THE second round of expressions of interest for major grants has opened for Essex County Council’s £7.5 million public health grant programme. 

The Public Health Accelerator Bids (PHAB) programme offers organisations the opportunity to bid for funding across two grant funding streams – small grants under £15,000 and major grants over £15,000.   

Following an initial round during the summer, expressions of interest for the major grants have reopened today, Monday 6 November.  

The second round will remain open until Friday 1 December at 5pm. After this, organisations which are successful in their expression of interest will be invited to submit a formal application.  

Councillor John Spence, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Health, Adult Social Care and ICS Integration, said: “Our PHAB programme has already proved to be extremely popular with a range of organisations across Essex. 

“There is a significant amount of money available to support public health interventions in the county, and I would urge organisations to consider whether they could benefit.” 

Lucy Wightman, Director of Wellbeing, Public Health and Communities at Essex County Council, added: “Covering an initial three-year period, PHAB projects will lay the foundations for achieving longer-term health outcomes that help everyone in Essex to live a healthy life and achieve their full potential.   

“We look forward to seeing more innovative proposals come forward during the second round of expressions of interest.” 

The PHAB programme funds projects supporting the aims of the new Essex Wellbeing, Public Health and Communities Business Plan and aims to tackle health inequalities and improve the health of Essex residents.   

Grants must be used to create new services or expand on existing ones. They cannot be used as an alternative funding stream to continue to run services which are already being provided.    

For more information on the criteria, and details of how to submit an Expression of Interest, visit www.essex.gov.uk/phab. Interested parties who have any queries can also email [email protected].    

The PHAB small grants scheme, which offers grants of up to £15,000 to organisations across Essex, remains open on a rolling basis.  

The first small grants are set to be awarded to successful organisations in November.