New Funding Available for Learning Disability Improvement Projects
New grant funding has been made available to help improve the lives of people with a learning disability in Wales.
Improvement Cymru’s Learning Disability Improvement team has made improvement grants of up to £25,000 available to enable projects that will support the lives of people with a learning disability through improvement.
The new improvement grants, which will be available from April 2023, aim to encourage teams in health, social care and education to explore new ways of working or develop innovative ideas into reality.
With the public sector continuing to respond to ongoing and changing pressures and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the improvement grants provide an opportunity to harness and develop innovative ideas that have emerged and changed the provision of services.
Improvement projects eligible for the improvement grants can vary in size and length of time, with key areas of interest including:
- Safety initiatives (this can be in any relevant setting)
- Early years intervention
- Transition from children to adult services
- Coproduction
- Approaches to reducing restrictive practice
- Improving the quality of care, support and education
- Early intervention and prevention
- Support for people experiencing a crisis
- Improving access to services
The improvement grants will be available to public sector organisations, services, teams or members of staff, and can be used in partnership with other organisations such as a third sector partner or a care provider.
Projects facilitated bv the improvement grants will support the Learning Disability Improvement team’s work to improve the lives of people with a learning disability by reducing inequality, as part of Welsh Government’s Learning Disability Strategic Action Plan 2022 to 2026.
More than a grant
As part of the opportunity, the Learning Disability Improvement team will offer recipients of the grant improvement coaching, advice, training and resources that will not only support the improvement project being funded, but equip teams to deliver similar projects in the future.
The support the team can offer includes:
- Improvement training and skills
- Improvement coaching and advice during your project
- Access to a range of improvement networks
David O’Brien, Senior Improvement Manager in the Learning Disability Improvement team, said: “The Learning Disability Improvement team works to support new ideas, share learning and drive change, and we are excited by this opportunity to work with colleagues across NHS, social care and education who continue to innovate.
“These improvement grants offer a new opportunity to implement projects exploring changes that deliver sustainable improvement and those that don’t, which is at the heart of any high quality and safe service.
“We recognise that improvement comes in all shapes and sizes, and that A series of small changes can be just as impactful as one bigger improvement project, so we would certainly encourage applications requiring only a small portion of the total available funding.”
Apply Now
If you are ready to apply for an improvement grant, please complete the grant application form here before 5pm on Monday 17 April 2023. A panel will review and let you know if you have been successful.
If you would like more information about the grants, want to discuss whether a grant is appropriate to support your change idea, or want to find out more about how the team can support you, please email Rebecca.curtis7@wales.nhs.uk and David.O'Brien2@wales.nhs.uk for information about a series of virtual drop-in sessions being arranged.