2. Fairer Renfrewshire Programme Update
Renfrewshire Council · 28 May 2025
Back to Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-committee — 28 May 2025 and its agenda
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1 ___________________________________________________________________ To: Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee On: 28 May 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 Easter Holiday Provision 4.1 A focussed programme of holiday activities for children and young people took place throughout the Easter break. Camps were provided across six locations by Community Learning and Development staff and Street Stuff for children and young people aged 5-14. The camps were free and with a healthy lunch provided. Information and booking for the camps was shared with families in receipt of School Clothing Grants, and also on a referral basis from Social Work to ensure effective targeting of places to children that need it most. 4.2 Over the period, 368 children and young people attended with a total of 534 attendances. Information gathered at booking has shown that the camps did reach child poverty priority groups, especially lone parent families and families with 3 or more children. Ages of children attending ranged from 5 -14, although fewer 13 and 14 year olds took part. The greatest number of children were aged 7, 8 and 9. 32 families where English wasn’t the first language also booked into camps. Officers are continuing to review the booking processes to maximise attendance within the available spaces. 4.3 The camps were well received, with comments from parents and carers such as ‘Great to know they can go and play without putting a strain on finances and know they are safe, should be more like this. GREAT. thank you.’ and ‘I am a kinship carer for my 2 grandchildren only my granddaughter attended it was a life saver as very new to all this I also work and being free was a great saving as of next year 2 of them will be attending.’ Summer of Fun 4.4 At Leadership Board on 23 April 2025, it was agreed that the £100,000 allocated to Summer of Fun in March’s budget be split, with 50% of the funding to be directed to deliver holiday camp provision, and the remaining 50% being allocated to support the establishment of a small grants programme which would allow third and community sector partners to deliver local, targeted provision to low-income families across Renfrewshire. This is the same approach as the 2024 Summer of Fun programme.
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3 4.5 In order to ensure that local organisations are able to access this funding within the necessary timescales before the summer period, the grants funding programme opened at the end of April, with funding applications being reviewed by a partnership panel. Delegated authority has been provided to the Head of Policy and Partnerships to consider and award grant funding of up to £3,000 per application, in consultation with the Council Leader. 4.6 Updates will be brought to future Sub-Committees. Benefit Take Up Campaign 4.7 As previously reported to Sub-Committee, over the winter period officers have undertaken a programme of work alongside partners to increase uptake of Pension Credit, alongside any other eligible benefits specifically for older people. 4.8 As we move beyond spring, this is being extended and pop-up events are being held across Renfrewshire. At these events, Advice Works will be able to provide advice to anyone with money, debt or benefit (including Pension Credit, Universal Credit or disability benefits) issues or questions. These will also cover Free School Meals and School Clothing Grants. 4.9 Although subject to change, the intended pop-ups are timetabled as below. Communications and Marketing are working to promote these events, and materials such as leaflets will be available. Date Day Time Location 2nd May Friday 10am-3pm Johnstone Town Hall, adjacent to Johnstone Library 7th May Wednesday 10am- 12noon Bishopton Library 8th May Thursday 10am- 12noon Ferguslie Park Tannahill Centre, adjacent to Ferguslie Library 9th May Friday 10am- 12noon Glenburn Library 14th May Wednesday 10am- 12noon Lochwinnoch Library 16th May Friday 10am- 12noon Bridge of Weir Cargill Hall, adjacent to Bridge of Weir Library 21st May Wednesday 10am- 12noon Erskine Library 23rd May Friday 10am- 12noon Foxbar Library 28th May Wednesday 10am- 12noon Linwood Library 30th May Friday 10am- 12noon Renfrew Library 4th June Wednesday 10am- 12noon Ralston Community Centre, adjacent to Ralston Library 6th June Friday 10am-3pm Paisley Central Library
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4 4.10 As has previously been reported to elected members, and can be seen from the Dashboard, applications and awards of Free School Meals and School Clothing Grants decreased in 24/25. While we cannot identify one reason for this, it’s is considered that the drop is partly down to large numbers of Child Tax Credit claimants not moving to Universal Credit and therefore losing eligibility. 4.11 With some P6 and P7 pupils now entitled to Free School Meals where their parents/carers are in receipt of Scottish Child Payment, the eligibility rules around Free School Meals and School Clothing Grants have also become more complex, and the families of those pupils may not apply for either free meals or grants, as they automatically get free meals. This means they also miss out on the money paid in lieu of meals during holidays and the £50 winter clothing grant that the Council agreed would be paid later this year. 4.12 As part of the application process and promotion of applications this year, a campaign is being planned around encouraging parents and carers to apply for benefits which may entitle them to FSM/SCG and well as for the meals and grants themselves. This campaign will focus on the money potentially lost by not making a claim and it is hoped this reminder will encourage parents and carers to come forward for a benefit check to establish whether they are missing out. School Support and Family Advice Service 4.13 Between the 1st of April 2024 and the 31st of March 2025, the School Support Service assisted 138 clients. These clients made a combined 263 individual contacts. The most popular advice areas were benefits and housing. The clients included 42 who were lone parents and 36 who had children with disabilities. 4.14 The School Support Service, during this period, recorded financial gains for 103 clients totalling £415, 884. Most financial gains were achieved from benefit entitlements including Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, and Universal Credit, with gains also from Carers Allowance, Educational Maintenance Allowance and Scottish Child Payment. 4.15 Many of the clients using the service are coming forward with issues that involve multiple Council and other services, and clients recently received support around opening bank accounts and advice for families with No Recourse to Public Funds. 4.16 For quarter 4 of 24/25, Advice Works received 80 referrals for their Family Advice Service and completed 113 cases. For the year, this is a total of 331 referrals and 405 cases closed. The majority of these clients have received a benefit check, with some adult disability payments applications, Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Food applications. The majority of these referrals came from Health Visitor teams, with a number too from Social Work, Education and through self-referral. 4.17 Client Financial Gain for the year to date for Family Advice is £82,471, however even in cases where a client speaks to an adviser and there is no financial gain made, the client benefits from
