What happens after you have submitted a proposal?

Timescales

• For proposals seeking up to and including £5,000, the charity will aim to provide a response within 28 days
• For proposals of more than £5,000, the charity will aim to provide a response within three months – please factor this into your planning.

Endorsement

All proposals are sent to the director of operations (or their nominated deputy) of the relevant clinical board that you select when submitting your on-line proposal, as well as the Clinical Board Chair if your request is clinical in nature.  As advised above, if your proposal is seeking funding of over £5,000, it will be important discuss your ideas with the clinical board prior to submission. Their endorsement of your proposal is taken to mean:

• The proposal aligns with directorate / department / division strategies
• The clinical board supports the use of named charitable funds associated with that board to support your idea
• The clinical board has the capacity to manage the proposal and will cover any costs that are not covered by the prospective funding
• Consultation has taken place with other appropriate trust departments such as estates, human resources, information governance etc

Due diligence checks

The Charity team will assess each proposal using this guidance and a due diligence checklist. Further evidence of costs will be requested at this stage if required. If the proposal meets the basic criteria and passes the due diligence checks it will go forward for assessment.

Assessment

All proposals are subject to an assessment as to whether they satisfy the charity’s public benefit criteria test, which involves consideration of the following:

• Would our donors be happy for their donation to be spent in this way?
• Is this charitable expenditure which adds to that which should be provided from an NHS budget?
• Are we proud to announce this as charitable expenditure to the public?

The charity then follows protocols and established templates for carrying out and recording assessments.

a) Proposals seeking less than £5,000 are assessed against a six point criteria as follows:

• The charity has a fund available from which the idea can be funded
• Clear description of proposed activity
• Proposal has potential for a positive impact for patients, visitors staff, or wider communities
• Proposal enhances but does not replace trust provision (additionality)
• Budget provided and value for money established
• Suitability for charity funding (the ‘pound in a tin’ test)

b) Proposals seeking more than £5,000 are subject to a full written assessment using the following nine point criteria:

• The charity has a fund available from which the idea can be funded
• Significant potential benefit   
• Robust approach to evaluation           
• Involving patients, service users, staff, the public      
• Partnership working/delivery
• Effective plan for delivery       
• Experience/expertise of team to deliver        
• Value for money          
• Suitability for charity funding

Once assessed, the Charity team will consult advisory panels where relevant, or forward the proposal for decision making (see below).

Advisory panels

Currently the charity has two panels who meet to advise on funding proposals as follows:

• Sir Bobby Robson Foundation – guides all decisions with regard to any funding proposals seeking support from the Foundation’s restricted fund
• Great North Children’s Hospital – advises on proposals that seek to use any of the named funds associated with the GNCH.

Decision making

Approval of all funding requests is the responsibility of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust acting as the Corporate Trustee, or the delegated responsibility of the Newcastle Hospitals Charity Committee.

Decisions on funded projects will be:

• Made independently of the Trust’s decisions concerning the use of exchequer funds
• Mindful of how supporters funds are used, and take into account any potential reputational risk in this context

• Consistent with any conditions attached to donations
• For projects which are yet to commence not for any item that has already been purchased or delivered

A scheme of delegation, setting out the levels of authorisation required for funding of various sizes exists as part of the Charity Policy (section 7.3).  Newcastle Hospitals Charity Committee. A scheme of delegation, setting out the levels of authorisation required for funding of various sizes exists as part of the Charity Policy (section 7.3). 

Scheme of Delegation: Authorisation of funding requests from Charity  

All proposals result in a recorded outcome of how either the criteria has been met – or a reason why the funding proposal was not able to be supported at this time.

Projects which are supported will be funded from one of the charity’s restricted funds, or one of its named funds where a suitable one exists, or in the absence of either of those  from the charity’s general purpose funds subject to availability.

Where a proposal is unable to be supported, feedback will be provided, with further discussion with the funding and partnership team to explore whether there is a different way to meet the needs identified by those submitting the proposal.