Guidance

Report on the usage of section 70 of the Charities Act 2006 by the Department of Health and Social Care

Published 4 August 2020

Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 70(9) of the Charities Act 2006

Usage of section 70 of the Charities Act 2006

This report is presented pursuant to the Charities Act 2006, section 70, which enables the provision of financial assistance to charitable, benevolent or philanthropic institutions.

Throughout 2019 to 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care has made grants totalling £15,712,770 to organisations under the provisions of the Charities Act 2006. In all cases, the funding matched both the aims and objectives of the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as those of the recipients. This spending does not represent the total amount of grant funding provided to the voluntary and community sector, as many other grants have been paid under the powers conferred by alternative legislation.

The following grants were made in 2019 to 2020:

The Thalidomide Trust, £8.5 million

In 2019 to 2020, £8,481,247 was paid to The Thalidomide Trust. This was year 7 of a 10-year grants fund totalling £80 million in England, with separate funding made available for the devolved administrations. The grant has been made in recognition of the complex and highly specialised needs that people affected by thalidomide have, particularly as they get older, and will enable the Thalidomide Trust and its members to explore ways of preventing further deterioration in their health and to help them to maintain their independence.

Mind – Time to Change Grant, £2.25 million

Time to Change is a national campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination around mental health problems, run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, with funding of £2.25 million in 2019 to 2020 from the Department of Health and Social Care. The campaign also receives additional funding from Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund. Time to Change is the government’s main vehicle for raising awareness of mental health problems in the general population, encouraging people to talk more openly about it and as a result improving and empowering those with mental health problems. It is therefore an integral part of the department’s wider mental health programme and preventative work.

Child Migrants Trust (CMT) and Family Restoration Fund (FRF), £0.654 million

In the 1990s, The Parliamentary Select Committee for Health held an inquiry into the welfare of former child migrants in 1998 and produced a report. In its response to the report, the UK government recognised that the priority for most children who were separated from their families was to re-establish contact and, where possible, to be reunited with their families.

The government therefore offered 2 new kinds of help:

• an information index to help those who wished to find their family
• a £1 million travel fund to help those without means who had found their family to reunite.

In 2010, following the national apology to former child migrants, the government established the £6 million FRF, a new programme to help former child migrants to reunite with their families. In addition, the government has provided continuing funding to the CMT (£654,000 in 2019 to 2020) to cover running costs and its role in administering the FRF. The FRF supports travel and other costs for former child migrants who wished to be reunited with their families. Since the launch of the fund, over 1,360 former child migrants have travelled using the scheme. In 2017 a further £2 million was awarded for the FRF, and the trust continued to utilise this funding in 2019 to 2020.

LIBOR Grants, £0.618 million

The grant payments represent where the government has agreed that proceeds from LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) fines would be used to support armed forces and emergency services charities and other related good causes. In 2019 to 2020 the £0.618 million represents the grants made to health charities such as BLISS and Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Standing Together Against Violence (STADV), £1.206 million

STADV is leading a consortium partnership called Pathfinder which includes SafeLives, Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRISi), Imkaan (a UK-based, Black feminist organisation) and AVA (Against Violence and Abuse). Pathfinder aims to develop a whole-health response to violence against women and girls across primary care, acute hospital and mental health trusts.

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, £0.396 million

The Each Baby Counts – Learn and Support grant is designed to build on the existing Each Baby Counts initiative, with the aim of helping deliver the national target of halving the incidence of serious injuries or death to children during or shortly after birth.

Acting in conjunction with the Royal College of Midwifes and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the aim of the programme is to align quality and safety improvement, multi-professional learning and clinical leadership into a consistent and sustainable safety strategy across the system by supporting front-line staff to embed quality improvement into local practice.

Sands, £0.1 million

The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) is run by the stillborn and neonatal death charity, Sands. It aims to ensure that every parent is offered the same high standard of bereavement care wherever they live. The pathway, established in 2016 out of the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss, was developed by a coalition of baby loss charities, royal colleges and other partners. It helps professionals to support families in their bereavement, and the target is to embed the NBCP across England by the end of 2020.

Samaritans, £0.425 million

This grant follows the Prime Minister’s commitment announced in May 2017 that the government would fund the Samaritans Helpline up to 2022. In support of the cross-government national suicide prevention strategy, the funding will help Samaritans embed their freecall helpline number.

Shooting Star Chase and Together for Short Lives, £0.007 million

The grant payments of £6,716 represent where the government has agreed to waive any VAT proceeds raised from charity singles and a concert. Beneficiaries included Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Together for Short Lives, who received proceeds from the VAT that would have been raised from the X Factor charity single.

Air Ambulance scheme, £0.8 million

In his Autumn Budget 2018, the Chancellor made £10 million of capital funding available for air ambulance charities. Following a competitive grants scheme, 10 air ambulance charities were awarded funding over 3 years. £763,053 was given to projects which started in 2019 to 2020. Further funding is due to be distributed in 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022.

Care Provider Alliance (CPA), £0.05 million

In 2019 to 2020, £50,000 was paid to the CPA, which brings together 11 previously disparate and disorganised trade bodies representing independent and voluntary adult social care providers in England. The CPA works to represent the sector and ensure a coordinated response to the major issues that affect it.

Engagement and work with the CPA has improved engagement with the care sector and supported and led aspects of high-priority work on market sustainability. To maintain this crucial relationship and to support the important work set out in this submission, we are seeking agreement for a new CPA grant of £50,000 in 2020 to 2021.