Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant 2016-17

Call for proposals

Guidance notes and Application Form

Grants between £1,000 - £4,000

Introduction

Healthwatch Shropshire is the health and social care champion for people and local communities in Shropshire. Healthwatch Shropshire is here to help make sure everyone gets the best from their health and social care services.

Experience shows that when the views of people and communities are properly taken into account, health and social care services are improved.Also, when demand on health and social care is rising and resources are limited, it is vital communities can be confident in their local services.Healthwatch Shropshire is here to give patients, service users, carers and the wider public in Shropshire a real say in the way health and social care services are run.

These are changing times for health and social care services in Shropshire as a consequence of changes in legislation, changes to providers of service, financial restraints and with large scale projects underway that could lead to the services around us changing dramatically. Shropshire is a diverse community encompassing both urban and rural areas. The population of Shropshire includes people with physical conditions, mental health conditions, long term conditions, old, young and everyone in between. Services in Shropshire should meet the needs of all of Shropshire’s population. But is this the reality for people?

As a voluntary and/or community group or organisation working with people in Shropshire who are using health or social care services you are in a position to find out and tell usabout your clients’ experiences. Healthwatch Shropshire is a free, independent charity for anyone who uses health and social care services in the county. It receives feedback from people across Shropshire about the quality of services they are using and we are particularly interested in the experiences of people whose voices are “seldom heard”. This grant fund is another way for Healthwatch Shropshire to find out what local people think about their services, whether these services are delivered equitably across the whole population and if not, where the gaps are.

At its annual event last year Healthwatch Shropshire focused on the importance of achieving “parity of esteem” between mental and physical health service provision within Shropshire. It was intended to spread awareness and help people’s understanding of how mental health services are offered. Building on the concept of “parity of esteem”,Healthwatch Shropshire is interested in parity for all the many different populations who live in Shropshire who use services, whether it is physical health services, mental health services or social care services. This year’s Research Grant Fund is open for proposals that will focus on the experiences of people from across Shropshire, whose voices we don’t tend to hear, who use health and social care services.

Examples of questions that we don’t know the answer to and which could help to improve services for everyone include:

What are the challenges for homeless people and/or traveller communities in accessing health services locally and what are their experiences?

What impact does rurality have on people’s health? Are isolation, stigma and confidentiality an issue in accessing health and social care services?

How do young people access health and social care in the county? Does it meet their needs? Do young people feel that their needs and experiences are taken into account in discussions around transforming health services?

Do health and social care providers respond with empathy and effectiveness towards victims of domestic violence and abuse?

What effect does stigma and its associated impact on treatment for general healthcare have on people diagnosed with a mental health condition?

Research proposals are being sought up to a value of £4,000. The minimum grant that will be awarded is £1,000.

The service users must be based in Shropshire. Applications are welcome from Voluntary and Community Sector organisations. The project must relate to the aims of Healthwatch Shropshire.

Applications must be received by5pm onMonday 13th February 2017

Decisions will be announced in early March 2017

Application Criteria

The purpose of the research grant fund is to support voluntary and community groups and organisations to conduct a piece of research exploring the experiences of service usersbased in Shropshire, in health and/or social care.

  • Research proposals are being sought up to a maximum value of £4,000.
  • The minimum grant that will be awarded is £1,000.
  • The first instalment of the grant must be paid to the awarded group or organisation no later than 31stMarch 2017.
  • Research projects can last up to 12 months but aresearch report must be submitted no later than 12 months after the first monetary instalment.
  • Only organisations (not individuals) can apply to the Healthwatch Shropshire Research Fund and they must working in Shropshire.Organisations do not have to be registered charities but must have a governing document and their own bank account.

If you are not sure whether you are eligible to apply, please call us on 01743 237884.

Important Application Dates

  • Applications must be received by 5pm on Monday 13th February 2017
  • Decisions will be announced in early March 2017
  • First instalment of grant will be paid no later than 31stMarch 2017

What we will fund

Grants can pay for revenue costs. Revenue costs include operational costs such as rent, stationery, telephone costs, activities, staff time etc.

Grants cannot be used for capital purposes. For the purposes of this programme capital costs are defined as being for a single asset that costs more than £400 (including VAT) and that has a life expectancy of more than one year.

