South West London Investment Fund 2022/23

The South West London Investment Fund gives partner organisations the opportunity to apply for grants for innovative projects that benefit local people, while capturing the energy and enthusiasm in our communities. During 2022/23 partners could bid for funding from two pots – the Innovation Fund, and the Health Inequalities Fund.

The Innovation Fund

A total of £4.9 million was made available to local organisations to bid for. We awarded funding to 25 projects from the 170 applications we received. The review panel prioritised bids which focussed on winter resilience which they felt could have a significant impact in winter 2022 and 2023.

Projects that were awarded funding from the Innovation Fund include:

Help is at Hand

Help is at Hand, an easily accessed, preventative crisis service for parents, carers, guardians and foster parents living in Croydon, was awarded £11,000. This voluntary sector scheme funded a skilled support worker who provides immediate crisis support and advice in person, over the phone and online, reducing GP and Emergency Department contacts.

Improving access to health services and information for homeless people

SPEAR London were awarded £52,000 to help people experiencing homelessness p to get online and access medical records, order repeat prescriptions and find trusted health advice. The project promotes self-care and eases the pressure on urgent and emergency NHS health care.

Supporting High Intensity Use (HIU) in Merton and Wandsworth

VCSE partners Merton Connected and Wandsworth Enable were awarded £42,000 to implement a dedicated High Intensity Use (HIU) service. The project will saw two HIU leads help to reduce unnecessary primary care appointments and reduce the risk of issues escalating by identifying, supporting, and signposting to more appropriate services. The scheme focussed on supporting people with managing stress, loneliness, finding social groups, learning new skills, physical activity or getting information on employment, benefits, housing, food banks and legal and financial advice.

South West London Aging Well Intensive Behavioural Support Service

This scheme was awarded £286,000 to create a South West London Ageing Well Intensive Behavioural Support Service for people in our six boroughs. The project aims to reduce care home placement breakdowns, prevent delays to hospital discharge and offer additional training to 70 care homes.

The Health Inequalities Fund

A total of £4.3 million as made available to local organisations to bid for from the Health Inequalities Fund.  We invested £1.6 million of this into system-wide health inequalities programmes, and £2.7 million was made available to boroughs/places for local projects and programmes. We received 80 expressions of interest, and in total, 55 health inequalities projects and programmes for local and system-wide delivery were awarded funding following is evidence and needs based assessments.

Projects that were awarded funding from the Health Inequalities Fund include:

Children and Young People Tier 3 weight management service

We awarded £293,000 to Croydon Council who, working with local community partners, created a weight management service for children and young people with higher risk of developing obesity and related long-term conditions. This includes those from deprived areas, black ethnic groups, and children with learning disabilities and autism.

Social prescribing pilot for people with a learning disability

Morden Primary Care Network was awarded £15,300 to offer social prescribing for people with learning disabilities. The pilot created connections between the Primary Care Network and the learning disabilities community sector.

Addressing the causes of young people’s mental health issues

Battersea Youth Minds were awarded £92,000 to bring together six established youth organisations in Battersea to address the inequalities and pressures that affect our young people’s mental health, particularly young people from ethnic minorities.

Community Food Impact Project – Wandsworth

Wandsworth based food charity Be Enriched was awarded £40,000 to collect data from service users, distribute healthy start vouchers to canteen guests, conduct focus groups and hear from community members regarding healthy food consumption affected by cost and access.