application process is an eligibility quiz to make sure your organisation and project meet some basic criteria for the scheme. If, after you have completed this, you are not allowed to progress to the full online application it means that your project does not meet one or more of the essential criteria.
If you successfully complete this section you will then automatically progress on to the full online application form. Please fill in every box, even if you can only put “don’t know” or “not applicable”. To submit the form you should click on ‘submit’ at the end of the form. You will receive an automatic email confirming your application has been successfully submitted.
Read more information about the online application process.
If you would prefer to apply by completing the application form as a Word document please contact: Dave Gobran – Mental Health Programmes Administrator via email or on 020 7803 1151
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What is the closing date for applications?
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 4 July 2008.
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What happens after I submit my application?
You should receive an automatic email confirming we have received your application. If you email the application back to us as a Word document we will confirm receipt by email within ten working days. If you send it to us through the post we will send an acknowledgement within 10 working days.
After the deadline for applications has passed, we anticipate drawing up a shortlist of projects who we will invite to come and talk to us about their proposed project and provide more detailed plans about exactly what it will involve, how much it will cost, milestones, etc. This is likely to take place in the summer. We will also inform projects which are not included on the shortlist that their application has been unsuccessful. We will then make a final decision based upon these meetings and inform all the shortlisted projects whether or not they have been successful.
Members of the external reference group for the scheme, as well as members of the Alzheimer’s Society Living With Dementia group will also be involved in this decision-making process.
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How will it be decided which projects get given grants?
Any projects which clearly do not meet the selection criteria (e.g. because they are asking for too much money, it is not a registered care home, it is not for people with dementia) will be immediately ruled out and the organisation informed (this may happen before the 4 July).
For all the projects that are left Mental Health Foundation staff and others involved in the selection process will rate them against the criteria listed. Ratings will be compared and those that it is agreed rate most highly will be shortlisted.
A similar rating system will be used when organisations with shortlisted projects come to meet with us.
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How is the Mental Health Foundation managing this scheme?
The Home Improvements scheme will be managed by Toby Williamson, Associate Head of Service Improvement & Workforce Development at the Mental Heath Foundation. This department is part of the Foundation’s Mental Heath Programmes department and Toby will be assisted by the Programme Administrator. There is also an internal staff team for the scheme at the Foundation which includes the Director of Mental Health Programmes, Head of Service Improvement & Workforce Development, Head of the Foundation's Scotland Office and support from the Foundation’s Research and Communications teams.
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Who do I contact to find out more information?
If you need more information about the scheme as a whole please contact:
Toby Williamson - Associate Head of Service Improvement & Workforce Development via email or on 020 7803 1132
If you need more information about the application process please contact: Dave Gobran – Mental Health Programmes Administrator via email or on 020 7803 1151
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