£12m fund opens for healthcare social enterprises

A £12m fund offering grants and loans to social enterprises that provide healthcare and social services in England has opened for applications.

Capital Growth Fund will be managed by the Social Investment Business and Local Partnerships, and will offer grants from £50,000 to £150,000

The Capital Growth Fund will form part of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund, which was set up by the Department of Health in 2007 to increase the level of health and social care provided by social enterprises.

It is managed by the Social Investment Business and Local Partnerships, which provides commercial advice to the public sector.

The fund will offer grants worth between £50,000 and £150,000, as well as loans, to organisations that want to grow their enterprises. The maximum amount of funding available to any one organisation is £1m.

To access funding, organisations must have existed for 12 months and be unable to access similar funds from commercial sources.

The deadline for applications is noon on 16 September. Organisations must be able to spend any investments by the end of this financial year.

Since Seif began it has invested more than £80m.

Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, first announced the latest funding at social enterprise conference Voice11 in March.