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TSL Round up - Cost of Living crisis


This edition of TSL’s policy round up has been put together to update you as a TSL member on the work that TSL (and others) have been undertaking on your behalf to support the resilience of the sector and communities throughout the current Cost of Living crisis. It also includes information about the support available from our statutory partners.

In this round up we talk about:

TSL’s position on the Cost of Living Crisis

Taking action on Cost of Living crisis – what’s next?

City-wide Cost of Living response

Warm Spaces

Key reading and links to resources
  •  Survey to inform the Energy Bill Relief Scheme review
  •  Cold Weather Plan for England and Winter 2022 Preparedness Programme
  •  Support for staff on financial stress
  •  Runnymede Trust report
  •  Locality resources
  •  NAVCA resources

Position statement on Cost of Living crisis 
 
TSL published our collective position statement on the Cost of Living crisis in September, after Leadership Group representatives came together to meet for an extra-ordinary meeting to discuss the impact the crisis is having on the sector and on communities. 

This statement sets out the critical situation the third sector in Leeds finds itself in, and the collective action TSL would like to see the sector and our statutory partners take to respond to this.

Click here to read the statement 
 

Taking action on the Cost of Living crisis - what's next?
 
TSL’s position statement has been shared widely with partners, including the Corporate Leadership Team at Leeds City Council. This position has been made clear – so now we need to translate that position into a tangible, practical response. Our plan to do this is:

TSL Cost of Living crisis meeting – 19 October

TSL Leadership Group met on 19 October with a wider group of third sector representatives to discuss the cost of living crisis and our response to this in more detail.

We heard from Lee Hemsworth, Chief Officer for Customer Access and Welfare at Leeds City Council, who provided an update on the city-wide response, including:
  • How people can access Warm Spaces (you can read more about this below)
  • Emerging plans to deliver Cost of Living support through third sector organisations 
This will be followed by a workshop with key sector reps and statutory partners (LCC and Health) to discuss potential ways forward in building the resilience of the third sector to better support communities.

TSL Goes Local with LCAN – November

TSL will be partnering with Leeds Community Anchor Network (LCAN) to host four community events in November. The purpose of these will be to gather intelligence on the impact of the crisis locally, what coping strategies are being used, and what local organisations are doing that’s making a difference. This information will help to feed into our contribution to the State of the City: Cost of Living crisis summit in early December.
How you can help:
  • Let us know what effect the crisis is having on your organisation, and what action you think would make a difference
  • Register to be a Warm Space if you feel you can
  • Look out for details on TSL Goes Local with LCAN events coming soon

City-wide Cost of Living response
 
Leeds City Council are establishing a gold, silver and bronze set of meetings to coordinate Cost of Living response at all levels. 
  • The gold meeting will be a small group at a director level, and is where key strategic decision will be made.
  • Feeding into this, the silver meeting will be cross-sector and will focus purely on Cost of Living and welfare response. There will be individual workstream meetings on different areas, e.g. warm spaces. VAL officers will attend each of these meetings and provide representation from TSL and other forums.
  • The bronze meeting will be more operational, sharing information, best practice and maximising a partnership approach. These meetings will replace the Financial Inclusion Steering Group.
Leeds Community Anchor Network (and other key organisations including the Food Aid Network) are continuing to provide practical support in communities through the Household Support Fund – this ran to the end of September, but the Government has confirmed there will be another round.

Warm Spaces
 
A Warm Spaces map has been developed and has gone live on Leeds City Council's website. The map currently shows the Leeds City Council-managed venues of community hubs and libraries, where a warm welcome will include free hot refreshments and activities for children and families in addition to the existing services of free access to books, computers and wi-fi.

Third sector organisations that wish to open their building to communities in this way can apply to become a Warm Space on the website.

If organisations wish to register as a Warm Space but opt out of appearing on the public map they can do so, and will receive support as a Warm Space from Leeds City Council, Voluntary Action Leeds and Forum Central.

Click here to register to become a Warm Space 
 

Key reading and resources
 
Cold Weather Plan for England and Winter 2022 Preparedness Programme - Support Factsheet
This is a summary from Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on support available this autumn/winter. It includes:
  • The Warm Home Discount
  • The Winter Fuel Payment
  • The Cold Weather Payment
  • The Energy Bill Support Scheme
  • The Cost of Living Support Package
  • Household Support Fund
Share your organisation’s experiences to inform the Energy Bill Relief Scheme review

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has released a survey to inform the review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This was published on 13 October and is available here.

It is so important that the voice and experiences of the voluntary and community sector are heard, and we are encouraging all frontline, local organisations (whether registered as a charity or not) to complete the survey.

The deadline for completing the survey is 11:55pm on Monday 24 October 2022, so please use the guidance linked to help you complete the survey as soon as possible.
Staff and Volunteer Mental Health and Wellbeing -
Financial stress package
TSL’s position statement outlined that “supporting increasing numbers of people in desperate situations is impacting on the mental health of staff and volunteers. The numbers of people on short-term contracts with low pay, who themselves are struggling is significant in the sector.”

A number of useful resources have been produced recently to support this:
West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership have put together a package of support that is available to the third sector.
Locality have put together a checklist of resources to help you support your staff and tackle HR issues related to the cost-of-living crisis.
NCVO have produced a guide to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of your team, as well as other useful resources on support relating to the Cost of Living.
Falling Faster amidst a Cost-of-Living Crisis:
Poverty, Inequality and Ethnicity in the UK
Runnymede Trust have released a report (written by Daniel Edmiston, University of Leeds, in collaboration with Shabna Begum and Mandeer Kataria) showing that Black and minority ethnic people are disproportionately falling faster and further below the poverty line amidst the cost of living crisis.
National Citizens Advice Cost of Living Briefing
Citizens Advice hold monthly online briefings, sharing our data insights on how far the government's support package is going towards supporting people ahead of winter, with specific consideration of marginalised groups and those on lower incomes. 
Citizens Advice update their data dashboard on a monthly basis to share insights on how the crisis is affecting the people they help - you can filter some of these down to a Leeds level.
You can register here for the next monthly Citizens Advice briefing on Cost of Living in November.
Contact Us
If you would like to contact us to discuss anything in this bulletin further please ring Meg Russell, Coordinator for Forums, Networks and Research on 0113 2977928 or email megan.russell@val.org.uk
Want to share good news from your community?
Doing Good Leeds is a great place to share your successes and promote the work of the third sector in building strong and resilient communities  in Leeds. Click here to register and take the first step in sharing your good news!
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