Mental Health Investment Fund
One of the three strategic ambitions at the heart of the Surrey Heartlands Clinical Strategy is preventing ill-health and specifically doing more to prevent mental ill-health. The Mental Health Investment Fund (MHIF), not to be confused with Mental Health Investment Standard, is key to achieving success in this priority area.
Established in 2022, the MHIF is a joint fund from Surrey County Council and Surrey Heartlands ICB with a total budget of £10.5m. The allocation is dedicated to supporting adults and young people with mental health challenges. Bids are awarded after careful consideration by partners across Surrey Heartlands including the County Council, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise.
Funding is used to support services which are non-statutory and developed by local, community-based groups. The MHIF is a Surrey wide, all age resource to enable the delivery of the outcomes of Priority 2 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which focuses on prevention, removing barriers, and supporting people to become proactive in improving their emotional health and wellbeing.
The fund has supported a wide range of ground breaking initiatives, with future rounds promising even greater impact.
In 2025, £1.2m has been pledged for the Mental Health Scale-Up Fund, with plans for matched funding from the Community Foundation Surrey, to support projects focusing on children and young people up to 30 years old.
Find out more about MHIF on Healthy Surrey
Mental Health Investment Fund projects
Grant helps Flourish Community Garden project blossom
Surrey organisation receives £50k to support autistic girls with the help of Gavin and Stacey
Funding boost to support young people in mental health crises in Surrey
Mental Health Investment Fund grants more than £3m to local schemes
Community-based projects awarded through Mental Health Investment Fund
Mental Health Investment Fund transforms NICU support for families
Surrey families get new parenting support service
Surrey kicks off free football sessions for mental wellbeing
Events
Meet Up Catch Up is a free, welcoming event hosted by Sight for Surrey, which support people with sight and hearing loss.
It offers a relaxed, informal space to connect with others, enjoy friendly conversation, and build new friendships - helping to reduce the social isolation many in the community experience.
The service is funded by the Mental Health Investment Fund (MHIF) and continues to provide monthly safe spaces for people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted, and deafblind to share skills and build a supportive community
Sight for Surrey recently won the Community Impact Award at the Visionary Awards 2024 for their Meet Up Catch Up community hubs which operate once a month from 10am to 12pm in Epsom, Fetcham, Godalming, New Haw, and Oxted, plus a term-time group in Merstham.
For further information, please visit Sight for Surrey’s events calendar.