St. James's Place Charitable Foundation Hospice Grants

Research suggests that rural and more deprived areas were comparatively under-served compared to urban centres and more affluent areas. People living in remote and rural communities face additional difficulties in accessing specialist palliative care due to having to travel greater distances to access services. For some, this will mean it’s difficult or impossible to access some services; for example, access to day care services delivered via traditional models, is only viable for people living within a reasonable travelling distance of a hospice. Travel for patients and staff can also be hampered by poor weather. 

In England, 24.8% of the rural population are aged 65 and over, compared with the urban population where 16.8 per cent are 65 and over. The older population group is also growing faster in rural areas. This is likely to mean there is an increasing need for palliative care in remote and rural areas.

For the purpose of this grants programme we have used DEFRA’s definition of rural areas as towns, villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings with populations under 10,000.  Taken from the report: Rural Proofing in England 2020

Please read the application criteria document for full details.

Grants of up to £40,000 are available to support projects running over a period of 18 months. This allows for up to 3 months setup phase and 12 months project delivery – with a further 3 months to cover any unforeseen delays mid project. 

The grants will enable hospices to initiate or build on programmes of work that will support palliative and end of life care to people living in rural and remote communities. This can be through a number of ways:

• Putting into practice the recommendations or findings from an organisational or  local scoping exercise
• Piloting a new project based on a robust needs assessment
• Introduction of an intervention or tool
• Adapting existing activities where, through the investment of additional resources, greater impact can be achieved through adoption of new roles and approaches.
• Responding to national policy or research evidence.

Total available funding in this grant round is £500,000. We expect to award between twelve and fifteen grants in this round.

The deadline for applications is 17:00 on 20 June 2022. Applicants will be informed whether or not they have been successful in early August 2022.

Eligible organisations must be based in the UK and members of Hospice UK:

• Adult hospices
• Children’s hospices.

NB: Hospices awarded a grant in the 2019 Breathe Easy/Lung Health programme are not eligible to apply in this round.

Due to funder restrictions this programme is not open to Marie Curie or Sue Ryder hospices.

Examples of potential projects could include; the funding of a post, service model, intervention or education programme.  To underpin the programme aims, we are looking to support projects such as:

• Provision of 24/7 support in rural and remote areas
• Supporting the shift to virtual service delivery models – innovative technology projects that offer support that is just as good as in-person
• New approaches to the workforce – e.g. moulded roles, combined roles
• Working in partnership with other healthcare/social care/welfare/local govt agencies to meet patient/carers needs
• Reaching particular groups within rural and remote communities, such as farming communities (or men in rural communities, who are less likely to present to services)
• Training and support for staff and volunteers around remote working and digital technologies
• The development of mobile hospice units, offering a drop-in service at various venues, information and advice on symptom management, as well as emotional, spiritual, psychological and bereavement support
• Compassionate Communities – using local links to work with community organisations to reach more people needing palliative care, build capacity and resilience within communities and provide more support for carers/family members.

Please bear in mind that we are interested in how projects will be sustainable once funding has ended.

An outline timetable for the programme is given below. 

• 20 June 2022 - Deadline for submission of applications 17:00
• Late July - Major Grants Committee meet to allocate funding
• Early August - all applicants to be notified of decisions
• Early December - First progress report due from grantees
• Project lead Day - TBC