Bradford 2025 Social Prescribing Awards

To support the development of innovative creative and cultural activities that improve health and wellbeing across Bradford District and Craven.

Artists, creative facilitators, academics and researchers, community groups, and organisations with a tangible connection to Bradford District and/or Craven.

A tangible connection demonstrates a meaningful link to the local community, geography, or cultural landscape of Bradford District or Craven. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Residency or Location: You or your organisation are based in Bradford District or Craven.
• Existing Relationships: You have a history of working with communities, organisations, or cultural groups in the area.
• Cultural Knowledge: Your project reflects an understanding of the district’s unique needs, heritage, or diversity.
• Collaborative Links: You are collaborating with local partners, artists, or organisations rooted in Bradford District or Craven.
• Community Engagement: You have established networks or relationships within local communities that your project will build upon or deepen.
• Service or Impact: Your project will directly benefit the residents of Bradford District or Craven, addressing health and wellbeing challenges specific to the area.

Projects Must: 

• Address specific health conditions and serve priority groups.
• Clearly define how you seek to narrow health inequalities in the district and/or Craven.
• Be developed in collaboration with the communities they serve (co-production).
• Include methods to measure the impact on participants’ health and wellbeing.
• Align with the objectives of enhancing the Social Prescribing offer in the district.
• Provide evidence of risk management and safeguarding plans.
• Demonstrate GDPR compliance for data protection.
• Provide evidence of Public Liability Insurance.

• People experiencing homelessness.
• Refugees and asylum seekers.
• Gypsy and traveller communities.
• People affected by dementia.
• People with long-term conditions and/or major health issues.
• People with diagnosed mental health conditions, with areas of focus on young people (age 16-25) and suicide prevention in young men.

As part of our commitment to staff and volunteer wellbeing, each successful project will be required to deliver a taster session of their project for the Bradford 2025 team at our office. This session will form part of our Wellbeing Programme and should provide an engaging introduction to the project for staff, volunteers, and partners. Applicants should include a plan for this taster session in their project proposal.

Small Awards: Up to £6,000 (18 awards available) – apply via VCS Alliance

Medium Awards: Up to £30,000 (8 awards available) – apply via Bradford 2025

March 2025 – January 2026

Monday, 20 January 2025 at 9am

• Relevance to award objectives and priority groups.
• Applicants can demonstrate a tangible connection to Bradford District or Craven
• Must detail cash or kind match funding where applicable
• Quality and feasibility of the project plan.
• Innovation and creativity of the intervention.
• Evidence of co-production with the community.
• Impact measurement approach.
• Capacity and experience of the applicant(s).
• Budget breakdown; is it clear, realistic, and justified?
• Partnership agreements (for Medium Awards); clear commitment and Roles & Responsibilities
• Risk management and Safeguarding plans
• GDPR compliance
• Evidence of Public Liability Insurance
• Must consider the sustainability of the project
• Anything else to ensure due diligence

We aim to notify all applicants of our decision during the week commencing 27th January 2025.

Application review process

1: Initial Check

Upon receiving your application, we will first ensure that all required information and supporting documents have been submitted. Incomplete applications or missing documents may result in delays or disqualification, so please double-check your submission.

2: Support with Applications

If you need assistance with completing your application, we encourage you to contact the Creative Health team as early as possible. While we are happy to offer support, we cannot guarantee assistance close to the submission deadline due to high demand. Please contact [email protected] with all enquiries

3: Award Panel Review

Your application will be reviewed by our Social Prescribing Award panel. The panel will evaluate and score each application based on the criteria outlined in the guidance notes.

4: Scoring Criteria

• Applications will be assessed against the following key criteria:
• Relevance to award objectives and priority groups.
• Applicants can demonstrate a tangible connection to Bradford District or Craven
• Project quality and feasibility.
• Innovation and creativity of the intervention.
• Evidence of community co-production.
• Impact measurement approach.
• Capacity and experience of the applicant(s).
• Budget clarity and value for money.
• Partnerships (for Medium Awards).
• Safeguarding and GDPR compliance.

5: Additional Information

In some cases, we may request further information to clarify aspects of your application. Additionally, where relevant, we will consult external data sources such as the Charities Commission and Companies House to review your organisation’s constitution and audited accounts for the last two years.

Given the high volume of expected applications, we anticipate more proposals than we have resources to support. After reviewing and scoring all applications, the panel will apply balancing criteria to ensure we achieve a fair and equitable distribution of funding. This includes:

• Ensuring adequate coverage of Priority Groups.
• Supporting a diverse range of creative activities.
• Reflecting the diversity of Bradford District and Craven’s communities.
• Ensuring a geographical spread of projects across Bradford District & Keighley and Craven.
• These considerations will help us ensure that funding reaches a wide range of communities and activities that align with the core objectives of the Social Prescribing Awards.