Has your voluntary, community or social enterprise group done some amazing patient, service-user or carer involvement work that’s improved healthcare services?
If so NHS England want you to tell them about it. In fact, they want to support you to tell everyone about it. 
NHS England is offering community grants of up to £2500 to voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations that have developed good practice around patient and citizen involvement in healthcare. The purpose of the grant is to enable organisations to share their good practice so that others can learn from the involvement successes.
The community grants will be awarded to organisations that can tell the story of their patient and citizen involvement project. Using the funding they will share what worked, how they involved patients and citizens and what impact involvement had on services. Organisations should be able to tell their story in a creative, appealing and accessible way which can include producing films, photo or audio books, leaflets and posters, graphics or comics.
NHS England knows that patient groups, VSCE organisations and a diverse range of community groups all over England are involved in shaping and improving healthcare services. It wants to encourage the promotion of learning and sharing of good practice by making funds available to groups to highlight and share their work with others.
In your application you will need to tell them about how you have involved patients and citizens in a healthcare project, and how you plan to use the grant to share and showcase your work in a creative way.
To apply you must be a formally constituted organisation; this means:
• A registered charity
• A constituted community organisation with a terms of reference, clear governance arrangements and annually audited accounts
• A not-for-profit company Limited by Guarantee (Registered at Companies House, www.companieshouse.gov.uk)
• A Community Interest Company (CH or CIC Regulator), a ‘Co-operative’ or ‘Industrial and Provident Society (IPS)
For further information and to apply, visit: www.england.nhs.uk/participation/success/community-grants-2018/, or email: [email protected]
Deadline: Thursday 20 September 2018