New Grants Programme: Complex Needs in Primary Care

This programme is now closed.

The Burdett Trust for Nursing is an independent charitable trust that makes grants to support nurse-led¹ projects focused on supporting the nursing contribution to healthcare. The Trust aims to use its funds to empower nurses and through this to make significant improvements to the patient care environment.

The number of people living with complex, multiple heath conditions is increasing. Advances in medicine mean that more people, of all ages, are living with complex health needs; something which is exacerbated by an ageing population and lifestyle changes. It is estimated that three million people in the UK have three or more long-term conditions, whether physical or mental/psychological/cognitive. People living in more socially deprived areas are at greater risk of developing such conditions. These trends are creating a growing demand for primary health care services to treat patients with complex needs. For more than a decade, health care policy has tried to reduce the demand for emergency hospital care by improving capability and capacity in other parts of the health care system. Research indicates that the continuity and quality of primary care can help prevent the development of more severe health and social problems, resulting in fewer hospital admissions and emergency care attendances. People living with complex needs benefit from a coordinated approach to their care, but all too often they experience fragmentation between health and social care services which leads to reduced outcomes and poor patient experience.

The Burdett Trust believes that nurses are well-placed to support patients to live well through self-management and with the support of well co-ordinated and holistic continuing care services provided in a range of primary and social care settings. Working as part of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams, nurses can provide coordinated, person-centred and preventive care that reduces unnecessary hospital admissions and enables patients with complex needs to remain at or return home with reduced reliance on traditional hospital services. Using the latest tele-health and tele-care technologies, patients can be enabled to live fulfilled lives closer to home, whilst the nurses who support them can share information, facilitate data linkage and robustly evaluate what works well in partnership with their patients.

The Trustees are keen to support innovative, nurse-led projects that will deliver high quality, compassionate care for people with complex needs in primary care settings.

Please note that this programme will not support personal study.

All projects must be nurse-led and have the nursing contribution to healthcare at their core. Proposals must be well-argued and demonstrate why the project is needed, what benefits and impacts it will deliver and how it will generate learning that can be shared, disseminated and adopted more widely.

Eligibility

Grant applications are invited from charities, non-profit organisations and public bodies that wish to undertake innovative projects to strengthen nursing leadership. Projects must be nurse-led and demonstrate an innovative approach. Grant applications are invited from charities, non-profit organisations and public bodies. The programme is not designed to support projects developed and undertaken by individuals and cannot award grants to private sector organisations.

Applicant organisations must be:

properly constituted bodies in the public or voluntary/charity sectors; or
a university or other charitable educational body that provides health-related education, training or research and development.

The Trust will not fund salary costs, posts, services or direct care costs that are regarded as the core funding responsibilities or statutory responsibility of Government or a public body. However, the additional cost of locum cover, staff to provide training, support, research and development, or to undertake project management or evaluation, which are an integral part of the project proposal and would not otherwise be funded by the applicant organisation, may be included in an application for funding.

Funding & Awards

Grants awarded within this programme will be between £20,000 and £100,000.

Terms and Conditions

Projects are likely to be completed within a twelve-month period.
Projects that exceed six months in duration will be required to submit periodic monitoring reports to the Trust, the timing of which will be project-specific and agreed with successful applicants as part of the approval process.
Grant payments will be staged and may be withheld if projects do not progress as approved.
Applications for projects with a significant educational element will be required to demonstrate evidence of a strong service-academic partnership.
A final report will be required from all projects.
The Trust will not fund projects that are part of established improvement programmes or projects which are already funded by other bodies.
The Trust will not fund projects concerned with the statutory elements of staff transfer or the mandatory retraining or orientation of staff to new organisations.
Applicants are advised that project proposals will be evaluated on a competitive basis to ensure that funds are used to support projects that best meet the Trust’s objectives.

Please note: in addition to their own plans for dissemination and knowledge transfer, successful applicants will be expected to contribute to a half-day conference/seminar in Central London to share learning with other grant recipients and publicise the outcomes of the programme.

What will Trustees look for in applications?

Trustees anticipate a large number of project proposals. The Trustees aim to fund projects that:

are innovative, offering new ways to strengthen and improve nursing leadership and multi-agency collaboration
provide evidence of direct user and patient involvement and the co-production of self-care solutions;
will generate learning or new practices that can be shared with others and which have the potential to be disseminated and adopted more widely;
will promote collaborative working among health and social care professionals, and partnerships within and across organisations;
have the support and backing of key stakeholders;
have sound arrangements for project management and monitoring, and robust plans for evaluation;
are succinct, well-argued and demonstrate clearly why the project is needed and what benefits it will deliver.

Application Process and Deadlines

The Trust recognises that developing grant applications is time consuming and can result in disappointment. To minimise the burden on applicants the application process has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, using online application technology. Applicants are advised to download the questions in advance and prepare their answers carefully before attempting to complete the application form online. All applications will be acknowledged and applicants will be contacted during the assessment process to answer any questions relating to their application.

Applicants must download a copy of Burdett Trust’s Grant Contract prior to making an application to ensure their organisation can agree to its terms in the event of a grant being offered.

Applicants are strongly advised to apply well in advance of the deadline: midnight, 26 October 2019. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application within four months of the closing date.

Data Protection Act

To comply with this Act, we require your consent to use personal data supplied by you in the processing and review of your grant application. This includes transfer to and use by such individuals and organisations as the Trust deems appropriate. The Trust requires your further assurance that personal data about any other individual is supplied to the Trust with his/her consent. Submitting an outline proposal to the Trust confirms this consent and assurance.

Please note: the Trustees’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to them.

Online application

The closing date for applications is midnight, 26 October 2019.