The Suffolk Smokefree Generation Fund

The Suffolk Smokefree Generation Fund is offering grants of £7,000 to community and voluntary sector organisations to support the reduction in smoking rates, in key identified groups in Suffolk, where levels can be more than double the national average.

Funding duration: 12 months
Eligible locations: Suffolk-wide including Waveney

Funding from Suffolk County Council is available to enable community groups to reduce smoking levels and uptake in high-risk groups who already experience worse health outcomes. Tobacco is the single most important entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death.

A one-hour free online training offer will be available to support understanding of smoking risks and to help staff/volunteers to support service users wherever they are in their stop smoking journey.

The objectives of the fund:

Projects should address at least one of the below themes in one of the key high-risk groups mentioned below.

1. Support service users, wherever they are in their stop smoking journey, to understand the risks of smoking, and when they are ready, to know what free support available to help them quit.
2. Increase referrals of high-risk groups into local stop smoking services
3. Increase number of quit dates set and actual quits
4. Work with local stop smoking services to build smoking cessation capacity and accessibility.
5. Create effective messaging to support changing the culture of smoking within target population groups, to help reduce smoking levels and prevent people ever starting.
6. Support staff and volunteers to create a no-smoking environment in your own organisation.

High-Risk Groups

All projects must address smoking cessation within at least one high-risk group, as identified by the Smoking Health Needs Assessment, July 2024. Priority will be given to group 1.

Group 1

• Those accessing homelessness support services
• Veterans
• Prisoners and people within the criminal justice system
• LGBTQ+
• Gypsy Roma Travellers
• Low Education Status-
• People from ethnic minorities where smoking rates are more prevalent, notably Polish, Bulgarian and Portuguese.
• People living with hypertension, chronic respiratory issues or COPD

Group 2

• Sex workers
• Modern Slavery victims
• Care Leavers
• People who experience violence within their homes
• Unpaid carers

Post Award

• All successful applicants will be given access to free online learning
• There will be ongoing further support from a Public Health Manager and local stop smoking service to help develop effective support for service users.
• There will be the opportunity to create effective messaging to priority groups in creative and innovative ways.

Monitoring requirements

Evidence will be required of:

• How many people were referred to local stop smoking services
• How may staff/volunteers carried out free online training
• Numbers of people given very brief advice
• Number of people who utilised the Swap to Stop programme
• What has been learnt e.g. barriers and solutions, what works well and what does not?
• What has changed and how has it changed?

We will also require:

• Case studies.
• An interim report will be required 6 months after the start of the project, but conversations will be held at 3 and 9 months with Suffolk Community Foundation and SCC
• End of grant monitoring will also be required at 12 months.