Agenda item

Following on from funding awarded in September 2021 and subsequent report presented to Policy and Resources Committee on 6 December 2021, Hertfordshire County Council has been provided with a further £6.172m funding from the Government’s Household Support Fund (HSF), this figure doesn’t include administration support. This funding will be used to help people in need with the cost of food and energy between April to the end of September 2022.

The Partnerships Manager introduced the report and advised that Herts County Council had been provided with a further £6.172m of funding towards the household support fund.  This was previously allocated from October to March but another round of funding had been allocated until the end of the September.  This allocation had changed slightly from the previous one where this funding support will have 32% go to Pensioners which would be retained by Herts County Council therefore the funding the Council get is reduced to £55,000 in total.  The report had broken down what partner allocations will be awarded to spend which had been varied slightly from the previous report based on what partners were able to administrate on our behalf and for which they had demand from the residents.  All residents can apply directly to the Council in order to access the funding support.  The recommendations were to agree to the breakdown of the spending but also to agree, as there is future fund, that future allocation decisions are delegated to the Leader and Executive Head of Service in order to prevent any delay on decisions.  We had received feedback from partners that they were disappointed that there had been delays in receiving the funding. 

Councillor Ciaran Reed moved an amendment to the recommendation.  The Councillor said in terms of the mechanism on future allocations and given that the Council recently passed an amendment on how emergency decisions are agreed could the details be notified to all Group Leaders which allows for everyone to know what is happening.

The Chair agreed with the amendment but proposed that the normal urgent decision process be used.

The Chief Executive advised that the recommendation could be that future allocation decisions be delegated to the Executive Head of Service in consultation with the Group Leaders.  The Chair and Proposer agreed with the proposal.

A Member asked how the agencies are identified, how do they bid for the funding and do they have any admin charges or does the full amount go to the recipients.

The Partnership Manager advised the agencies are decided on who our most frequent partners are which we work with and engage with. The agencies do not need to bid for the money although a couple of organisations who we don’t normally work with have approached us to access some of this funding and we are happy to provide some funding.  The admin cost had been retained by the Council with £5,000 of the total allocation being admin. 

The Chair asked if other agencies take off some money for admin too.  The Partnerships Manager advised that they don’t take money off for admin.

A Member said the mechanism had changed from the previous report with the County Council now keeping back a third for pensioners.  They felt the system before was better as it was all being administered locally at Three Rivers.  How can be guarantee that the pensioners of Three Rivers actually get the third? Councillor Chris Lloyd was happy to move the recommendations. 

The Partnerships Manager advised that the County Council had tried to change the scheme as well.  Within our allocation 50% had to be spent on families and the other 50% can be spent on individuals so pensioners who are not able to access the funding at the County can approach us for support locally. 

A Member asked on the £5,000 admin cost would the money be split between all the partners or is that just for TRDC?  If residents apply to us directly for funding do we signpost them to the partners or do we provide the money directly. If one partner ran out of money could they receive funding from another partner or is it ring fenced. 

The Partnership Manager advised that we have an entry route for all the applications so we encourage with our partners to refer their clients directly into the Council and the team will manage that process and then sign post the residents, with their consent, to the partners to receive the funding.  The Council retain the £5,000 for administration costs as it is the community partnerships team doing the work.  On the allocation of the funding to partners that all goes directly to the partners for the residents.  Monthly monitoring is carried out with each partner to find out how much they are spending in order to make sure it is not being spent within the first month and is staggered across the timeframe we have for the funding.  We are able to ask for some money back as we have had partners who have not been able to spend it within the timescale and we have been able to allocate it to others. The funding we have back we can look at allocating that funding out to other partners.

The Chair advised that the partnerships the community partnerships team have with the partners are long standing, well formed and well created.

On being put to the Committee the motion with the amendment was declared CARRIED by the Chair the voting being unanimous.

RESOLVED:

Agreed the plan for spend of the Household fund so that funds can accessed by vulnerable people during the winter to the end of September 2022 in Three Rivers through a range of partners as identified above.

Agreed that future allocation decisions be delegated to the Executive Head of Service in consultation with the Group Leaders.