Question
The Council has been provided with over £500,000 in funding from Central Government to help local residents that need support paying for essentials such as food and utility bills. The previous Conservative administration had drawn up plans for how to allocate it, and I’m pleased that the Council is continuing with this. The fallout from the pandemic continues to hit people hard, and the Council must ensure that it’s doing everything it can to help residents. Can the Executive Member provide me with the reassurance that the Council will be able to successfully communicate with families and individuals in need to take up this money – and ensure that there is no money left in September, which is when the Fund needs to all be spent?
Minutes:
The Council has been provided with over £500,000 in funding from Central Government to help local residents that need support paying for essentials such as food and utility bills. The previous Conservative administration had drawn up plans for how to allocate it, and I’m pleased that the Council is continuing with this. The fallout from the pandemic continues to hit people hard, and the Council must ensure that it’s doing everything it can to help residents. Can the Executive Member provide me with the reassurance that the Council will be able to successfully communicate with families and individuals in need to take up this money – and ensure that there is no money left in September, which is when the Fund needs to all be spent?
Answer
Thank you for your question Laura. The Council provides many grants to people who are in need of financial help. How to access these grants is currently advertised on our website along with other options for residents who need help. Our partner charities are aware of these grants for when they are providing support to our customers, and our customer service teams are all trained to recognise someone who might need funding help. I’m going to ask Councillor Bishop-Firth to talk a little bit about the work that she has done to promote these grants that we receive and how they have been communicated to those who need it.
My understanding is that this question relates to latest grant of Household Support Funding which is £525,000. As you say, this must be spent by 30th September or it reverts to the government. Clearly, we need this money to be spent on residents living in hardship in the Borough.
To ensure that we achieve this, Wokingham Borough Council is working closely with our voluntary and community sector partners in the Hardship Alliance. Together we have developed a plan for ensuring that the grant is spent on those most on need in our community, within the guidelines set by central government.
This includes a robust communication plan, using both online and other channels, to ensure that those in the greatest need are both aware of and encouraged to come forward for help. We will closely monitor take up and take action if there is any concern that the money will not be allocated to help residents in need by the deadline.
Wokingham Borough Council acted fast to ensure that the first £40,000 of the grant was spent on providing vouchers to ensure that all children attending borough schools and who get free school meals in term time, had money to replace these meals during the spring half term holiday.
During the last few weeks, we have reviewed the existing plans, taking into account feedback from the voluntary and community sector. For example, we ensured that family size was taken into account in allocating payments to families with children, and we strengthened the support given to families use who are living in hardship but are not eligible for free school meals.
As a councillor, I’m committed to transparent and collaborative cross party working to support this very important task. We will continue with the working group, and Laura, you of course have been invited to join this group.
Supplementary Question
Thank you for the answers. The Council was given the household support fund by mid-May but communications to residents on how they could access the fund did not go out until 17 June. Please can you explain why there was a delay of over one-month.
Supplementary Answer
Thank you for your supplementary, Laura. As stated, Wokingham Borough Council worked very hard to ensure that the first £40,000 of the grant went to children for the spring half term holiday in May. We then reviewed the existing plans so that we could take better account of the needs of people, and the bulk of the money will go out to help families during the summer holidays and should be with them for the start of the summer holidays.