Cattanach Update Webinar
Last month we held two webinars to update our grantees and partners about Cattanach’s new strategy and direction of travel for funding in 2024 and beyond.
You can watch the recording of the presentation delivered by Cattanach Chief Executive, Dr. Sophie Flemig, and Fund Programmes Manager, Ellie Sandercock, by clicking below. The presentation introduces our new Theory of Change and the four strategic building blocks - Early Relationships, Parents, Rights, Workforce - underpinning our work going forward. We also covered the changes we’re making to our grant-making and funding partnerships with the overall aim of strengthening the ecosystem of support for babies, young children and families in Scotland. The new Early Relationships Fund will open for Expressions of Interest in spring 2024.
Following the presentation, participants were invited to share questions and comments with the team. We have compiled a summary of these questions and our answers below.
We will be updating the Funding section of our website with details of our new funding programmes in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Q&A Session Summary
Cattanach’s new strategy
Where can we find more information on Cattanach’s new strategy?
You can read more about our strategy and Theory of Change on our website.
Early Relationships Fund
About the Early Relationships Fund
The Early Relationships Fund will open for expressions of interest in Spring 2024. The Fund builds on learning from a decade of our Main Grants Fund and will focus on support for early relationships in the first 1,000 days (pregnancy – 2 years).
Who do you anticipate will be successful grant recipients in the future?
To make sure applications have the greatest chance of success, there will be a call for expressions of interest first. Short-listed organisations will then be invited to apply to the fund, with support from Cattanach.
If we are currently funded via Cattanach Main Grants (or have previously held a grant), can we apply for funding?
We won't fund the same piece of work through two different funds. However, if there is a good fit between our outcomes and a different piece of work your organisation is delivering, then you would be eligible to apply.
If our recent application to Cattanach Main Grants was unsuccessful, can we still apply for the Early Relationships Fund?
If your work aligns with the outcomes we want to achieve through the Early Relationships Fund, then you will be welcome to express interest.
How many years of funding will be available via the Early Relationships Fund?
Up to three years.
Other Funding Opportunities
What will other funding opportunities look like?
Our new strategy seeks to support systems change in Scotland to improve the wellbeing of babies, young children and their families. As part of this we will be developing partnerships with organisations in pursuit of our shared outcomes. Our values of integrity, love, consideration, and hope guide everything we do. And as members of IVAR’s Flexible Funders community, we are committed to ensuring we apply the eight Open and Trusting Funding commitments.
Our aim is to get alongside the organisations we partner with, providing a wider bundle of support beyond funding alone. Learning will be central to all of our partnerships. We’re keen to enable more peer learning and support amongst our partners, as well as providing more capacity building and organisational development support. We will be working closely with learning partners to ensure the impact of funded work is captured and communicated effectively, to support policy change and future investment.
We will also strive to make best use of our privileged position as a funding body, to amplify the voices of our partners, and the children and families they support, and to convene communities of interest around key issues and opportunities.
How will the funding be managed for such partnerships?
We are committed to open and trusting relationships with our partners, based on a shared commitment to achieve the desired outcomes. We are not yet in a position to provide more detail as we are currently working on programme and partnership design. Rest assured, we will update you as soon as we can.
When building relationships, will you be working with existing partners, or are you casting the net wider?
We value our current partnerships tremendously and there will also be opportunities to expand on them. So a mixture of both. We are always open to meeting new organisations whose objectives align with our new strategy.
Sharing data
Does your new focus on data and evaluation mean us gathering data to help you shape the landscape or supporting us as service deliverers to develop and strengthen our data gathering and evaluation (or both)?
Both. At the systems level, we would like to work with other funders and partners across local and national governments, looking at how we can best share, collect, and make data accessible. But also working with organisations on the ground to find out what information they need and what they can meaningfully collect.
Will Cattanach be sharing data from other grantees for anonymous benchmarking so others can see what is working to challenge the themes you were supporting?
We will abide by GDPR and best practice standards. Our ambition is to disseminate more learning. We want to contribute to the evidence space through learning partners and peer exchange.
We also intend to commission research, particularly into the data gaps and service experience of very young children. As well as working with funding partners on UK projects to ensure Scotland is represented.
Do you have any indication when there will be more information about the other priorities, especially parent and carer and rights, and when they may open?
At this stage we can’t confirm a date when further announcements will be made. However, our ambition is to have all four of our new strategic pillars active this year. This could include new partnerships, events, research, and/or new funds. Please watch this space for more!
Place-based approaches
What do you mean by ‘Place’? Is the place-based work geographical, and how will this approach to this work?
Place-based working will be a cross-cutting approach across all four of our strategic priorities. It is likely to involve deeper engagement in more or more geographical areas but could also be reflected in our approach to specific funds, partnerships and programmes.