Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund Phase 5- Now Closed for Applications
Link Officer:
Gordon Watson
gordon.watson@vanl.co.uk
Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire (VANL) is delighted to announce that Phase Five of this fund will be open for applications from the 1st September 2025 and will be the first year the fund welcomes two year applications. VANL has received £955K of funding from the Scottish Government to support community and voluntary sector groups to contribute to the fund’s purpose of:
- improving mental health and wellbeing
- reducing mental health inequalities
- reducing mental health inequalities caused by the cost-of-living crisis
- reducing the stigma around mental health and illness
by supporting “at risk” groups in North Lanarkshire through community-based support.
Funding Provider
Scottish Government
Custodian Funding
£955k
Additional Funding Recieved
£191,914.56
Recurrent or Fixed Term
Fixed Term
Fund Start Date
September 2025
Fund End Date
March 2026 (1 year projects)
March 2027 (2 year projects)
Award Process
- Funding Schedule produced by Head of Community Solutions (HCS) and shared with CEO for approval
- Award letters to funded project prepared by Team Support (TS) including invoice amounts and unique purchase order numbers for each invoice. Head of Community Solutions checks and signs award letter and they are then issued.
- Funded project returns signed acceptance section and first quarter invoice, quoting the unique purchase number order, to TS. All paperwork is saved in a Spoint folder and a link sent to Finance. Subsequent invoices for remaining quarters submitted by host organisations in line with schedule in award letter.
- Once satisfied all paperwork is present and correct, Finance staff will process each invoice in Xero and HCS approves it on system, Funds are then released to project in next payment run.
Reporting by funded projects
Phase 5:
- 1x 3 Monthly Progress Report – July 2025
- 1x Mid project report- October 2025
- 1x End of project report- April 2026
Reporting by VANL to funder
- VANL produces a fund-specific annual Impact and Learning report for the CMHWB.
Phase 5 Timeline
Panel Members
NHS Lanarkshire
Jenny Hutton- Public Mental Health and Wellbeing Development Manager
Colin Anderson- Senior Health Improvement Manager
North Lanarkshire Council
Gary Stark- Community Partnership Team
Leanne Pollock- Community Partnership Team
VANL- Community Solutions
Gordon Watson (Fund Lead)- Head of Community Solutions
Abeer Ashraf (Strategic lead for Mental Health)- Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Capacity Building Lead
Marta Szczepanska (Facilitator)- Community Solutions Team Support
VANL- Community Development Team
Kirsty Struthers- Deputy CEO (Operations)
Mental Health and Wellbeing Network Members
Sharron Farrell- North Lanarkshire Carers Together
Carla Maguire & Ian Sloan- Action for Children
All Community Solutions funded organisations are required to provide information about their services to the national; 'A Local Information System for Scotland' - ALISS to help local people needing support find information readily.
To add your organisation’s activities and contact information to ALISS or to search for existing projects and other organisations, please use the ALISS website