Opportunities for healthier communities

Topics: public health, voluntary sector

The Department of Health announced today its Opportunities for Volunteering grants - which total over 24 million pounds for this year.

The Department's Section 64 scheme will allot an average £47,000 to over 300 organisations - a total of £17.2m for projects that promote health and wellbeing. The DH Opportunities for Volunteering (OFV) scheme, will allocate £6.7m to support local health and social care projects, enabling them to involve volunteers in their work and complement local service delivery.

This is good news, particuarly in light of recent budgetary difficulties in the National Health Service. Community organisations may be more able to work with individuals to change their behaviours and lead healthier lifestyles in a way that the NHS traditionally hasn't been. It's really a question of focus - the NHS is geared toward getting people better, while some other organsations focus on keeping people well.

Of course, working with other organisations to achieve healthier outcomes introduces new complexities - the classic problems of accountability and performance. When you hand the money over - how do you know that what someone else will do with it will help you achieve your aims (e.g. a healthier Britain)? Some of the charities receiving grants are big hitters who are probably very good at managing their performance and ensuring that donors - whether individuals or government departments - are getting results for their dosh. But how can a public agency be sure? And how can make sure that the smaller players are able to access money too when they're doing good work? This is a question that we'll be exploring more over the coming months.

This programme is set to continue - and it's part of the Department of Health's continuing comittment to supporting the third sector and public health outlined in the White Paper: Our health, our care, our say

The Department will shortly be inviting applications for funding through Section 64 for 2007-08. Information on the funding priorities for 2007-08 and deadlines for outline applications will be available from the beginning of June at http://www.dh.gov.uk/section64.

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