Funding Newsletter - April 2024

2024/25 Funding Programme:

Leeds Hospitals Charity support NHS staff to deliver the best care for over a million patients and their families each year. Working with local communities, schools and businesses, each year we provide over £4 million in additional funding to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Since the launch of our strategy in 2021, we’re proud to have provided over £26m of additional funding to Leeds Teaching Hospitals taking the total over the past six years to over £50m. Additional funding has supported a wide range of projects tackling health inequalities supporting treatment of rare diseases and ensuring innovation and health technologies can continue to drive improvements to patient care and experience.

Read more: The difference donations make

We are excited to be launching a range of funding opportunities that will be available throughout 2024/25. These opportunities will be open to all staff across all hospitals.

Staff are invited to make applications for the following opportunities this quarter.

Patient Experience Grant:

Application window open: Monday 15 April – Friday 24 May 2024

We’re looking for a range of projects and initiatives of varying value from £75 to £7,500.

Proposals should aim to to improve the experience of patients treated and cared for at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, leading to enhanced service delivery and clinical outcomes.

View our full guidance

We also invite you to register for our upcoming information webinar (held via MS Teams) on Wednesday 24 April 2024 where there will be an opportunity to ask questions. A recording will be shared for those who can’t attend.

Click here to register

Donations help make Older Persons Wards dementia friendly

Thanks to your donations, we’re helping improve the hospital experience for thousands of older patients by improving the ward environment and providing dementia friendly activities.

Ali Raycraft, Lead Nurse for Older People said:

“These changes to the ward environment will make a huge difference, particularly to our more vulnerable older people who have dementia. The wards will feel more welcoming and friendly, helping to reduce stress, distress and agitation.”

Education Grant:

Application window open: Monday 15 April – Friday 24 May 2024

Proposals should aim to demonstrate a creative and innovative approach to education and training with the opportunity to support a team or group of staff rather than an individual to develop non-clinical skills of frontline staff to improve patient care and treatment.

We invite you to register for our upcoming information webinar (held via MS Teams) on Thursday 25 April 2024 where there will be an opportunity to ask questions. A recording will be shared for those who can’t attend. More details will be available on our Funding Opportunities page soon.

Click here to register

More details will be available on our Funding Opportunities page soon.

Read more: Funding Opportunities

Donations fund initiatives to support staff development

Donations have enabled Leeds Hospitals Charity to support staff with training to become a Birth Trauma Resolution Practitioner. The outcomes of this course will support women and their families across the Trust through trauma informed care, with the ambition to train more midwives to become a more trauma informed service.

Josie, a midwife at Leeds Teaching Hospitals said:

“Trauma can be experienced through many things, and this can be before, during or even after birth. Currently, if a patient has a traumatic experience, they are offered a debrief with our team to understand why certain things have happened, but I hope with the training from this course, we will develop this further and support the patient and their families to resolve this trauma and hopefully improve patient experiences for more positive outcomes.

The teachings could also provide support to our staff, offering a staff wellbeing service which is specific to maternity for any of our staff members that have been involved with a traumatic experience.

It will be fantastic to provide midwifery lead trauma therapy as a service to our patients in Leeds and hopefully improve patients’ wellbeing and overall experiences.”

Innovation in Healthcare Grant:

Application window open: Monday 13 May – Friday 21 June 2024

We are looking for a range of projects and initiatives of varying value from £75 to £10,000.

Proposals should relate to a new way of doing something that has the potential to enhance patient experience or patient outcomes. We will prioritise projects that seek to tackle and reduce health inequalities.

View our full guidance

We invite you to register for our upcoming information webinar (held via MS Teams) on Wednesday 22 May 2024 where there will be an opportunity to ask questions. A recording will be shared for those who can’t attend.

Click here to register

Donations fund Virtual Reality Play Specialist to support and improve the service of treatment for children at Leeds Children’s Hospital

We have previously provided funding to The Play Service Team at Leeds Children's Hospital, for a Virtual Reality Play Specialist. This role supports children and young people by helping them to use a virtual reality headset during treatment, helping to reduce anxiety and stress for children and their families during treatment.

Lucy Dove, Virtual Reality Play Specialist at Leeds Children's Hospital said:

“This funding will enable more children and young people to benefit from this service, helping to reduce the number of general anaesthetics for minor operations and procedures, which can reduce a child’s time spent in hospital. A hospital environment can be a daunting place for a child or young person, so using this headset helps reduce their anxiety and stress, improving the hospital experience for children and their families.”

Research Seed Funding £75 - £10,000 Grant:

Application window open: 15 May - 23 May 2024

We are looking for a range of projects and initiatives of varying value from £75 to £10,000. Proposals should aim to address health inequalities and demonstrate how funding will facilitate meaningful change and advance research.

We invite you to register for our upcoming information webinar (held via MS Teams) on Thursday 23May 2024 where there will be an opportunity to ask questions. A recording will be shared for those who can’t attend.

Click here to register

More details will be available on our Funding Opportunities page soon.

Read more: Funding Opportunities

Research Pump Prime Funding £10,001 - £50,000 Grant:

Application window open: Monday 15 May 2024

Deadline for Expression of Interest: Monday 10 June 2024

For projects over £50,000 we have a two-stage process:

Step 1: Completion of an Expression of Interest (EOI).
Step 2: Applicants will be invited to complete a full application following triage of an EOI

We are looking for a range of projects and initiatives of varying value from £10,001 to £50,000 that aim to address health inequalities and demonstrate how funding will facilitate meaningful change and advance research.

We invite you to register for our upcoming information webinar (held via MS Teams) on Thursday 23 May 2024 where there will be an opportunity to ask questions. A recording will be shared for those who can’t attend.

Click here to register

More details will be available on our Funding Opportunities page soon.

Read more: Funding Opportunities

Talk to Us!

Please reach out to us if you have an application idea, are aware of a significant donation or want to discuss focused fundraising for a project.

We're a friendly team and always keen to hear from staff, so please reach out and talk to us if:

You have an idea for a project that doesn't fit with one of our existing funding calls and want to know about future funding opportunities
You are aware of a significant donation that could make a difference in your area
You want to discuss focused fundraising for a specific project

Contact the Grants Team on 0113 539 7091 or email [email protected]

Our Impact:

Since April 2023 we have funded a huge range of projects from new equipment and technologies to investment in research to support staff with funding for trials and new innovations.

Find out more about the difference donations make

Leeds Hospitals Charity is proud to fund a range of projects across Leeds Teaching Hospitals to make a real difference to patients, families, and staff.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with us via [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Best wishes,

Becky, Charlotte, Alex, Jess & Andrea

Leeds Hospitals Charity Grants Team

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