Marian Elizabeth Trust grant programme – Referrer page
Between Tuesday 2 April and Saturday 15 June 2024 registered medical and social work professionals can refer eligible families raising a disabled child or young person to receive an £800 cash grant from the Marian Elizabeth grant programme, administered by Family Fund. Families can use these grants for what will support their disabled child most – from family breaks, day trips, specialist or sensory items to kitchen appliances, furniture and more.
Who can refer eligible families
To refer a family to the Marian Elizabeth grant programme, you need to be:
- a professional registered with either the GMC, NMC, HCPC or Social Work England
- working directly with families raising a disabled child or young person
- working with families living in the areas of Liverpool and The Wirral, Birmingham, Leicestershire, Rutland and Peterborough
How to refer eligible families
Before making a referral, you must assess that, in your professional judgement, the child or young person meets all eligibility criteria.
Once you have identified a family eligible for support you will need to speak to them and ensure they are happy with the referral. This will include gathering their consent to share their contact details with Family Fund, and providing them with information about our terms and conditions and data protection statement. To do this, you can download and share this leaflet and give it to the parent or carer. It explains what they need to know, and what will happen if the referral is accepted.
You will then need to complete a short referral form.
Who is eligible for this grant support
Before making a referral, you must assess that, in your professional judgement, the child or young person meets the eligibility criteria. This is that:
- the child or young person is 21 or under. You will need to know their exact date of birth.
- the child or young adult you want to refer has a severe learning disability, additional physical support needs and requires a high level of support such as:
- limited communication ability or be non-verbal
- attendance at a specialist school, or clear eligibility to attend (they may currently not be attending due to availability of places or because they are beyond school age)
- a need for personal care for things like eating, washing or dressing
- the family lives in one of the areas of England covered by the grant programme. To check this, please type the first part of the family’s postcode into the address checker below. This will tell you whether or not the address is in the programme catchment area.
Check address eligibility
Enter the first part of the postcode (i.e. AB1)
Yes this address is eligible
Sorry this address is not eligible
Referring a family
Once you have carried out the eligibility checks above, you can refer the family to the Marian Elizabeth Trust grant programme.
To complete the online referral form, you will need to provide:
- your name, job title, and organisation name and address
- your GMC, NMC, HSCP or Social Work England registration number, so we can verify this is a referral from a qualified professional
- your contact details, just in case we need to check anything on the referral
- the name and date of birth of the child or young person
- the address and contact details of the parent/carer
We will ask you to confirm you have checked eligibility, as set out on this page, and that the parent or carer has received a copy of the leaflet and has given their consent to the referral.
By providing your information, you are consenting to Family Fund processing the data you provide for the purposes of assessing a Marian Elizabeth grant referral. You can find out how we process your data in our privacy notice.
If you would like to help a family, please make your referral as soon as possible as funding is limited.
Make a referral nowWhat happens next
Once we’ve received your referral, we will check the family has not recently received a grant from the Marian Elizabeth Grant programme. If they have not, we will contact the parent or carer by email to verify their details, before we request bank details to award the grant.
Grants are for £800. The funds are paid by BACS into the parent/carer’s bank account. This will be done through our secure systems.
Once families receive the grants, parents or carers can use the funds to purchase a range of items to benefit their disabled child. These include:
- family breaks and day trips
- technology
- clothing
- beds and other furniture
- kitchen appliances to make home life easier
- specialist items and sensory equipment related to the child’s disability
In the weeks following the grant award, we may contact the parent or carer to check how the grant was spent. We explain this to families throughout the grant process.
What we can’t support
Under the terms of this grant programme the grant cannot be used:
- to support a child or young person living in care (other than respite care)
- to reimburse families for items that they have already purchased
- if the child/young person does not meet the eligibility criteria as set out on this page (including criteria about age, residence and conditions)
Help us support families in need
There are a few ways you can help:
Make a referral
If you are working with a family who meets the eligibility of the Marian Elizabeth grant programme please make a referral before Saturday 15 June 2024. The process is quick and simple, and your referral could make a huge difference to the life of a disabled child or young person, and their family. You can make one referral per family. However, as long as the child or family meets the eligibility criteria set out on this page, you can refer as many families as you choose before Saturday 15 June 2024.
Spread the word
If you have colleagues or belong to a professional network who are working with eligible families, you can spread the word. Please share the link to this page with them, or send them this referrer leaflet.
Important note: this is a referrer programme, so families cannot apply directly. For that reason, please only promote the programme to other potential referrers, and not to families direct. Please do not share this web link with families.
Connect with us
If you have an event coming up for clinical or social work colleagues, we’d love to come and tell you more about the programme. Just email the details to us at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you.
Got a question?
If you have a question and don’t see the answer on this page, you can contact us at: [email protected]
Useful downloads
Terms and conditions for this programme including our data protection statement (476kB pdf)
About the Marian Elizabeth grant programme
Family Fund is proud to administer a cash grant programme, on behalf of the Marian Elizabeth Trust. The Trust is named in memory of Marian Edwards who devoted her life to caring for her daughter Elizabeth, who was born with multiple disabilities.