2024 Funding Opportunity
Early Support Hubs
The Prudence Trust is pleased to offer a new funding opportunity to support drop-in mental health hubs for young people aged 11-25.
As part of our belief in early intervention, we are keen to build the case for a network of early support hubs in the UK, driven by the Fund the Hubs Campaign, Youth Access and the recent Department for Health & Social Care Shared Outcomes Fund. Our intention, with this funding, is to showcase a small number of these high quality hubs which bring the model to life.
We are seeking hubs that are integrated within the local healthcare and voluntary sectors, and rigorously evaluate impact so that the model can be more widely and consistently scaled up and funded.
Whilst we are interested in youth work, this funding round is not aimed at youth clubs and is specifically for drop-in hubs which offer mental health interventions to young people with early signs of mental health struggles.
Stage one of this funding opportunity closed at 2pm on Monday 9th September. We will not be accepting any more applications.
KEY INFORMATION
Application deadlines
First stage: Monday 9 Sept 2pm
Invitations to second stage will be made by the end of September
Second stage: Monday 21 Oct 2pm
Purpose of funding
To support young people’s early support hubs to maintain existing services, strengthen relationship with clinical partners, or add new services to their model.
Eligible organisations
UK registered charities or CICs
An annual income above £1 million
Provides early support services free of charge to young people aged 11-25
Already running a drop-in support hub for at least the past three years
Example eligible costs
Core costs which could cover salaries, evaluation work, training, etc.
Value and term of grants
Total grants budget: £1.5 million
Grant size: We anticipate awarding 3-4 grants, between £250k-£500k each
Grant term: Up to 24 months
Information webinar
We held a webinar on Friday 23 August and a recording of this is available in our Who Can Apply section.
Who can apply
This opportunity is for organisations who already run an early support “drop-in” model open to young people aged 11-25. We would like to encourage applications from hubs in a variety of locations: urban, rural and coastal regions, across the UK.
We will only consider applications from organisations who meet these three eligibility criteria:
- UK registered charities or CICs with an annual income of £1 million or over.
- The charity or CIC must be running an early support hub in a physical space, open to local young people (aged between 11-25) in need of support or guidance.
- The organisation must have experience of running a hub for at least the past three years.
We will not consider applications from unregistered charities, those whose work is not primarily focussed on young people, or hubs that have not yet been running for three years. This opportunity is not meant for youth clubs.
We held a webinar on Friday 23 August and a recording of this is available here. An FAQ sheet from this webinar and questions we’ve received by email is available here.
If you wish to apply in partnership with another organisation, and at least one of you meets all the eligibility the criteria, please get in touch with [email protected]
What you can apply for
We want to offer core costs to support the delivery of high quality early support hubs, ensure that the model has a strong evidence base and quality assurance process, and ultimately get these hubs to a place where they are better able to leverage future funds.
What we will offer funding for
Some examples of what our funding could cover include:
- Staff time to deliver services
- Training for staff or volunteers
- Costs for evaluation or quality assurance of hub services
- Costs supporting the development or strengthening of relationships with local clinical services
This opportunity won’t award funds for:
- Retrospective funding (we can only fund costs incurred after November 2024)
Budget and grant amounts
Our total grants budget for this opportunity is £1.5m.
We expect to award 3-4 grants, of between £250k and £500k each.
We won’t consider requests for an annual grant amount that is more than 20% of your annual income. For example, If your income is £1 million, you can apply for a maximum of £200k per year. I.e. a maximum grant of £400k over 24 months.
Key dates
| Stage one (open to all meeting criteria) | |
| Mon 12 August | Stage one applications open |
| Fri 23 August 10.30am | Information webinar. You can watch a recording of this webinar here. |
| Mon 9 September 2pm | Stage one application deadline |
| Stage two (by invitation) | |
| End of September | A long list will be invited to apply for stage two |
| Mon 21 October 2pm | Stage two application deadline |
| Mon 11 – Fri 15 November | In person assessment visits |
| December 2024 | Grants awarded |
How to apply
Stage one of this funding opportunity closed at 2pm on Monday 9th September.
A Word template of this form is available to download here, for your reference. We will only accept submissions through the online form, which has now closed.
A Q&A webinar was held at 10.30 on Friday 23 August and you can watch a recording here. This is not a requirement to apply, but you may find it useful.
You will know if you are invited to submit a full second stage application by the end of September 2024.
We will let second stage applicants know whether their application has been successful in December 2024.
How grant decisions are made
We will only consider applications from organisations that meet the three eligibility criteria above (‘Who Can Apply’). For the purpose of this opportunity, applicant hubs must also meet the following criteria:
- Operate a local physical hub that acts as a single point of access for young people aged 11-25 to seek help for issues they’re struggling with
- Services in the hub are accessible without the need for an outside referral or meeting a threshold. Young people can turn up themselves and expect support or advice (“self-refer”).
- The types of service offered in a hub can vary, often depending on local needs. To be eligible for this opportunity, the range of services offered must at least include mental health support such as counselling. Additional services might include housing and benefits advice, legal advice, sexual health services or career support.
- The hub can demonstrate robust collection of outcome measures using recognised measurement approaches. It can show a history of positive impact on individuals, and that it learns from evidence.
- The hub can demonstrate established relationships with primary care clinical services (e.g. local GPs or CAMHS).
- Services in the hub are available to young people free of charge.
We will only consider applications that meet all of the criteria above. After that, we will prioritise applications that best demonstrate the following strengths:
- The hub can demonstrate established links with other local community or voluntary services.
- The hub has systems in place that easily allow young people to contribute to the development of new services or make changes to services, according to their changing needs. The hub listens and is responsive to young people.
- Similarly, young people have a say in governance and in how the centre looks and feels. They feels it is “their” place.
- The hub can demonstrate it is reaching a broad demographic and particularly those most in need.
To help our decision making, we will seek the advice of expert advisors and young people with experience of the issues. Final decisions will be made by the board of trustees.
Measures of Success for this funding opportunity
We will deem this funding programme successful if at the end of the two years, grants have enabled these goals to be reached:
- There are several high quality early support hubs in action, helping our understanding of what makes a good hub model.
- There is more evidence of the impact of access to early support hubs on young people, helping make clear the value of hubs.
- Through the relationships these hubs have built or maintained with local clinical services we have learned how such partnerships can be replicated and supported elsewhere.
- Young people have been able to access high quality advice and support for their needs, in one place, without referral or threshold barriers.
what to expect if you are successful
In addition to grant reporting, we expect grantees to share their learning or evidence on the impact of hubs with us and others. Grantees may be expected to present at events.You will need to agree to our grant terms and conditions and we will expect you to keep us updated via written reports every six months and ad hoc calls.
