Fiona has welcomed the announcement from Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, that Visyon, a Congleton-based mental health charity, of which Fiona is a Patron, has been awarded with £154,000 for the first year of a three-year award.
Visyon’s current project provides therapeutic 1-1 counselling to young people aged 12-18 and are seeking to expand their age range to children aged 8+, providing evidence based emotional health interventions to younger children who are experiencing emotional health difficulties.
The Health and Wellbeing Fund is a component of the wider Health and Wellbeing Programme, a mechanism of government investment in the voluntary and community sector managed by the Department, NHS England & Improvement and Public Health England.
Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said:
“The Government very much recognises and values the contribution of the voluntary sector in working locally to support local communities, and nationally in partnership with Government and our health system partners. We look forward to working with Visyon, over the coming year.”
Fiona said:
“This substantial award for Visyon is fantastic news, one of only 23 grass roots projects across the country receiving a share of this government Health and Wellbeing funding this year. It is vitally important that we invest in children and young people’s mental health and I cannot think of a better organisation than Visyon which already has proven successful innovative projects to help improve the mental health of children and young people. It has been my privilege to be Visyon’s Patron for a number of years and I know the great work that they do; this will enable them to do even more.
Early intervention and one to one support in a child’s life when emotional difficulties arise are key to prevent enduring mental illness in later years, as too is engaging not just with the young person but also involving their family. One of the reasons Visyon has been awarded this funding is their community based approach to helping young people today and as their Patron I am delighted this has been nationally recognised following a competitive grants process”
