A national mental health charity has called on the chancellor Rachel Reeves to introduce a £20m central implementation fund for the Civil Society Covenant in her upcoming budget.
In an open letter, Mental Health Matters wrote that the fund “would formalise local civil society agreements between government departments, integrated care boards, and local authorities”.
The fund would also support the commissioning of pilots and ensure that every department publishes annual civil society impact statements, which the charity said would embed sector collaboration in fiscal planning.
Sonia McGough, director for strategy and performance at Mental Health Matters, said: “The Civil Society Covenant is a fantastic starting point as a framework for government engagement with the charity sector.
“The government should now back this commitment up with the funding needed to make it a universal standard across all layers of government.”
In the same letter, seen by Civil Society, the charity called for a separate £100m “community cohesion fund” to help bring communities together and reduce loneliness and isolation across England.
The proposed five-year fund would be an expansion of the current £1.7m Common Ground Award and would be designed to “empower charities and other voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCSFSE) organisations to deliver larger programmes with grants of up to £250,000 per year for those working alongside local authorities or the NHS”.
Mental Health Matters said that the current Common Ground Award, which provides grants of up to £10,000, is usually only enough to fund “one-off pilots or a single year of activity”, whereas the new proposed fund would enable organisations to plan for the longer term and deliver more services “with lasting impact”.
Charities delivering services in disused NHS buildings
Also in the letter, Mental Health Matters called for a £30m investment fund to “embed VCFSE services within NHS estates”.
The charity urged Reeves to establish a fund to refurbish disused NHS spaces, including in hospitals and GP surgeries, which it said would “expand community cohesion; tackle loneliness and social isolation, and strengthen established partnerships between the public and third sectors”.
It added that utilising disused NHS buildings would help to reduce some charities’ reliance on “temporary prefab structures” and would offer a source of “sustainable community spaces for service delivery”.
Jane Hughes, Mental Health Matters’ chief executive, said: “There are over 800,000 square metres of unused or underutilised space within the NHS estate, which we believe is costing the taxpayer over £375m.
“The charity sector is ready to deliver services in these spaces. We often hear that people don’t know what support is available in their community, and that services need to be more joined up.
“We believe this proposal would help make services like ours more visible, accessible and better integrated with the NHS.”
“The plan would also see local VCFSE partners co-design facilities to meet community needs.”
