2. FRSC Programme Update Mar 25 Final
Renfrewshire Council · 26 March 2025
Back to Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-committee — 26 March 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 ___________________________________________________________________ To: Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee On: 26 March 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Fairer Renfrewshire Programme Update ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1. The Council and partners have a key focus on tackling inequality and improving wellbeing and have longstanding programmes of work and partnership arrangements in place such as the Tackling Poverty Programme and the change programme established in response to the findings of the Renfrewshire Drug and Alcohol Commission. 1.2. At Council on 2 March 2023 members reaffirmed their commitment to the Fairer Renfrewshire programme and outlined several investments including bringing together the current Fairer Renfrewshire funding alongside the Tackling Poverty and Social Renewal reserve funds into a single resource. 1.3. At Council on 27th February 2025, members further reaffirmed their commitment to the Fairer Renfrewshire programme with continued investments in a number of targeted interventions including additional welfare rights and schools advice funding, a targeted programme of summer activities for children and young people from low-income families, another year of the Winter Connections programme in 2025/26, and a further winter school clothing payment in 2025. 1.4. Work on priorities has continued throughout 2024/25, with this paper containing progress updates at Section 4. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that members of the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee note the report.
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2 3. Background 3.1 As highlighted in Section 1, the Fairer Renfrewshire Programme brings together a number of existing programmes of work focussed on achieving fairness and equity. The programme currently works to deliver against 4 key themes: · Improving financial security · Advancing equality of opportunity · Building community capacity and resilience · Listening to lived experience 4. Fairer Renfrewshire Programme Updates Winter Connections 2024/25 4.1 As was reported to Sub-Committee in November 2024, at Leadership Board in May 2024, it was agreed that £75,000 of funding be allocated from Fairer Renfrewshire programme to provide small grants to support a Winter Connections programme in partnership with local organisations. The programme aims to encourage people to connect and participate in activities in warm and welcoming spaces across communities in Renfrewshire and supports local community and voluntary organisations with the additional costs of making venues, activities and sessions open as part of the programme, such as equipment, food, energy costs, and rent. 4.2 Funded activities must fit the criteria of Winter Connections and be: • Open, free and easy to access • Inclusive, welcoming, respectful, and safe • Able or willing to provide connections to other services and supports • Able to offer warm drinks/snacks/food along with activities, where possible 4.3 The fund opened to applications on 23 September and was quickly over-subscribed. The fund was closed on 11 October to general applications after attracting 42 bids totalling £79,488. Where there were geographical gaps, further applications were invited, and all available funding was allocated by early December. The funding has also supported OneRen Libraries to continue to offer hot drinks and cup a soups, which are free to all, as well as free snacks for children at some of their Winter Connections programmed activities. 4.4 Most Winter Connections activities are now finished or finishing, with a small number of later starting activities continuing to April. Initial feedback from the programme has been positive, showing organisations involved in providing activities to have diverse users – including those with a learning disability, older men and women and women affected by domestic violence. All report that their sessions have been very well attended. 4.5 Providers have advised that those who come along value the sense of community, and projects speak about people looking forward to coming along, meeting others and taking part in activities. Jubilee House has noted that they have to gather as many chairs as possible from around the building to give people a seat.