What we won’t fund

Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant will not fund the following:

  • Capital expenditure
  • Any political party activity
  • Individuals
  • Religious activities (although the Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant can fund research experiences of health and/or social care within Shropshireby members of religious groups)
  • Commercial ventures
  • Research into activities or groups outside Shropshire (except as comparatives: comparative groups and/or activities must be within England)
  • Provision of services to asylum seekers when those services are inconsistent with immigration laws or Home Office policy
  • Activities that have already taken place
  • Evaluation of activities that have already taken place
  • Contributions to a general appeal or to on-going projects
  • Campaigning and/or lobbying activities
  • Any activity or research that may cause potential damage to the reputation of Healthwatch Shropshire or Healthwatch England
  • VAT, where your organisation is VAT registered

Payment schedule

The first grant payment of 35% the value of the grant will be made no later than 31st March 2017.

A second payment of 50% of the value of the grant will be made following the receipt and approval of the mid-project report and accompanying receipts.

The final payment of 15% of the grant will be made on receipt of the final report for publication at the end of the project.

Due to the nature of the payment and reporting schedule it is expected that the final instalment of the grant will be payment in arrears, after the completion of the research and after the final costs have been incurred. It is important that you ensure your group or organisation has sufficient funds to cover, at a minimum, 15% of the costs of the grant.

Reporting

Successful applications are required to complete the following:

  • Mid-Project Report Form (supplied by Healthwatch Shropshire)
  • Research Report
  • End-of-Project Financial Report (supplied by Healthwatch Shropshire).

A completed mid-project report must be submitted along with copies of accompanying receipts and invoices,and accepted as satisfactory by Healthwatch Shropshire, in order for the second instalment of funding to be released.

At the end of the project a report writing up the research and findings must be submitted, along with a completed Financial Report accompanied by copies of all remaining receipts and invoices. The final instalment of the grant is released once both reports have been accepted as satisfactory.

The final Research Report will be published on the HWS website.

How the Applications are judged

A panel of individualswill examine the submitted research proposals.The panel members will have a wide range of backgrounds to ensure a diverse range of expertise can be brought to the table to enable each application to have the highest chance.

At the start of the meeting panel members must declare any conflicts of interest. Where there are conflicts of interest panel members must remove themselves from the discussion and scoring on that application.

As a group the panel is asked to consider the application against the given assessment criteria and provide a score. Having considered all applications the panel will use the scoring as a tool to decide how the Research Grant fund will be allocated.

The panel may choose to allocate the full amount requested, or a partial amount to any given project.

The panel will make awards for amounts between £1,000 and £4,000 to projects.

Low numbers of applications will not guarantee that your application will be successful: each application is assessed against the assessment criteria of the Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant fund.

Assessment Criteria

Applications will be considered against the following:

  1. Relevance to the current Healthwatch Shropshire research grant theme
  2. Relevance to health and/or social care in Shropshire
  3. Relevance to the experiences of service users
  4. Applicant’s demonstration of clear evidence of need for the research
  5. Originality of work for Shropshire and potential contribution to knowledge
  6. The viability of the project
  7. Value for money
  8. The appropriateness of the research design and methodology to the research aims
  9. The outputs, dissemination and potential impact of the research

Application Guidance

We strongly advise you read the whole application form and guidance notes before starting to complete the application form. It is also strongly recommended that you re-read the application, including the proposed budget, before submission checking you have completed every section in case of errors.

Please note all applications must be typed.

Section A: Your Organisation

This section provides us with details about your organisation, including what type of organisation it is and how we can contact you about your application.

  1. State the official name of your organisation.
  1. Provide us with the full correspondence address for your organisation, including postcode.
  1. Provide the details of your main contact for the application and proposed research,and a second contact person who is sufficiently familiar with the application and proposed research to answer questions should we not be able to reach the main contact.
  1. You should provide a brief overview of the main purpose or aims of your organisation and a description of your main activities.
  1. Confirm what type of organisation you are, including charity/company registration details.

