Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - year 3: monitoring and reporting summary

Section C: Learning And Reflections

Partnership Plans Summary reflections

• Local Partnership Plans indicated a reduction in membership across the local partnerships for the Fund. Consideration should be given to boosting participation, in particular from Local Authorities (both mental health and non-mental health), Health and Social Care Partnerships and Community Planning Partnerships.
• Whilst the involvement of those with lived experience in the local partnership groups appeared to remain the same (81% TSIs report involvement); a number of TSIs report progress in further integrating those with lived experience in the process and decision making around priorities and funding applications.
• Representation on Local Partnership Groups from local authority, community link workers and suicide preventions leads could be improved.
• We did not note any flags or areas of concern in relation to the administration of funds and the support given to organisations. Instead, many TSIs have drawn productively on learning from Year 1 and 2 to further improve systems which were already functioning well.
• Improvements based on Year 2 learning include amending the grant distribution, increasing advertisement of the Fund, offering additional support to organisations and the development of an online application portal.
• A point to note is that a number of TSIs have suggested, in part through their local plan summaries, through discussion in the Network and during conversations with Scottish Government, that it would be helpful to have multi-year funding.

National Event

In March 2024, we hosted a National Event in Perth - Supporting Mental Health & Wellbeing In Our Communities: Emerging Practices.

The purpose of the event was to share learning emerging from the range of community-based mental health supports for children, young people and adults funded via the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, Children and Young People's Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services funding, and wider community interventions supported by national partners.

The aims of the event were:

• To provide an opportunity to showcase the impact of projects and delivery approaches and share best practice
• To celebrate and raise the profile of preventative, community interventions and emphasise the importance of these as part of a whole system approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing
• To demonstrate how these local community projects are directly supporting a range of policy priorities, such as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Creating Hope Together and Best Start, Bright Futures.
• To support collaboration, networking and learning through active involvement of a range of local and national partners

Feedback following the event showed that:

• Attendees had found it helpful to hear from other services and some are already implementing new ways of working based on this;
• The event showcased some really interesting projects and celebrated diversity in what people were delivering and their approaches; and
• The event was a great opportunity to network.

Some suggestions for improvement included:

• Bringing a variety of projects to present at TSI National Network Meetings in order to learn and share best practice;
• Undertaking more collaborative work, sharing practices and learning; and
• Inviting TSIs to present their approaches to the Fund at the National Network Meetings.

National Guidance

It has previously been noted that earlier guidance would be useful for TSIs and for Year 4 guidance and grant letters have been issued much earlier than before. This will provide greater flexibility and will enable TSIs to open their application process much earlier than before if they wish to do so, giving more time for planning.

The guidance document has been updated to incorporate comments from TSIs and to clarify several points including on:

• Continution funding;
• Target groups;
• TSIs funding their own projects;
• Reporting underspends; and
• The importance of working closely with local partners involved in delivering the CYP funding.