NHS Maternity Care Research Small Grants Programme

NHS South Yorkshire exists to improve health and wellbeing and ensure our people have access to the services they need to live well throughout their lifetime. This starts from birth, which is why NHS South Yorkshire works with pregnant women, birthing people, parents, and families to improve the care and support provided during pregnancy and beyond.

We are keen to work with groups across South Yorkshire who can engage their communities in gathering stories, feedback and experiences from women and families who have used maternity and/or neonatal services in the past 2-3 years. This includes care in pregnancy, during birth and after pregnancy or birth. Neonatal care is special care for babies who are born early (before 37-weeks), small or unwell and is delivered in a specialist neonatal unit.

This feedback will help shape NHS South Yorkshire’s ongoing service user involvement strategy and improvements to services to ensure we can provide maternity care that is inclusive and meets the needs of our diverse communities. We hope to maintain an ongoing partnership with the organisations involved, so they can help shape service improvements in the long-term.

By the end of May 2027, your organisation should have undertaken comprehensive community engagement and shaped that information into work that can be shared at a special listening event in June / July, and with NHS South Yorkshire, so it can feed into its new involvement strategy.

Specific Community Engagement

We would like to hear from groups, working with women who are pregnant or have been pregnant in the last two-three years, and their families, across South Yorkshire including the following places:

• Barnsley- living in areas of deprivation or global majorities
• Doncaster- living in areas of deprivation or global majorities (priority will be given to Eastern European communities)
• Rotherham- living in areas of deprivation or global majorities
• Sheffield- living in areas of deprivation or global majorities (priority will be given to Roma/Slovak communities)
• South Yorkshire- living in areas of deprivation or global majorities

We are particularly keen to hear from communities that experience the poorest outcomes from maternity care, both pre- and post-natal, including people from Global Majority communities, with a focus on Black African, Black Caribbean, and other Black backgrounds, so that we can make sure our future strategy better represents these under-served communities and that future care is co-designed by them, allowing their voices to be amplified.

Please read the Grant Guidance Notes and check the SYCF Due Diligence documents below to check the criteria for this fund and to make sure your organisation is eligible to apply.

How much can we apply for?

The total funding available for South Yorkshire is just over £22,500, and we would like to fund at least five organisations, so applications should ask for no more than £4,500.  

What can I spend the money on?

Depending on the approach you want to take, you could receive a grant for:

• Staffing costs (we encourage you to meet the National Living Wage)
• Volunteer costs
• Resources such as food/drink, marketing, and tools to encourage meaningful community engagement throughout the programme.
• Reasonable contribution towards overheads if they directly support community engagement on this specific project. This could include transportation costs to take part in activity and the listening event.

When is the closing date

The deadline for applications is 9am, Monday 9^th November. 

Application process and timeline

Application is via our online application form.

Applications will be assessed by an expert local panel in early December with grants distributed before the Christmas break.

If your application is successful, we would expect activity to take place over the below timeline:

• December – May 2027 - Activity to take place throughout December, January, February, March, April and May, if needed.
• May 2027 - Meet with the NHS South Yorkshire team. We would arrange to meet you to go through your research and chat through how you would like to present/share your findings at the listening event.
• June / July – Share your feedback / research at the South Yorkshire Listening event.
• August onwards – After the Listening Event we will meet with you to discuss opportunities for additional grant funding and ways to stay connected and involved in improving maternity and neonatal services going forward.
• Although we need to receive your research and stories by the end of May, you are welcome to continue your activity and community engagement after the feedback meeting. When your activity ends is up to you and the funding! We would need you to tell us when it would be so we can receive a short end of grant report to confirm conclusion of the work.