Agenda item

Mel Anthony, Commissioning & Development Manager, was in attendance for this item)

The Committee received a report from the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director seeking endorsement of, or comments on, the proposed decision of the Cabinet Member to extend the Kent Support and Assistance Service for another year.

The Cabinet Member introduced the new service, for individuals experiencing crisis, which the Council had taken over from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and explained that it was now delivered differently.  Specifically, cash awards were no longer made, except in certain very limited circumstances.  He reported that this service was established as a one-year pilot with the intention of then procuring for a long term service.  However, there was not considered to be sufficient information available as yet with which to draw up a comprehensive specification for delivery and hence it was proposed that the pilot be extended to collect that information and enable a properly conducted procurement exercise.  

Ms Anthony spoke to the item.  She reported the following information for the Committee:

(i)   That the Council had chosen to not only meet the immediate needs of those presenting by awarding goods and food, rather than money, but was also attempting to identify the cause of the problems being experienced and signpost individuals to services that may help them to avoid further crisis in the future. 

(ii)  She stated that there had been approx 11,000 telephone enquiries in the first five months of the scheme.  The total number of applications received had been 3,483 resulting in 1,817 households receiving 2,921 individual awards.  The remainder had been signposted to other more appropriate services.  Food was the most commonly sought assistance and KCC worked closely with a large supermarket to provide balanced food packages.

(iii)The service had linked with voluntary organisations and other departments and programmes within the council to ensure joined up delivery, 

(iv)That KCC’s delivery was innovative and several other local authorities had been in contact to discuss how things were progressing in Kent with a view to amending their own delivery. 

(v)  The scheme continued to evolve but there had been positive feedback from stakeholders and users and successful outcomes for residents, including one case which she described in more detail. 

Ms Anthony concluded by reiterating the points made by Mr Hill, explaining that in order to allow a robust procurement the Committee was being asked to endorse the proposed decision that the pilot be extended for a further year until 31 March 2015 to allow more evidence to be gathered.  The short time the service had been in place and the fact that it had not been in operation over a winter period meant that the current data was insufficient to allow a properly informed procurement process.

The Committee debated the report received.  A member of the Committee expressed concern about the number of enquiries that were received compared with the number of grants awarded  The Chairman responded that she regarded that as a success of the new scheme as help was targeted and appropriate, but that monitoring would continue to ensure that all those that needed help received it.

In response to further questions put, Ms Anthony confirmed the following information:

(i)That the service was a building block for those who made contact and that the focus was not only to address the immediate need but also to signpost applicants to services to help them cope with and manage their situation in the future.  All of those who had been unsuccessful in receiving an award would have been directed to more appropriate services, such as a DWP budgeting loan. 

(ii)  That ASDA was the supermarket that currently provided the food parcels and West Kent Lifeways were the arm of the furniture re-use sector that provided white goods. 

(iii)That the food parcels came as a 7 day package as standard and these were delivered direct to the service user.  This 7 day period was sufficient to put other services in place and look for permanent solution to the problem(s).

(iv)Households were allowed three awards in a 12 month period.

(v)  Applications could be made by email or by a freephone number to operators who were trained to deal with calls for the service.  In addition, work continued with partners such as Children’s Centres to allow applications from a variety of avenues.

(vi)That other supermarkets were not currently expressing an interest in delivering the service but were watching the success of the scheme with interest and may be confident enough to bid when the full procurement exercise was conducted.

Further comments were received from members:

(vii)         A member of the Committee expressed concern that some elected members had not been made aware of the work of the service.  He asked that more information be disseminated to members in order that they could properly inform residents who approached them in need.

(viii)        That linking with the DWP in order to negate the need for people to give personal details more than once might make the service more user friendly.

(ix)That families who had not eaten for some time would need food more quickly than the 24-48 hours that delivery could currently take.  In addition, vouchers for ASDA were not practical for every family as for some people ASDA would be some distance from home.

(x)  That research should be undertaken with local food banks to find out why some residents approach them instead of the council in order to make more accessible the service that the council delivers 

Briefly Ms Anthony responded to thank members for their helpful questions and comments and to clarify that food awards were delivered to families as parcels, vouchers were not used and that some emergency long life food parcels were kept aside for those cases where families were in such need that they could not wait for the supermarket to pack and deliver the parcel.

Finally she reported that a full report would be brought back to the Cabinet Committee in March.  Communication with Members about the service prior to this report would be conducted via the Member Information Bulletin.

It was RESOLVED that: the proposed decision of the Cabinet Member to extend the one-year pilot scheme by twelve months to 31 March 2015 be endorsed.