Legal & General – Community Chest

Legal & General has recently announced the launch of a £3m ‘Health Equity’ Fund, designed to support projects run by organisations (e.g. charities, social enterprises, community groups) across the UK that address health inequalities.

The fund is offering grants of up to £75,000 to place-based projects that address the social determinants of health: non-medical social and economic factors, such as housing, education, infrastructure, or quality of work.

The opportunity is now open to receiving interest from organisations with projects or ideas for projects to be delivered in regions and communities UK-wide by 3rd September 2024. The initial EOI is quite high-level level and a successful proposal will be expected to submit a more detailed bid at a later date.

They are particularly interested in proposals that can demonstrate:

• Local impact on reducing health inequality, addressing underserved communities
• Potential to scale up and be replicated nationally
• Potential to become financially sustainable in the medium term
• Particularly innovative approaches
• Initiatives which can demonstrate local support and key stakeholder engagement (including support from Local and/or Combined Authorities)

They have been supporting local areas in London to deliver community chest approaches as a way to support underserved communities. Community Chests are a shared investment fund that brings together key representatives from across a local community to work in partnership and use local intelligence to agree on funding priorities.

They combine money from the NHS, the local authority, as well as other sources to create an accessible funding pot. This funding is awarded to voluntary and community groups to support local activities that aim to reduce health inequalities.

Examples of community chest-funded activities include support for parents of those living with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, drama groups working with children and young people with learning disabilities, and football sessions for refugees and asylum seekers.

If you are interested in submitting an EOI to deliver a community chest or similar approach, please get in touch to access support with drafting the submission.