March has been a very busy month for Mindapples, what with moving into our new offices at Somerset House, getting production underway with our Lambeth GP surgeries project, and engaging in the various discussions in Government around the Public Health White Paper and other key key policy announcements.
Those of you who follow us on Twitter might have spotted the best news this month though, which is that Mindapples has just won two innovation challenge prizes from the Cabinet Office Innovation Hub! The prizes, which were judged by the NHS National Innovation Centre, were awarded as follows:
- £500 for Mindapples itself, recognising our potential for improving patient healthcare outcomes; and
- £2000 for our idea to collect the suggestions from the Mindapples community and other public ‘happiness’ movements and create a national index of the things we as a nation want and need to be mentally healthy, to inform policymakers, local government and commissioners.
The money will be put towards some vital infrastructure work for us, including helping to improve our website and also help us get our office set up. More important than the money though is that this represents our first official endorsement from Central Government for the work we’ve been doing at Mindapples. We’ll be continuing the conversation with both the Cabinet Office and the NHS to work with them to promote public mental health in the UK and hopefully secure some further investment to help us scale up our efforts.
Huge thanks to Sandie Bakowski and all the staff at the Innovation Hub’s DotGovLabs team. Mindapples and I really appreciate all that you’re doing to promote innovation in public services and get our ideas the voice they need to make real change. And thanks to you all, as always, for supporting Mindapples and helping us grow.