The charity which decides how the Health Lottery money is spent is to launch a consultation about future grants programmes after funding ten strategic partners across the country in its first round.

The People’s Health Trust, which launched in September ahead of the launch of the Health Lottery, will engage in conversations in the regions covered by the 51 society lotteries which make up the Health Lottery about what kinds of grants are needed in the future after Christmas. The new round of grant funding will launch next spring.

In its first round, the People’s Health Trust partnered with ten national charities which have individual local charities or associated charities in many of the regions covered by the lottery. This means that these organisations have received multiple grants to roll out specific projects across multiple regions. For instance, out of the 14 regions in which grants have been distributed, BTCV has been awarded seven grants worth £27,932 each for a green gym project which combines outdoor physical activity with community-based environmental projects. The School Food Trust has similarly received seven grants, each grant of £44,069 funding its ‘Let’s Get Cooking’ initiative in a different region.

The local groups which are represented by these ten partner charities, which also include Mencap, WRVS, Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK, Sustrans and Youth Sport Trust, do not individually apply for grants.

Ceri Edwards, director of policy and communications at the Trust, said: “We know that in some areas there’s a strong carers group that will be able to operate, but the local groups may not know that they’re going to be getting funding until the day we are told how much the lottery has raised.”

Edwards said the trust designed its first round in this way so as to get money out quickly and demonstrate lottery players’ impact. “Because it’s a local lottery, what we didn’t want to do was launch in October and then people not see where the money is going until next March or April. We wanted to show that these are the types of projects and organisations that we will be funding long term. It also demonstrates the type of money we offer,” he said.

Alongside these partners’ grants, which are the only grants to have been allocated thus far, the Trust will next week be announcing a round of small grants which will be made in the regions and whose total value will correlate with the number of lottery income in the area. These grants are made to grassroots community groups which have applied for funding in each region.