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3 4.6 The projects report that Winter Connections funding allows them to offer communities the opportunity to meet up regularly in familiar, safe, spaces, where they feel welcomed, valued, and connected. 4.7 Feedback from libraries where we provided funding for hot drinks/cup a soups has also been positive. An increased footfall is recorded when they can offer hot drinks, and adults arranging to meet up and have a cup of tea in the library. 4.8 The evaluation of Winter Connections is now in progress, and this will be reported to the next Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee. Funding for a further year of the Winter Connections programme in 2025/26 was agreed at the Council’s budget in February 2025, and next years programme will be informed by the learning from the evaluation. Pension Credit Uptake Campaign 4.9 As previous reported to Sub-Committee, officers have undertaken a programme of work alongside partners to increase uptake of Pension Credit, alongside any other eligible benefits specifically for older people. 4.10 DWP data on Pension Credit applications and awards was released in late February, but this data is only nationally and not at a local level. From this data, we can see there has been an 81% increase in applications and 64% increase in awards between July 2024 and February 2025. There are still a number of outstanding Pension Credit claims from this period, which means this is not the final position for this period. 4.11 Locally, between Advice Works and RCAB, 613 pension age households have been assisted with queries, income maximisation, benefit applications and debt/housing advice within Q3 of 2024/25. The client financial gain is over £1.1m from the advice and support provided, and this figure will be expected to rise as and when decisions are made on benefit claims. Further pop-up benefit take-up events are being arranged for April to be held in various locations across Renfrewshire. School Support and Family Advice Service 4.12 Between the 1st of August 2024 and the 5th of March 2025, the School Support Service assisted 92 clients. These clients made a combined 175 individual contacts. The most popular advice area was benefits, with the most common issues being Universal Credit and Adult Disability Payment. The second most popular advice area was housing, with clients seeking support regarding access to and provision of accommodation, including private sector rented properties. 4.13 The School Support Service during this period recorded financial gains for clients 54 clients totalling £195,403.34. Most financial gains were achieved from benefit entitlements including Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, and Universal Credit. 4.14 A notable trend in service use is that 25 of the 92 clients (over a quarter) identified as having caring responsibilities for a disabled child. By comparison, the Bureau’s overall figure for clients with disabled children during this period was 4.5%.
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4 4.15 Up until 7th of March 2025, for quarter 4 of 24/25, Advice Works received 48 referrals for their Family Advice Service and completed 80 cases. For the year, this is a total of 299 referrals and 372 cases closed. The majority of these clients have received a benefit check, with some adult disability payments applications, Scottish Child Payment and Free School Meals and School Clothing Grant applications. The majority of these referrals came from Health Visitor teams, with a number too from Social Work, Education and through self- referral. 4.16 Client Financial Gain for the year to date for Family Advice is £59,428.64, however even in cases where a client speaks to an adviser and there is no financial gain made, the client benefits from the reassurance of a benefit check and meeting with Advice Works opens discussion on all financial matters that may be worrying the client, such as debts and budgeting. 4.17 With regard to the Child Poverty Priority Groups, Advice Works have seen 255 families falling into those categories so far this year. CHILD POVERTY STATS Q1 Q2 Q3 1/1/25 to 7/3/25 TOTAL Lone Parent 30 24 12 14 80 Disabled Ad/child 15 15 9 8 47 3+ children 7 3 4 5 19 Minority ethnic 16 9 5 4 34 Child under 1 21 10 9 9 49 Parent under 25 8 9 3 6 26 TOTAL 97 70 42 46 255 4.18 Further promotion of the Family Advice service is being planned for early 2025, as part of a general promotion of support for families including School Support and the family Wellbeing service. Lived Experience Panel 4.19 Elected Members have been given a number of updates relating to work of the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel. From the end of October, for 5 weeks, the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel worked on a piece of commissioned work for Renfrewshire HSCP, where they considered the outcomes of the NHSGGC Public Health and Wellbeing Survey. The Panel are due to present their findings to a special meeting of Renfrewshire’s Community Planning Partnership Executive Group on 26th March. 4.20 As previously reported to elected members, in December, the Panel heard from HSCP around their planned work on Cost of the Nursery day, and agreed to be involved in developing and supporting this training which will take place in Early Learning Centres in February/March. A further session took place with HSCP on February around this topic,