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5 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. 4.18 With regard to the Child Poverty Priority Groups, Advice Works have seen 266 families falling into those categories so far this year. 4.19 Further promotion of the Family Advice Service will be part of the Free School Meal/School Clothing Grant application process. Lived Experience Panel 4.20 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 presented their findings to a special meeting of Renfrewshire’s Community Planning Partnership Executive Group on 28th April. 4.21 The Panel also have meetings planned with Transport to input to the draft Local Transport Strategy and the Digital Strategy Delivery manager to feed into digital exclusion work. Additionally, Officers from the Communications and Marketing teams will meet the panel over the next few weeks as well as their input being sought for the Community Learning and Development Summer Camps, around better targeting and increasing uptake. Community Development in Gallowhill 4.22 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. 4.23 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 CHILD POVERTY STATS Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL Lone Parent 30 24 12 18 84 Disabled Ad/child 15 15 9 10 49 3+ children 7 3 4 7 21 Minority ethnic 16 9 5 5 35 Child under 1 21 10 9 11 51 Parent under 25 8 9 3 6 26 TOTAL 97 70 42 57 266
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6 community needs assessment and continue to improve and expand community led activity and infrastructure in the area. 4.24 Active Communities carried out a recruitment exercise in March, and a new Community Development Officer for Gallowhill started in post on 22 April. They will work between Gallowhill and Active Communities office in Johnstone, and have 3 priorities: • Join up services and support available locally, informed by the community needs assessment • Increase uptake of services and support for low-income families, focussed on targeting priority families • Providing dedicated community development support to improve and expand community led activity and infrastructure in the area. 4.25 Wider work will also be undertaken to develop a place-based approach based on the learning from the CNA, with a group comprising Council and HSCP officers and Active Communities steering this work. Period Products 4.26 In 24/25 both Environment Housing and Infrastructure and Chief Executive’s staff have been working together to increase the uptake of free period products across Renfrewshire. Supported by Marketing colleagues, this work has culminated in a Period Product campaign across social media, which started on 31 March, What’s On advertising which ran for 30 days and a radio advert on Quality Radio which ran for 3 weeks. 4.27 The Social Media advertising had a reach of 40,319 and 130,819 impressions to 23 April, with 2,456 clicks on the link provided. Roughly 90% of those that clicked on the link were women and 10% men. 4.28 The adverts have driven demand, with the first batch of home orders after the start of the campaign numbering over 300 and including 66 from young people 16 or under and added demand from community organisations. Demand has also increased within OneRen venues, with OneRen now including Paisley Town Hall as a venue where products are available, as well as the new Central Library. 4.29 Officers have also been out within communities carrying out Reusables Roadshows, promoting reusable products, for example at events supported by Youth Services. Community Organisations supporting or engaging with young people have also been invited to order products to improve uptake with those of school age, as there is still a stigma around periods and obtaining products in schools. This quarter Reusables have been available at: • Celebrating Renfrewshire Event – January 2025 • Cost of living event at South End Action Centre – February 2025 • Love2Care event at Paisley Town Hall – February 2025
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7 4.30 In addition, Engage Renfrewshire agreed to support a reusables giveaway for third sector organisations at their office in March. This was advertised in their newsletter, and allowed any community organisation to make an appointment to pick of products for their service users and/or the general public. 21 organisations took this opportunity with several more picking up the surplus that was left at the Engage office for this purpose. Fairer Renfrewshire Programme 25/26 and next steps 4.31 Officers have been developing a Fairer Renfrewshire programme for 2025/26, reviewing existing programmes of activity across 2024/25, and informed by discussions at the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee and relevant partnership groups. The proposed programme also reflects the specific commitments agreed as part of the approval of the Council’s budget on 27 March. 4.32 At this meeting it was agreed that £0.450m of additional funding would be allocated to the Fairer Renfrewshire programme to support the following targeted interventions: • A targeted programme of summer activities for children and young people from lowincome families, working across Council services and with community groups and third sector organisations across Renfrewshire to ensure that our most vulnerable families are able to access a range of activities and healthy food over the summer period • Continuation of the £50 winter school clothing payment to each school child eligible for school clothing grant • Continuation of the successful Winter Connections Programme. 4.33 It was also agreed that £0.095m would be allocated from existing Fairer Renfrewshire funding to support the Welfare Rights Advocacy service and schools advice support delivered by Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau. 4.34 At Leadership Board on 23 April, an additional £0.585m of Fairer Renfrewshire Funding was allocated to support the delivery of the programme in 25/26 in line with the priorities reported to elected members at the last Sub-Committee meeting. Officers are now working to take forward these priorities, and updates will be brought to future meetings. 4.35 The future reporting programme for the sub-committee is being targeted as follows: September Priority focus: Advancing Equality of Opportunity workstream Standard: CoL Update / Dashboard Evaluation: FR Panel November Priority focus: Money Advice / Place based approaches / Gallowhill (Connected Communities bits) / Breakfast clubs Standard: CoL Update / Dashboard
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8 Evaluation: Summer provision January Priority focus: Good Food Nation Standard: CoL Update / Dashboard 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 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