Purpose

Welcome Spaces (£40K)
The rising costs of fuel, food and other essentials are combining
with existing disadvantage and vulnerability within our communities
to put many households at greater risk of both immediate hardship
and reduced opportunity and wellbeing. Key disadvantage groups
affected by the cost-of-living crisis and cold homes are children,
people with disabilities, older people, low-income households and
people from ethnic minorities.
Fuel poverty has risen exponentially with 7 million households in
fuel poverty by October 2022, double the number of households
compared to 2020. There is a direct connection of cold home and
fuel poverty to poor health with 11,400 deaths in the United
Kingdom caused by cold homes and 1 in 10 excess winter deaths are
connected to fuel poverty. Fuel poverty and the impacts of cold
homes puts direct strain on health services with fuel poverty
costing an estimated £3.6 million to the NHS every day.
To support the residents of Doncaster through the winter period of
2022-2023, building on national evidence and case studies, action
was taken, led by Public Health, to develop a network of warm and
welcoming spaces across the borough offering free, safe and warm
places in hyper local locations for residents of all ages.
Doncaster has a host of trusted community spaces which offer
targeted and universal support to residents. In response to the
cost-of-living crisis, it is proposed that these venues be
highlighted to residents as welcoming, safe, non-judgemental, warm
spaces where they can relieve the pressure on residents to heat
their home and provide more access points to information advice and
guidance. There are core values which each warm space is to embrace
and embed leading to safe and supportive environments.
Welcome Space Values:
• Everyone receives a warm welcome
• Everyone is treated equally, with dignity and respect
• Everyone feels safe
• Everyone has a confidential listening ear if they want
one
To support community-based spaces with additional costs in the
delivery of Welcome Spaces, a grant of up to £5000 was
established through the existing Voluntary Community and Faith
Sector (VCFS) Fund managed by the Social Isolation Alliance. The
criteria of the VCFS Fund were amended to include addressing the
cost-of-living crisis and a section had been added to the
application form if applicants are applying for funds to support
the delivery of a Welcome Space and/or energy bills. Applicants
need to evidence how they are embedding the Welcome Space values,
any increases in their bills and evidence the needs in their
communities for additional support outside what they currently
provide. This ensures Welcome Spaces are located where they are
needed and delivered in the right way for each community. As of
March 2023, a total of £40,736 was accessed by VCFS
organisation in the delivery of Welcome Spaces.
In February 2023, a short questionnaire was circulated to across
the Voluntary VCFS and Team Doncaster Partners to better understand
the impact of Welcoming Spaces operating across the borough. 26
responses were collected from across the borough. Community based
organisations and faith groups returned the majority of responses.
13 respondents provided support for all ages, using a whole family
approach. When asked the average number of people attending their
Welcome Space each week the majority saw over 18 people each week
depending on the size of the organisations. A conservative
calculation of average weekly attendance taken from the data totals
1182 people.
When asked if they plan to continue to run their warm and welcome
space in some way after the winter period, 20 of the 26 respondents
replied they would, citing that further funding would be needed. It
is proposed that we utilise the VCFS Fund process to make
£40,000 available to support Welcome Spaces across the
2023-24 winter period and support VCFS groups remain
sustainable.
It is proposed that we develop a number of Soup Dragon events
across each locality in the borough. These events aim to support
local VCFS organisations to access small pots of money to help them
to develop a new project or keep an existing project going and
reaching more members of their community.
The VCFS sector within the borough provides a number of much needed
services which complement and relieve pressure on statutory
services. These include key disadvantaged groups including but not
limited to:
- Children and young people
- Socially isolated and older people
- BAME community
- Low-income households
- People with disabilities and/or poor mental health and
wellbeing
Soup Dragons events (£30k)
Each event will allow organisations to come together in their
community, with like minded organisations where soup will be
served, and organisations will be able to pitch their project.
Everyone attending the event will be able to vote with the winning
VCFS organisation awarded a small amount of funding. The event will
be similar in format to the TV show ‘Dragon’s
Den’ but in a much friendlier setting. Allowing everyone who
attends a vote puts the power back into the community, allowing
them to decide which projects best meet the community’s
needs. This approach further builds on the co-design/co-production
work which Well Doncaster has been undertaking with the communities
of Doncaster, ensuring that the services which the communities most
need are the ones which are supported to grow and flourish.
VCFS groups are finding it increasingly difficult to access funds
to keep their services running due to a number of pressures
including the rising cost of living. This has impacted groups as
they are reporting:
- Volunteers unable to support due to working more hours to cover
their living costs
- Increase in running costs e.g., fuel costs, rent increases
etc
- Reduction in donations due to the squeeze on resident’s
income
These pressures combined with existing disadvantage and
vulnerability within communities puts VCFS groups at risk of
reduction in services or closure which would put residents at
greater risk of both immediate hardship and reduced opportunity and
wellbeing.
The ‘Soup Dragon’ events are designed to become
sustainable as groups will pay a nominal fee to enter which will
cover future running costs.

Content

Support the provision for Welcome Spaces and a
Soup Dragon’ events as part of the Winter plans through the
Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector Grant Scheme, managed by
Social Isolation Alliance and Voluntary Action Doncaster, with
£70,000 from the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable budget.
Support the provision of a series of ‘across each locality.
These events will serve to support the Voluntary, Community and
Faith Sector by fostering collaboration within the sector and
providing small pots of funding for a variety of activities to
strengthen the sector.