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5 with the panel inputting to the training programme. The Panel are user testing aspects of the new Council Website with on 5 March and meeting with the Digital Strategy Delivery Manager on the 12th. STAR Project and a member of the Panel will both be part of a presentation to the Child Poverty Peer Support Network in Dundee on 18 March. This meeting has a focus on Lived experience, and Renfrewshire is one of the 4 local authorities reporting on their work in the area. In addition to the organised sessions to gather Panel input, the Panel took time in February to review their priorities and will report back to Council officers on these. Community Needs Assessment in Gallowhill 4.21 As previously reported to the sub-committee, late in 2023, Renfrewshire HSCP was successful in a funding bid to NHSGGC Public Health to carry out a Community Needs Assessment (CNA) in Gallowhill, recognising the concerning increase in Child Poverty rates in the Gallowhill and Renfrew South Ward. The CNA, being carried out by Active Communities, commenced at the start of July 2024 using the Place Standard Tool and 1,033 responses were submitted as part of this consultation. 124 of these were gathered through 1:1 interview in the community, with 262 full responses to all 14 questions and a further 771 partial submissions. 4.22 A report will be produced detailing the findings from the Community Needs Assessment, and it is expected that this will be launched later in March, while Active Communities will continue to work in the area and keep and expand the connections made with the Gallowhill community. 4.23 At Leadership Board on 4 December, £50,000 of Fairer Renfrewshire funding was allocated in grant funding to Active Communities to support the continuation of community development activity in Gallowhill following the publication of the Community Needs Assessment. This will provide capacity to support the development and implementation of actions emerging from the community needs assessment and continue to improve and expand community led activity and infrastructure in the area. Wider work will also be undertaken to develop a place-based approach based on the learning from the CNA. Fair Food Renfrewshire 4.24 The Fair Food Renfrewshire Steering Group, which met initially in September 2023, has continued to meet on a quarterly basis with the most recent meeting taking place in late November, where nutrition for young people was one of the areas of focus. 4.25 A six-month plan was approved in August by the Steering Group. The focus of the plan is on communications and marketing, re-establishing a Food Support network forum to discuss emergency and community food, and investigating the possibility of increasing access by local food producers to procurement frameworks. 4.26 Further to the establishment of the reformed Food Support Forum, a further meeting took place on 13 February. The meeting was attended by a number of organisations who run pantries and food larders as well as Renfrewshire Foodbank. Topics discussed included how the group can work together to avoid gaps and duplication in provision, ensuring culturally appropriate food is available, and creating meals with emergency mainly tinned provision from the Foodbank.
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6 4.27 The group highlighted an increased interest in growing food and increasing the availability of growing grounds and plots to support those who want to grow their own fruit and vegetables, and the positive impact this could have on health. Coordination of fresh food supply was discussed, with agreement made that surplus food which is coming to end of life from one group could be donated to another group which may be open the following day, for example. This would reduce food waste as well as support redistribution of fresh food. The group found coming together beneficial and agreed that regular meetings should be organised. 4.28 The next Fair Food Renfrewshire steering group meeting will take place on 21 March, where an update will be provided on the Good Food Nation work as well as the Food Support Forum. 4.29 Further to discussion at the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee in February, a separate update on the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act and Fair Food Renfrewshire will be provided at the March Sub-Committee. Wider developments and next steps 4.30 Members are asked to note that work is underway to bring forward proposals for Fairer Renfrewshire programme funding to be allocated for 25/26 for approval by the Leadership Board in April 2025. Priorities for 2025/26 are presented for discussion with the Sub- committee as a separate item on this meeting agenda. Implications of the Report 1. Financial – There are no financial implications associated with this report. 2. HR & Organisational Development – none 3. Community/Council Planning – The Fairer Renfrewshire Programme is a key driver in achieving the ‘Fair’ strategic outcome and theme within the Council Plan, and covers a number of the key actions identified in the plan. It also represents a significant partnership programme of work which supports the ‘Fair’ theme within the Community Plan, with dedicated partnership governance being established to ensure alignment between these areas of work. 4. Legal - none 5. Property/Assets - none 6. Information Technology - none 7. Equality and Human Rights – Equality and human rights are a key pillar of this plan, and it is anticipated that the programme will likely advance equality of opportunity. 8. Health and Safety - none 9. Procurement – none 10. Risk – none
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7 11. Privacy Impact – none 12. Climate risk – none 13. Children’s rights - the articles within UNCRC underpin the work that is being progressed in Renfrewshire through the Fairer Renfrewshire programme, particularly in relation to rights in relation to aspects such as life, survival and development, food, clothing and a safe home and supporting the best interests of the child and their families. Child poverty and family wellbeing are key local partnership priorities. 14. COSLA Policy Position – none Author: Laura McIntyre, Head of Policy and Partnerships