Agenda item

Report from the Assistant Chief Executive.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet agree:

1.    The future provision of crisis support and grant allocations of:

a.    £60k for Crisis Loans.

b.    £34k for infrastructure and transport to enable the supply of crisis food to foodbanks (Community Food Members).

c.     £10k for supporting co-ordination of the Food in Crisis Partnership, collection and dissemination of data and provision of a referrals process.

2.    That bids be invited from organisations to work in partnership with the Council, to finalise the implementation details and deliver the provision outlined at recommendation 1.

3.    To delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion to enter into a service level agreement with partner organisations to provide crisis support for the years 2024/25 to 2026/27.

Consideration was given to the report which set out proposals for a more sustainable crisis support system with the aim of supporting people to move from being in crisis towards independence and resilience. Crisis support services in Rotherham were currently delivered through a partnership agreement between the Council, FareShare, Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR) and LASER Credit Union. The ongoing level of demand together with available supplies of food had led to the need to develop a more sustainable system.

To develop the new model, including the elements funded by the Council, a co-design process had been followed, engaging with a range of providers and referring organisations. A key element of the revised wider model was ensuring it was aligned with holistic and wider support services, which would work to ensure that fewer people experienced crisis on a repeated basis. This would be supported through a new referral system to better co-ordinate information for front line staff, offering a broader range of food types that made up crisis food parcels, flexible to the requirements of different organisations and utilising a revised definition of crisis support to enable this.

If the recommendations were approved, bids would be invited from partner organisations to finalise the implementation details and to then deliver the model. This would be via service level agreements covering the years 2024/25 to 2026/27.

Crisis support (Local Welfare Provision), provided by the Council, started in 2013 following abolition of the Government’s Discretionary Social Fund. The current model for the provision of this support was agreed by Cabinet in October 2019 and commenced in April 2020. It funded arrangements for the delivery of crisis loans, provision of food and support for the Food in Crisis Partnership (FIC.) The annual funding of £100k provided for three separate service level agreements (SLA) to be entered into on an annual basis for:

·       Crisis Loans (£60k) currently provided via LASER Credit Union.

·       Infrastructure provision to enable a supply of ambient food to foodbanks (£30k), currently provided via FareShare Yorkshire. It was noted that this did not include the costs of purchasing the food itself, but rather the underpinning infrastructure.

·       Support for co-ordination of the Food in Crisis (FIC) Partnership and collection and dissemination of data (£10k), currently provided via Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR).

During November and December 2022, the Council invited bids for the development of a new three-year SLA to operate from April 2023. However, no bids were received, with informal feedback indicating that this was linked with the crisis food element of the SLA. As a consequence, the existing SLA was extended by a year and was due to expire at the end of March 2024. As part of the extension it was agreed that a new model would be developed through a codesign process to provide a more sustainable solution for crisis food and holistic support, which would work to ensure that fewer people experienced crisis on a repeated basis. This would include the Council-funded elements of the model. Whilst this work was undertaken, food supply into the borough was maintained through additional Council funded investment by FareShare in ambient food provision.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) and they supported all of the recommendations.

Resolved:-

That Cabinet agree:

1.    The future provision of crisis support and grant allocations of:

a.    £60k for Crisis Loans.

b.    £34k for infrastructure and transport to enable the supply of crisis food to foodbanks (Community Food Members).

c.     £10k for supporting co-ordination of the Food in Crisis Partnership, collection and dissemination of data and provision of a referrals process.

2.    That bids be invited from organisations to work in partnership with the Council, to finalise the implementation details and deliver the provision outlined at recommendation 1.

3.    To delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion to enter into a service level agreement with partner organisations to provide crisis support for the years 2024/25 to 2026/27.