Building the Community Pharmacy Partnership (BCPP)

Overview

BCPP’s aim is to reduce health inequalities by focusing on the social determinants of health, in particular social support, community connections and access to healthcare through community pharmacy, and by enabling project participants and the community and pharmacy partners to consider the social factors that impact health (e.g. poverty, housing, and social isolation). The most deprived communities and those who are most affected by health inequalities are specifically targeted for the programme to ensure those most in need are included.

Who can apply?

BCPP funding is open to constituted community/voluntary organisations and community pharmacies based in Northern Ireland. Projects must be a partnership between a community/voluntary organisation and a community pharmacy. Either can be the lead applicant but both partners must be named in the application form.

• A constituted community/voluntary organisation is a group which may be run on a voluntary basis and is set up as an organisation with a management committee, constitution and its own bank account. A copy of the constitution will be required with the application.
• The community pharmacy must hold a current contract with HSCB. Qualified pharmacists not associated/affiliated to a pharmacy holding a HSCB contract are not eligible to apply

What they fund?

They recognise that health is impacted by much more than the everyday lifestyle decisions that we make, important as they are. Research shows that social isolation can be as damaging for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. With this in mind, their projects aim to address these wider social issues and tackle the root causes of poor health. These vary greatly for different groups of people and may include mental health issues, housing, low educational attainment, poverty or debt. Group work and relationship building is at the core of all our projects. By sharing our assets, our lived experiences and supporting each other we can achieve great things.

• Each BCPP project is a partnership between a community pharmacy and a community organisation to coproduce and deliver a community development project with a group of 12-15 people which focuses on the social determinants of health.

There are two BCPP project levels.

• Level 1 projects are BCPP taster projects (up to 6 months and £2,500), they give partners the opportunity to get a flavour of a BCPP project without committing to a full project
• Level 2 (Up to 12 months and £12,000).

In Level 1 projects, partners are able to explore how they work together, the management of the project, organising the sessions and the evaluation, monitoring and reporting requirements. These projects also allow the partners to work with people in their community to identify the need for a Level 2 project, the topics or issues they would like to explore further and whether there is an interest from people in the community to commit to a full BCPP project.

What is the funding criteria?

• A concise aim and summary of the proposed project.
• An identified community need.
• Clear partnership working between the pharmacy, the community and the participants (co-production).
• External community/voluntary organisations co-delivering sessions.
• A clear plan for recruiting participants and keeping them engaged.
• A clear vision of the difference the project will make, which is in line with BCPP outcomes.
• A clear activity plan, including, the number of people in each group, how often they will meet and an idea of topics you hope to cover.
• Realistic costings that relate to your overall application and activity.
• Overall value for money regarding what the project aims to achieve.

You can find out more about BCPP impact here