6.7. We ask these questions to make sure you have taken all necessary measures to make sure your project is carried out safely and legally. Where requirements are not already in place you will be expected to source them and provide self-verification before any money is released should your application be successful: failure to do so could result in withdrawal of funding.

Section B: The Research

This section explores the research project you are requesting funding for. The information it contains enables us to consider: the viability of the research through the methodology and timescale; its relevance to Shropshire residents; the legacy that it is anticipated the research will have in terms of the impact it could potentially have; and how the research relates to the aims of Healthwatch Shropshire.

  1. Tell us the question or questions that your research will examine. This should be a brief and concise question that captures what the research is proposing to shed light on.
  1. List the objectives of the research you are proposing. Objectives should provide brief detail on what your research will achieve e.g. it will improve local knowledge on the experiences of X group of people / it will examine whether this model works in Shropshire.
  1. Indicate what information there is already on the research topic and explain how your research will enhance, improve, expand upon or add to this existing knowledge. This section is an opportunity to describe how your proposed research is original.
  1. Provide us with greater detail of how you intend to go about the research.Describe the methodology that will be used to enable the project to address the question outlined in 8. You need to include details such as:
  • Who your participants will be
  • How many participants you hope to have
  • What engagement methods you propose to use to engage with your participants, e.g. the activities
  • The type(s) of data gathering methods you will employ
  • Whether you will do pilots
  • How you intend to analyse the data you gather through your research e.g. qualitative data, quantitative data

Please be as detailed as possible.

  1. Detail any ethical considerations you need to account for in the planning, delivery and write up of you research, and comment briefly on what measures you will put in place to account for these considerations. This could include:
  • Confidentiality
  • Harm (physical or psychological)
  • Data protection
  • Participant withdrawal
  • Debriefing
  • Permission from participants
  • etc.
  1. Publicising your completed research is an important aspect of ensuring your research will have an impact and make a difference to people in Shropshire using health and/or social care services. Provide an outline of the activities you will undertake to disseminate your research to the people, services and providers in Shropshire.
  1. Research projects take time to plan, implement, analyse the results and write up the final report. Please give us a timescale for your project, indicating when you intend to progress into the different stages. You should provide rough dates (days and/or months) when you anticipate you would be working on each phase of the project.
  1. Remember, the first instalment will be paid no later than 25th March 2016. Research projects can last up to 12 months but the final research report must be submitted no later than 12 months after the first monetary instalment (end of March 2017).Describe how your project is relevant to the work of Healthwatch Shropshire and the aims of the Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant fund. You may wish to explain why your research is relevant to individuals and/or groups in Shropshire using health and/or social care services. Further information about Healthwatch Shropshire is available on our website:

Section C: Funding Details

This section provides a breakdown of your expected costs. It enables Healthwatch Shropshire to see how you have arrived at the amount you have requested and assess whether it is reasonable. It also provides Healthwatch Shropshire with financial administration details should your application be successful.

  1. Tell us how much money you are applying for. It must be between £1,000 and £4,000.
  1. Please give details of the overall expected costs of your research project. List what each item is in the ‘Description of Cost’ column. Provide enough detail in the description of the cost to make it clear how you have arrived at the projected cost (e.g. staff wages, 30 hours at £10ph).For each item outline how much it is costing in the ‘total cost’ column. If your proposal is successful this budget projection will be used to produce an outline of how much money you have allocated to your project.
  1. You may not be asking us to fund the total cost of your project. For example, you may have done some local fundraising already or you may be asking us to provide funds towards a bigger project. If your project budget exceeds the amount requested please tell us about how much has been raised so far towards the total project costs, and how much you have requested or secured from other sources. Please tell us the dates you expect to hear whether or not your applications to other funding providers have been successful. Remember that the Healthwatch Shropshire Research Grant Fund cannot fund existing projects.
  1. We require the name of your bank account so that, if your application is successful, we can raise a grant cheque. Please confirm that you have at least two signatories on your bank account. If you do not you will need to amend this before we can release any grant.
  2. Please ensure your application is signed by two members of your organisation. One should be the Chair or Secretary (or equivalent). The other can be any member of your organisation’s management group.

There is a checklist to confirm that all supporting documentation is enclosed with your application, and please remember to send copies, not originals.