Decision Maker: Executive

Outcome: Recommendations Approved

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: November 14, 2024

Purpose: Following the publication of a Regulation 11 (Cases of Special Urgency), this report is for the Executive Committee to endorse the delivery plan of the Household Support Fund Extension.

Content: RESOLVED   KEY DECISION   That the Executive endorsed the Regulation 11 Notice for the submission of a delivery plan to the DWP by 1st November 2024 for the Household Support Fund 5 secure funding for those affected by the cost-of-living crisis.    In addition to this, the Executive :   a)    Delegated authority to the Director of Public Health in consultation with the Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing to redistribute any funds that have not been assigned or committed to by 31st March 2025 for:                                                           i.     Final contribution for Warm Spaces                                                        ii.     Specific funding to include access to wider essentials and energy support i.e. sanitary and hygiene essentials to be distributed via foodbanks or Family Hubs                                                      iii.     Contribution to grant holders from HSF4 to assist with additional pressures from the winter support     Reasons for Recommendations:   a)    The proposal in Table 3, Section 6.5, sets a clear approach for how the funds will be used to mitigate the impact on residents who have previously received holiday support for children eligible for Free School Meals.   b)    Cessation of holiday support will be aligned with the start of the financial year given the uncertainty of any future iterations of the Household Support Fund, making it clearer for residents to understand the timings of ongoing support coming to a natural end.   c)    Holiday support is aligned with the previous support provided by the Council through the previous iterations of the Household Support Fund.   d)    The provision of vouchers rather than cash to support with food and essential costs via an online application and eligibility assessment process, reduces the risk of fraud and duplicate claims.   e)    Financial support will be available for additional energy costs through the winter when energy usage increases.   f)      Current frameworks, processes, eligibility criteria and online application forms can be used with some minor modifications to deliver the recommendations in Table 3, Section 6.5, ensuring support is delivered in accordance with the time restrictions for the fund to end of March 2025.     Alternative Options Considered: The table below outlines a number of alternative options which have been considered, however, have been discounted due to the implications to vulnerable families and reputational risk to the Council.   Table 1 – Summary of Alternative Options   Delivery Model Summary Rationale Option 1 Funds not claimed from DWP The programme ceases to operate. This would mean no further support is provided beyond September 2024. Reputational risk for the Council for not supporting vulnerable and low-income households. Option 2 Implement same operational delivery model as HSF4 The HSF4 delivery model supported households with the costs of food and wider essentials, energy costs and grants to VCSE organisations.  This option would see the funds distributed in the same delivery model. Guidance to local authorities state limited funds should be allocated to advice services.   Funding for advice services was provided through the Grant programme through HSF4, and is funded through the Council’s VCSE Strategic grant funding, so is not felt necessary or proportionate in terms of adding best value for money to provide further investment in advice services though HSF5.  With the majority of the spend (85%) being allocated to holiday support it would mean limited funding to go across support for food & wider essentials, winter fuel costs and VCSE, therefore significantly fewer households being supported, Option 3 Allocate all funding to holiday support for children eligible for free school meals for Autumn and Winter. This would mean that no additional financial support was provided to residents. This would increase reliance on and an expectation for funding to continue beyond the current financial year for holiday support for those eligible. An online portal would still need to be developed to provide non-financial support, i.e. referring to the VCSE sector for additional support and advice.  Without this online portal, the HSF5 monies would not be available to the Council. Option 4 Allocate partial funding to holiday support for children eligible for free school meals for the Autumn and Winter.   Allocate partial funding to VCSE Partners to issue supermarket vouchers directly to residents. Negotiating an agreed eligibility criteria with VSCE.   The guidance states that the Local Authority is ultimately responsible for the eligibility criteria and given the time constraint of the programme this is not feasible. There is the risk of an inconsistent outcome for a household applying to one VCSE partner versus another. There is an increased risk of duplicate funding for households seeking support from more than one VCSE Partner with little mitigation in place to overcome this in the VCSE sector. An online portal would still need to be developed to provide non-financial support, i.e. referring to the VCSE sector for additional support and advice.  Without this online portal, the HSF5 monies would not be available to the Council. This option would also require completely new frameworks, processes and online forms which carries a high risk of the service only being available to residents for a short period