The Big Lottery Fund has funded twice as many £1m projects helping older people deal with transitions after being overwhelmed by the quality of pilot projects.

The funder has today announced funding to ten projects as part of the Silver Dreams Fund, which was originally intended to support just five projects. The projects which will receive around £1m each are ten of 37 pilots which were funded by Big in 2012 to test new ways of working with older people dealing with changes in circumstance, such as isolation, substance misuse or bereavement.

Big England chair Nat Sloane said: “The committee were so impressed with the outcomes of some of the pilot projects that we agreed to increase the available funding to ten projects instead of the original five… Today’s projects have all successfully demonstrated that this can be done and their ability to replicate their work whilst also sharing their learnings.”

The funding is part of a £135m allocation from Big Lottery Fund towards investment in supporting older people. The Silver Dreams Fund was launched with the support of the Daily Mail in 2011.