Decision

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I Tracy Kelly, Statutory Deputy City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve the recommendations that:

The £4.8m Household Support Fund for 2025/26 is allocated as follows:

·                     Continued provision of Holiday Food Vouchers to eligible children at £15 per week for the 13 weeks of school holidays.  At £15 pw for the full year this would be a total cost of £3.12m.

·                     Support an additional year of the Winter Support Payment, at an estimated cost of £500,000

·                     Allocations for the full 12 months to support Salford Assist - £720,000, alongside core council investment; Foodbanks and food clubs - £200,000; adult social care - £50,000; housing benefit support - £140,000, and £140,000 for support costs. 

·                     £3,000 funding to support care leavers.

The Reasons are:

As part of the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025/26 Government have confirmed that HSF will continue for a further 12 months.  Salford’s allocation was confirmed on 5 March as £4.8m, a reduction of £600k on previous years.  Government have confirmed that HSF the primary objective of this round of HSF is immediate crisis support with the secondary objective of prevention.  The balance to be decided based on local priorities. 

Salford City Council has a long-standing commitment to supporting our residents, including with financial assistance and advice, and through our partnership work to support residents with the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Proposals for the use of this funding enable continuation of previous activity to support residents and will provide ongoing support.  At the same time a prevention model will be developed aligned to Housing and Community Solutions Transformation programmes – ensuring residents receive the right support at the right time, and maximising use of available funding.

Options to reduce funding for some of the schemes within the report or to only allocate funding for six months were considered. These would though all impact on the level of support to residents and on the lack of certainty to those providing support. 

Assessment of Risk:  Low.

The source of funding is:  Government Grant – Household Support Fund

Legal Advice obtained: not applicable

Financial Advice obtained:  Michelle Cowley, Finance Manager

The commentary regarding the financial implications is covered in the main body of the report itself.

Procurement Advice obtained: not applicable

HR Advice obtained:  not applicable

Climate Change Advice obtained: not applicable

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process:

Winter Support Payment – report to Cabinet, 12 November 2024

Household Support Fund 2024/25, report to Cabinet 8 August 2024

Household Support Fund 2024/25, report to Cabinet 11 June 2024

‘Investment options for Cost of Living support’ report to Cabinet 8 August 2023

Contact Officer:        Jacquie Russell, Director Policy and Performance                   

Telephone number: 0161 793 3577

(Please delete from the list below any which are not relevant.)

-       The appropriate scrutiny to call-in the decision is the Overview and Scrutiny Panel         

Signed:       Tracy Kelly                            Dated:       15.05.25

            Statutory Deputy City Mayor

For Democratic Services use only

This decision was published on  15.05.25                                          

This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 22.05.25                                             unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.