Birmingham Fairer Futures Fund –

Locality Small Grants

About the Fairer Futures Fund – Locality Small Grants

Launched in 2022, the £22.2m Fairer Futures Fund (FFF) supports new, community-based projects in Birmingham and Solihull. The FFF is part of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System’s (BSol ICS) goal to transform health and social care over the next five years. This includes integrating services closer to people’s homes and focusing on preventing ill-health.

The FFF promotes innovation in local communities, working closely with the Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector to improve health and care services, reduce inequalities, and enhance access to care. It also aims to support the wider social and economic development of the region.

So far, over £2m has been allocated to more than 50 projects. From March 2024, new funding opportunities will be available, including a £2.46m Locality Small Grants pot for projects in specific areas of Birmingham.

 

Neighbourhood Network Schemes (NNS)

Neighbourhood Network Schemes were set up by Adult Social Care across Birmingham in 2018 and 2019. Each constituency now has its own NNS, working closely with community organisations and local social work teams.

The main goal of NNS is to strengthen communities, making neighbourhoods better places to live. They help ensure that citizens have access to community-based support that improves well-being and quality of life. NNS does this by coordinating prevention and early intervention services and building partnerships between voluntary, community, and faith organisations, alongside public services like Adult Social Care and health.

For the Locality Small Grant Programme, NNS plays a key role in helping local community groups develop strong funding bids that meet the priorities of the Fairer Futures Fund. Before submitting a bid, organisations must connect with their NNS lead provider. Only bids that are supported by the NNS lead will be considered by the grants panel.

Fund Information

  • Grants offer up to £15,000 per year, with a maximum of £45,000 for projects lasting up to 3 years.
  • You don’t need to apply for the full 3-year period—applications are welcome for shorter durations, as long as they fit within the £45,000 limit and align with the fund’s priorities.
  • Multi-year projects will be reviewed annually, and future funding depends on performance and meeting monitoring requirements.
  • Applicants can only apply for one theme per application, and Groups/Consortium leads can submit up to two small grant applications.

How to qualify:

To successfully receive a grant from this fund, applicants will need to clearly demonstrate the following:

  • Innovative, new or additional services to address long-standing health and wellbeing inequalities.
  • An evidence-informed rationale for how your project will show impact on the fund priorities, participant behaviours, knowledge and/or clinical outcomes against one or more of the specific priorities for this fund.
  • A focus on improving outcomes in a specific location in the City.

You can download a copy of the Fund Factsheet here.

How to Apply

Work with Your NNS Lead Before Applying

Before submitting an application for this fund, it is essential that applicants connect with their Neighbourhood Network Scheme (NNS) lead. This step is required before you can access the application portal.

Please find the contact details for all NNS leads here.

Once you’ve connected with your NNS lead, you can begin your application.

Download the application questions here.

The fund will close on 9th January 2025 at 5pm. We anticipate that all applicants will be notified on a decision from March 2025.

Apply here

Resources

If you would like further information, advice or guidance about making an application to this fund, please contact our team at info@heartofenglandcf.co.uk – please include FFF/Bham in your email subject title.

To download the applicant guidance, click here.

Watch Zoe Sweeney, our Programme Manager, explain the applicant guidance in this presentation below:

Themes

Theme 1: Best Start in Life

Projects working towards the Best Start in Life theme should select one of the following sub-priorities:

  • Children, particularly those in care and children living in low-income households, via activities that support the uptake of vaccinations; uptake of healthy start vouchers; reduce infant mortality and hospital admissions caused by injuries and asthma
  • Young adults – including reducing conception rates in those aged below 18 and interventions to improve mental health
  • Women – including projects encouraging breastfeeding; develop parenting skills; uptake of long-acting reversible contraceptives; uptake of antenatal screening; continuity of maternal services and reproductive health particularly for those from deprived and ethnic minority backgrounds
Theme 2: Healthier lives in communities

Projects working towards the Healthier lives in communities theme should select one of the following sub-priorities:

  • People living with long-term conditions and disabilities
  • Men, women, children, families and those from deprived and ethnic minority backgrounds – activities aimed at improving nutrition, reducing sugar and salt intake and increasing physical activity; reducing the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses and related admissions to hospitals
  • Manual workers, people with long-term mental-health conditions, and the unemployed – through smoking cessation reducing the prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and related admissions to hospital
Theme 3: Better outcomes through earlier intervention and treatment

Projects working towards the Better outcomes through earlier intervention and treatment theme should select one of the following sub-priorities:

  • Ethnic minority backgrounds including African, Caribbean and South Asian Communities – through activities to increase uptake of NHS health checks particularly for hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mental health
  • Deprived communities – through activities increasing immunisation uptake; uptake of cancer screening; and increasing dementia diagnosis in the under 65s
  • Heterosexual women – through activities preventing and treating blood borne viruses (BBV) such as HIV and Hepatitis
Theme 4: Empowering and connecting communities

Projects working towards the Empowering and connecting communities theme should select one of the following sub-priorities:

  • LBGTQ+ and people with long-term conditions and disabilities – through activities improving mental health; reducing social isolation; supporting adults with learning disabilities into employment; increasing uptake of annual health checks; reducing suicide and self-harm rates
  • Migrant communities, ex-offenders, gypsy, Roma and travellers, and those with English as a second language – through activities that improve health literacy
  • Carers – increasing uptake of annual health checks