Agenda item

Report from the Assistant Chief Executive.

Recommendations:

1. That subject to the receipt of final grant guidance and allocation of grant, that provisional allocations of the Household Support Fund Grant of £2.489m be made as follows:

a)    £899k for food vouchers to children eligible for free school meals for school holidays up to and including Easter 2023.

b)    £1.4m to support applications from households for assistance with cost-of-living increases through the Council’s Energy Crisis Support Scheme.

c)    £45k allocation to support care leavers, being young people leaving foster or local authority care and living independently in their own accommodation who are responsible for paying their own utility bills, providing additional financial support through the cost-of-living increases.

d)    £30k to support local VCS organisations to support vulnerable households over Christmas / New year through a supplement to the Crisis Support service level agreement.

e)    £90k to provide additional tinned food to supplement that available for crisis food parcels provided by local food banks and Community Food Members alongside assisting with supplies to social supermarkets, a supplement to the Crisis Support service level agreement.

f)      £25k to provide additional non-food products for inclusion in crisis food parcels covering personal hygiene, sanitary and household products.

2.    Unless the final grant is substantially different from the estimate, to delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, to determine revised and final allocations for the Household Support Grant to include provision for other eligible actions within the use of Household Support Fund should it not be possible to achieve full spend of the grant through the approved options.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on the Household Support Fund which had been extended again to the end of March 2023 following a Government announcement. Draft grant guidance had been provided but no details of the grant amount were yet available. However, based on the method for calculation of the grant by population weighted by a function of the English Index of Multiple Deprivation, a best estimate suggested that Rotherham would be allocated £2.489m, being the same as provided for the first half of the year.

The report provided an overview of the eligible uses, together with recommendations for a proposed allocation of the estimated grant. Any variations arising from details of the final grant guidance or final grant allocation were proposed to be managed through adjusting the allocation made towards the Energy Crisis Support Scheme.

The Household Support Fund was made available by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to support those most in need. This funding initially covered the period October 2021 to the end of March 2022 and was then extended to the end of September 2022. Local Authorities were given discretion about exactly how this funding was used within the scope set out in guidance. The expectation was that it should primarily be used to support households in the most need with food, energy and water bills. It could also be used to support households with essential costs related to those items and with wider essential costs. In exceptional cases of genuine emergency, it could additionally be used to support housing costs where existing housing support schemes do not meet this exceptional need.

For the period October 2022 to March 2023, the ringfencing of allocation to benefit specific age groups had been removed. New criteria for the grant set out in particular that authorities could target the most vulnerable households; that authorities must operate an application-based service for support; and that authorities can proactively identify households who would benefit from support.

Resolved:-

1.    That subject to the receipt of final grant guidance and allocation of grant, that provisional allocations of the Household Support Fund Grant of £2.489m be made as follows:

a.    £899k for food vouchers to children eligible for free school meals for school holidays up to and including Easter 2023.

b.    £1.4m to support applications from households for assistance with cost-of living increases through the Council’s Energy Crisis Support Scheme.

c.     £45k allocation to support care leavers, being young people leaving foster or local authority care and living independently in their own accommodation who are responsible for paying their own utility bills, providing additional financial support through the cost-of-living increases.

d.    £30k to support local VCS organisations to support vulnerable households over Christmas / New year through a supplement to the Crisis Support service level agreement.

e.    £90k to provide additional tinned food to supplement that available for crisis food parcels provided by local food banks and Community Food Members alongside assisting with supplies to social supermarkets, a supplement to the Crisis Support service level agreement.

f.      £25k to provide additional non-food products for inclusion in crisis food parcels covering personal hygiene, sanitary and household products.

2.    Unless the final grant was substantially different from the estimate, to delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, to determine revised and final allocations for the Household Support Grant to include provision for other eligible actions within the use of Household Support Fund should it not be possible to achieve full spend of the grant through the approved options.