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RESOLVED:
 
1. 
Authorised the Council to accept the proposed Household
Support Fund 7 programme grant funding which is expected to be
£4,974,146.95 from the Department for Work and Pensions
(April 2025 - March 2026) as set out in this report and authorised
the distribution of such grant monies to the voluntary and
community sector organisations and external bodies set out in
Appendix 2.
 
2. 
Authority to approve any amendments to the programme
and the deployment of resources to respond to any requirements of
funding received via guidance and to utilise any underspends from
April 2025 to March 2026 to the Director of Corporate Strategy
& Transformation in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for
Employment, Human Resources and Equalities to ensure the funding is
fully utilised to deliver crisis support to Hackney residents, was
delegated.
 
REASONS FOR DECISION
 
This report sets out plans for the use of
Hackney’s £4,974,146.95 Household Support Fund
allocation, which must be spent in full between 1st April 2025 and
31st March 2026. Any unspent funding would be clawed back by the
Department for Work and Pensions.
 
Officers started to consider the design of
this Household Support Fund programme as soon as the announcement
to extend the programme was made on 30th October 2024. Given the
relatively short time scales and the need to stand up the programme
as quickly as possible for the 1st of April, following discussion
with relevant cabinet leads, it was agreed that the existing
programme would largely be continued.
 
The programme design is based on learning from
previous HSF programmes, discussions with colleagues across the
Council and wider system and research by the University of
Sheffield in which they analysed 70 case studies, undertook 25
in-depth interviews with recipients of HSF support and spoke to 31
professionals involved in delivering the HSF programme.
 
The headlines from the University of Sheffield
research recognise and support the overall approach being
relational, strengths-based and preventative, but point out that
this can often be undermined by insufficient capacity, a lack of
integrated data and joined-up working across the system, and
residents cycling in and out of crisis.
 
Based on this learning and evaluation, the
following objectives and principles underpin the programme design
and delivery:
 
· 
Continue to build on the collaborative, strengths-based, relational
approach we have by enabling services delivering this programme to
come together regularly, discuss progress and adjust delivery
accordingly.
· 
Develop ways to collect and report data and insights across the
programme in real time to better understand who we are reaching so
we can take timely action to address gaps. Explore how we can make
better use of sampling and reflective practice to achieve this.
· 
Wherever possible, use other available funding to maximise impact
and further embed a collaborative, strengths-based relational
approach
· 
Ensure, where possible, that interventions support long-term
sustainability.
 
This work supports the Council’s
response to the material needs of poverty in line with Objective 3
of the Council’s Poverty Reduction Framework.
 
Proposed HSF 7 Programme (April 2025 - March
2026)
 
The council’s allocation for 2025/26 is
11.87% or £670,370.21 lower than for 2024/25. Therefore,
whilst the overall scheme design is similar it has been necessary
to reduce the overall size of the programme and will be necessary
to keep delivery under regular review throughout the year to ensure
the most effective use of resources. The programme will consist of
the following elements.
 
Children and families 0-19: Allocation:
£2,354,975.29
 
This funding provides holiday food support to
families claiming free school meals in state-maintained colleges,
schools and children's centres. We intend to utilise funds
remaining on the Edenred Portal from
unredeemed vouchers currently estimated at £198,000 to
support the allocation of holiday food vouchers to children in
state-funded schools and children’s centres.
 
We also propose to provide food and other
essentials to children in the Orthodox Jewish community. We propose
funding 11 community organisations in the Orthodox Jewish community
to provide holiday food support to children who would otherwise be
eligible for free school meals from 1st April to 30th September
2025 (see appendix 2 for details of organisations we propose
funding).
 
We will review this provision during the first
half of 2025/26 to ensure reach and best value for money. Subject
to approval by Cabinet, the Director of Corporate Strategy and
Transformation will be authorised to determine funding for
provision in the latter half of the year under delegated powers
outlined in Section 3.2 of this report.
 
People at risk of poverty known to the
Council: Allocation £265,760.00
 
This funding will enable the Council to make
one-off crisis payments to residents known to Children’s
Social Care and the Temporary and Supported Accommodation service,
these include children and their families known to Children’s
Social Services, Refugees staying in hotels in Hackney recently
granted the right to remain in the UK and residents living in
temporary and supported accommodation in need of financial support.
These are all groups known to be at risk of financial hardship. To
streamline the programme, adults and carers known to Adult Social
Services will be supported to apply for crisis payments via the
Here to Help service open access route and via rusted referral
partners. Additional funding has been added to their allocations to
help meet the additional demand.
 
Breaking down the barriers to reach a wider
group of residents are at risk of poverty: Allocation
£1,426,600.00
 
Our Poverty Reduction Framework and subsequent
analysis of groups at risk of financial hardship identified a wide
range of groups that we need to reach. In some cases, they face
multiple barriers to accessing help, such as learning disability or
language needs, or they would not access help from the Council
because of stigma or lack of trust in statutory services.
 
This includes funding for crisis payments via
the Here to Help service (£615,000) and through Trusted
referral partners - Council and health services such as Hackney
Works, the Leaving Care Service, Health Visiting and Social
Prescribing who can refer residents they know to be in financial
hardship for one-off crisis payments (£150,000), (this may be
augmented by an additional £100,000 NHS funding aimed at
providing longer-term support to help residents out of poverty),
support with food, fuel and other essentials from smaller voluntary
and community sector organisations via Hackney Giving
(£264,000), support with household goods (£88,000),
support with food and other essentials plus wrap-around support via
12 Community infrastructure organisations (£120,000), food
and fuel vouchers for those seeking advice via Citizens Advice
(£61,600), Food banks and low-cost shops (£123,200),
Purchase and distribution of energy saving equipment
(£35,200), and providing lunch vouchers via Libraries events
(£17,600).
 
Advice-based initiatives: Allocation:
£428,896.20
 
This part of the allocation will be used to
fund the provision of welfare benefits and financial advice in
services and venues across the borough to accompany the crisis
support residents will receive from this programme to help them
achieve longer-term financial stability.
 
Programme management and administration:
Allocation: £497,915.50
 
This funding will be used to support programme
management, administration collaboration and shared learning
between services across the programme and beyond, administration of
the Trusted Referral Partners programme and communication with
residents and partner organisations. The current projected
administration costs sit at 9.8% of the budget.
 
DETAILS OF ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND
REJECTED
 
We considered reopening an open competition
process to allocate this funding. However, the coordination and
implementation of this approach in such a short timescale was
potentially high risk and unachievable. Working with trusted
partners who can mobilise quick responses to requests for help and
where we are already aware of need was considered the most
effective response.
 
We considered allocating lower administration
and management fees, but the tight timescales and targeted nature
of the grants will put pressure on organisations already stretched
by the response to the Cost of Living Crisis. Failure to recognise
the costs of managing and administering these grants is potentially
destabilising for organisations whom we have approached to work
with us.