The £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund is provided and administered by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The maximum grant is £750,000. You can either apply for below £10k or for a grant between £10k-£750k. The funding period is from December 2023 (at the earliest) to 31 March 2025.
The funding is for voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations providing suicide prevention services, activities or interventions that are free of charge to their service users:
Applicants must meet the strategic objectives of the fund which are to support:
- Non-profit organisations to configure their suicide prevention services and activities to better meet the increased demand seen in recent years.
- A range of diverse and innovative activity that can prevent suicides, both at a national and community level.
There is particular interest in funding suicide prevention activity targeted at the following:
- Groups of concern
- Children and young people
- Middle-aged men
- People who have previously self-harmed
- People in contact with mental health services
- People in contact with the justice system
- Autistic people
- Pregnant women and new mothers
- Geographic areas where demand for services is greatest and where there are disparities in provision and access to services, compared to other regions in England.
- Marginalised groups, such as ethnic minority groups including Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Please note, organisations and groups are encouraged to apply even if their proposed work does not meet some or any of the criteria above, provided their project meets the strategic objectives of the fund and they can make a convincing case of the need for funding.
Who can apply:
Applications will be accepted from charities and institutions other than a charity which are established for charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes.
This includes micro-organisations, small to large voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, groups and community interest companies (CICs):
- Micro-organisations and groups are defined as a user-led, community-led or peer support groups or organisations that may be unregistered or unconstituted.
- Small to large voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations and groups are defined as organisations and groups that are registered with the Charity Commission or their respective relevant regulator in England. This includes community-led charities, user-led organisations, umbrella bodies and national charities.
Organisations that are not a registered charity, for example a CIC, must be a non-profit-making organisation and be able to provide supporting governing document.
Joint consortium bids are also accepted, whereby a lead organisation partners with other smaller organisations.
What can you apply for?
The funding can only be used to support running costs and to cover small capital costs which are critical to the delivery of suicide prevention activities and in line with the organisation’s capital costs policy (for example, mobile phones to support additional helplines or equipment to ensure public health requirements).
It is expected that, wherever possible, successful projects will start work between December 2023 and January 2024.
How to apply:
The application guidance, online application form and grant funding agreement template can be found here.
The DHSC will be holding online events to summarise and answer any queries about the application process. Groups that would like to find out about these, or have any other queries, should contact the DHSC at suicidepreventiongrant@dhsc.gov.uk.
Is there a deadline?
Yes, 23:55 on 1 October 2023.
Notification of decisions is expected within approximately five weeks of the closing date for applications.