Case Study

How we helped deliver a health inequalities micro grants programme

Bringing together innovation from across the public and the voluntary sectors can be challenging. But public services need fresh ideas to save money and drive improvement through collaboration.

£76K

Successfully funded projects through the SimplyDo platform

38

Innovative ideas supporting children, migrants, and mental health in the community

14

Organisations across the Integrated Care System engaged with SimplyDo

SimplyDo helped us reach different audiences and made it less daunting for organisations, which opened the door to the voluntary sector. It was hugely beneficial that the administration was automated and the support was more than we expected.

Cally Hayes, Transformation and Engagement Manager, SSE Alliance, NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System

Background:

Working to support the most deprived 20% of the population to enhance mental health and well-being

Summary:

1

Inspire the public and third sector to reduce inequalities

2

Empower stakeholders and staff with the agency to innovate and change

3

Engage third-sector and public-sector through new routes of engagement

NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) works across a population of 1.2 million people. This work includes the delegation of funds to local Alliances and we worked with South East Essex Alliance (SSE Alliance) around the distribution of the Health Inequalities Fund which is focused on projects supporting the 20% most deprived areas of the population..

Breaking through the traditional NHS hierarchy to empower staff and partners to deliver this impactful change was difficult to achieve using existing collaboration methods.

There was a need to try a digital approach to support engagement and collaboration helping to generate the newest ideas to solve these health inequalities challenges.

Solution:

Unleashing collaboration through ideas to enable better mental health and well-being

Summary:

1

Co-created process to help both funders and applicants

2

Engagement and communications support

3

Collaboration encouraged and delivered using platform functionality

SimplyDo worked with the Transformation Team within SSE Alliance to design a robust funding application process for the Health Inequalities Fund. Together, we combined robust open competition with engaging communication that would help third and voluntary sector organisations overcome the barriers of existing bidding and procurement platforms and to submit ideas alongside commissioned or more traditional providers.

Our proven engagement strategy, plan, and resources enabled the Transformation Team to facilitate the communications rather than taking on the administrative burden of creating and delivering the campaign.

Applicants were then able to like, comment, and collaborate with each other using in-app social media style functionality helping improve the quality of ideas.

Impact:

Delivering better mental health and well-being through diverse collaboration

Summary:

1

Engaging difficult-to-reach audiences through accessible platform

2

Driving collaboration to deliver mental health and well-being outcomes

3

Successfully delivering strategic goals using digital solution

Submissions include ideas for 38 projects across the third and public sectors. This engaged previously hard-to-reach charitable organisations, who created 5 of the 7 successfully funded applications.

Collaboration was also key to the development of these projects with applicants being able to view and comment on other ideas. This visibility enabled SS9 Primary Care Network to collaborate with Trustlinks in supporting enhanced mental health.

Strategic outcomes from this work include increased engagement, collaboration, and innovation using a digital platform. This allowed SSE Alliance to deliver its mission to tackle the biggest inequalities that some communities face.

‍