This Dementia Challenge Fund will be a total of at least £10m.

The lead applicant should be a Clinical Commissioning Group from NHS South of England, who should work in partnership with local government, NHS providers, the voluntary and independent sectors and other organisations.

There are about 50 emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups across NHS South of England and there may be a submission from each Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), although this may comprise a number of specific contributing projects. Two or more CCG localities may decide to submit an application together, which is also acceptable.

The Fund is to enable additional benefits to be delivered locally – it is not about underpinning existing services or delivering commitments already made.

Applications should set out innovative solutions to solve problems that are important to people with dementia and their carers. The purpose of the fund is to adopt and adapt proven innovations and best practice to benefit people with dementia in the South of England. This will require creative approaches to enable the innovation to be implemented effectively by the organisations making the application and thus bids to develop brand new untested models of care are unlikely to be successful.

The application should request a specific sum of funding and set out the key elements of the costs and the contribution from local matched funding and resources to the delivery of the Challenge proposal. It will need to address how the local partners will demonstrate delivery of the proposal and ensure that the outcomes are sustained, including the management of any recurring financial commitments. The funding will be allocated to CCGs (through PCTs) in 2012-13 with local arrangements to be made for the funding to be allocated to partner organisations. Local arrangements will need to be made to carry funding forward if necessary.

The funding must be used for the purpose of delivering proposal outcomes that benefit people living in the South of England.