New Health and Social Care Innovation fund for Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton has announced that he will consult publicly on proposals for a new revenue grant scheme, which will be open to voluntary and community organisations operating in the health and social care sector.

 

The Minister said: “It is important at this time of financial pressure that we maximise the use of available resources and, at the same time, utilise the unique skills and experience of voluntary and community sector organisations.

“We will engage the sector in the design of the new grant scheme that will have innovation as a central theme and will deliver improved health and social care outcomes. We will consult on the proposals in the autumn of this year prior to its launch in 2016/17.”

The new scheme will replace the Department’s existing core grant scheme, which provided £4.7million to 67 voluntary and community organisations in 2014/15 to help them with running costs. An additional £32.7million was provided to the 67 organisations by other Health and Social Care (HSC) bodies.

Speaking about existing scheme, the Minister said: “For a number of reasons, we need to make changes to how we core grant voluntary and community sector organisations. The existing core grant scheme will come to an end in March 2018. I want to minimise the impact on organisations and, as a result, core grant funding will be withdrawn over a three year period. Subject to satisfactory applications being received, organisations will receive their full allocations in this financial year. However, reductions will be applied in each of the following two years through to the closure of the scheme.”

The Minister went on to say: “As the core grant scheme is being wound down, the new innovation scheme will be put in its place. We will involve the sector in the design of the scheme and I am confident that the sector will be able to deliver innovative solutions to deliver improved health and social care outcomes.”