New funding call-out to improve non-clinical patient experience

If you have any doubts or questions about the criteria, feel free to contact us via our website or by email to Iris Comin.

We are looking for:

• Improvements to patient experience in frontline services based on feedback from patients collected within the last two years. This could include specific issues or themes emerging from analysis of direct comments, PALS concerns, national or local surveys from patients, mystery shopping, or evidence from surveys conducted by the Trust with findings specific to that service.

For example, improvements to physical spaces which introduce innovative ways of using the environment to respond to patient feedback, e.g. in the provision of information, or enhancing wellbeing or dignity.

• Focus on improving opportunities for all patients to have equal access and engagement with care. Targeted interventions to improve the equity of access for specific groups are also welcomed.
• Alignment with the Trust’s patient experience priorities 2023/24:
  • Improve patients and carers experience of contacting the Trust by telephone and receive the response they need.
  • Informing patients of waiting times and delays, and ensuring they are updated.
  • Treating patients with kindness and understanding.
  • Ensuring patients have the information they need to access care, treatment and support after/self care.
• Projects that aim to pilot, test and gather evidence before seeking Trust support, clearly defining the problem and explaining how the approach differs from past efforts or how it will be applied in new contexts
• Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) in the development and/or delivery of the project.

We would not support projects which:

• Suggest improvements to physical spaces which are not innovative (e.g. solely for comfort, convenience, refurbishing/brightening an area) and that are not based on the results of patient experience comments, feedback or surveys.
• Focus principally on benefits for staff. Support for staff is an important area for us and we are supporting initiatives such as ‘Showing We Care About You’ including through increased psychological support. For any queries about staff focused projects please contact us.
• Aim to improve clinical delivery of care or diagnosis.
• Replicate or extend an existing approach potentially fundable through business planning.
• Focus on research or other initiatives where the objectives do not lead to measurable improvements for patients and/or carers.
• Do not demonstrate how patients and carers will be involved in the project.

Examples of what we can fund:

• Equipment (non-medical).
• Consumables and materials.
• Non-permanent staff costs – for example, staff hired to support a project.
• Any other items that directly support the non-clinical care of patients and that can’t be funded from other sources.

Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity funds innovative projects within the Trust that go beyond NHS core funding and aim to improve the experience of patients and carers.

All staff members at the Trust are eligible to apply at this funding callout except those working exclusively with Evelina London and cancer patients. Cross-Trust projects which include benefits to these areas of service, but not exclusively, are eligible.

However, maternity/obstetrics services are not eligible, with the exception of pregnancy bereavement and the Assisted Conception Unit.

For other maternity/obstetrics services and projects that benefit specifically Evelina London and cancer patients, visit the websites of the other charities in our family of NHS charities to find out more about funding opportunities:

• Evelina London Children’s Charity
• Guy’s Cancer Charity

If your idea benefits other parts of the Trust but does not focus on non-clinical patient experience, you may be eligible to access funding from one of our Special Purpose Funds, which are restricted donations to benefit specific purposes or departments/wards.

The minimum you can apply for is £25,000 and the maximum is £50,000. Under exceptional circumstances, we will consider applications up to £70,000 if an idea seems very impactful and has justifiable budget requirements.

The funding callout will be open from Monday 12 August until Monday 23rd September at 7pm. During this time, you can submit a very brief description of your idea. We will then invite eligible and selected projects to submit a full application.
Awards will be made by the end of December 2024, for projects starting from January 2025. However, this timeline will depend on how many applications we receive.

At the bottom of this page, there is an infographic that provides an overview of the entire funding application process.

Coaching facility for successful applicants

Successful applicants will be able to access Project Management and Improvement Coaching support from the Trust’s Centre for Innovation, Transformation and Improvement (CITI).

This offer will be tailored to each project depending on how much support each applicant would like to receive, as well as the scope and scale of each project. This will ensure improvements are effectively delivered and increase their chances of success and sustainability.

Each project will be able to choose the level of support they require, and will be able to access the following offer:

• Regular sessions with the project lead and/or team to provide project management support and improvement coaching to ensure momentum. This will include advice on stakeholder engagement, patient and public involvement, and measurement of benefits.
• Direct support to take on actions as part of the projects, e.g. where it requires input from other parts of the organisation.
• Support with preparation and facilitation of meetings where progress and impact may need to be reported (e.g. governance meetings, or to management).
• Access to regular CITI facilitated peer-to-peer action learning sets to encourage learning and sharing across projects.
• Access to an MS Teams channel, facilitated by CITI, to share ideas, learnings and resources between all call-out project teams. This will include the sharing of tailored resources (e.g. tools) developed by CITI for the project teams.
• CITI will also signpost applicants to CITI Academy to access training and resources. This offer includes the ability to access bespoke training for the project team if required.

Applicants are welcome to consult the CITI page on GTi and existing CITI toolkits, resources and training on The College of Healthcare Learning Hub, to understand the breadth of the support available.

Our committee members are:

• Colin Kinloch – Trust Funding Director, Co-chair
• Judith Bennett – Head of Nursing for Quality and Accreditation
• Andrea Williams-McKenzie – Deputy Chief People Officer/Director of People & Organisation Development
• Gerry Carr-White – Deputy medical Director HLCC clinical group and clinical director south London ODN
• Gina Brockwell – Chief Midwife
• Kalpesh Thanki – Director of Strategy and Planning – Essentia Delivery Group
• Mark Kinirons – Medical Director
• Suzanne Bench – Director of Nursing: Nurse and Midwife Led Research and Academic Leadership
• Will Turner – Chief of Staff Integrated and Specialist Medicine