Monday March 16th 2026
Voluntary Sector Gateway, Bathgate
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
A fund to help improve mental health and well-being in West Lothian received almost £100,000 extra from Holyrood.
The fund is now in its fifth year and has always been heavily oversubscribed. Even with the extra money West Lothian’s Voluntary Sector Gateway could not meet demand.
The Gateway team received 76 applications with requests totalling more than £1.5m.
It is a pattern which has played out in each of the years since Holyrood first announced the fund at the height of the Covid lockdown.
Alan McCloskey, the CEO of the Gateway told a meeting of the Economy, Community Empowerment and Wealth Building PDSP: “The fund has been allocated for years five and six. This is a fund that has been running for a number of years now in relation to supporting people at local level with the impacts of social isolation, mental health and well-being and people who really struggle, are impacted by bereavement or face significant challenges.”
The funding was aimed at the 18 priority ‘at risk’ groups, including people who have experienced bereavement or loss, women experiencing gender based violence, people from a Minority Ethnic background, individuals with neurological conditions and individuals from the LGBTI community.
Mr McCloskey said: “Perhaps no surprise the fund was significantly oversubscribed. We had a record number of monies requested this year £1.5m from 76 organisations.
“We opened the fund in Autumn of last year and all groups were advised of the outcome in mid December with the monies disbursed to groups in February for year five in initial the independent panel that met had a total of £559,000 for groups.
“We made awards to 44 groups , 32 of those are getting two year indicative awards. That’s one of the key elements of the fund this year that we are delighted about because it is multi-year funding, something the sector calls for in this group and at national levels to provide that stability. There were 12 groups that got a one year award.
“We got notification in December that the original £470,000 was taken up to £559,00. Next year, all being well, that will be a very straightforward process for us to allocate that money.”
He added: “It is a really good news story for West Lothian, I think over the past five years almost £2.5 million in funds has been allocated to community groups to carry out the work that they do.”
Councillor Sally Pattle said: “I think what you guys do is superhuman you delivered so much to so many people. It makes such a difference. I am really pleased to see the two year funding. Everybody agrees that it is the stability not only service users need but the providers need it too .”
Councillor Andrew Miller said “It is an excellent fund and well administered. The groups receiving the funding are doing a lot of good in their communities. It is a real highlight of this report.”
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