Partner support and case studies

Impacts from the cost of living crisis that are being noticed

We see that people are worn out, they are tired. They had the pandemic to deal with and now this, they have nothing left to give.

We have noticed an increase in demand, more people needing support and some people accessing support who have never needed help in the past. There are a lot more working people coming through and some people with large outgoings for example but are unable to keep up with bills increasing and are finding they can't make ends meet.

There are also people falling through the gaps who don't meet the criteria for benefits but are still struggling. We have had new mums come in who had planned their maternity leave based on a certain income. Then bills went up and it's meant they now can't manage on what is coming in. There are also international students who come over to study and cannot work. They have no recourse to public funds, so they are really struggling and have limited options. These are some of the 'hidden' people that are struggling locally.

The biggest financial challenges that your communities are facing

The increase in costs for gas, electricity and food has tipped people who were just about managing over the edge. People have no reserves left so if they have an unexpected expense come through like their washer breaks down or their car needs repairs then they have no money to get it sorted. It's like a house of cards for many people, remove one card and the lot comes down. That card could be your gas bill or your work cutting your hours. People don't have the space in their budget to be able to pay bills that have doubled or deal with any shortfalls.

How your organisation and organisations like yours support people to enable them to cope financially if they are struggling

In the nursery the staff have relationships with the families and they have built up trust. The nursery staff check in with parents to see how they are managing and help find support for them. The relationships and trust are so important.

We have provided things like air fryers and slow cookers to help people reduce household cooking costs. We have a food cupboard that can be accessed by those needing emergency food.

We have the household support fund which can support people with their gas and electric and other necessities. We have access to the hardship fund which allows us to provide things like new fridges/washing machines to people who cannot afford an appliance. We also have the baby bank where people can access baby clothing and equipment.

The Bread-and-Butter Thing has been popular. People can access groceries at a reduced cost, and it helps to bridge some of the gap that has been caused by rising prices.

We also have a new support worker who can help people with their money, helping to fill out forms for benefits applications, budgeting or getting support with debt. People really value this as we are able to offer that support in house rather than send someone elsewhere to get help.

We've got a solicitor who comes in once a week to provide advice and support to people who come to the centre.

Assets locally or across Kirklees which are helping you to support people

We signpost people to local welfare provision quite a bit. They can do a lot of other things around supporting people with their finances, signposting them to benefits they are entitled to and make sure they get their appropriate council tax discounts.

Local groups are quite well connected. We have WhatsApp groups where we share if there is extra food that needs distributing or if a community venue needs a plumber we can give recommendations. We work together and support each other.

The hardship funds helps allows us to help people with appliances and household items that people may struggle to afford.

There are lots of other organisations working locally to support people. The Welcome Centre helps a lot of people locally and we signpost down there.

Our baby boutique has pop-ups in different areas so you don't have to come to the Chestnut Centre to be able to access it.

There are also lots of things like WhatsApp groups locally. For example, a mums group I know about were sharing about Breathing Space recently to help people access a break from their debt. People are supporting one another in different ways and we just don't always hear about it.

Barriers or challenges to accessing or delivering support and the help needed to overcome these

Time for in-person one-to-one support. Finding the right person to be able to do that role is really important. You need someone who understands the breadth of supports that are available, but they also need to be a people person and understand the difficulties people are facing.

There is a real challenge in knowing and keeping up to date with all the different support that is available. It can change all the time; things open up and close down so keeping up with that is difficult. When someone starts working a lot of time is spent for them getting to know the area and what's actually available.

Things that could be done differently at a local level to support those in poverty

It would be really helpful for organisations if funding was provided on a long-term basis. This would help us to recruit and retain staff. It is really difficult to recruit staff and volunteers at the moment, all organisations are finding it difficult. Having long term funding would help with planning. There is a lot of work that goes into applying for grants and they only run for a certain period of time. They often come up last minute, so there is really limited time to apply for them.

Then there is the reporting. This takes a lot of time and work gathering all of the outcomes to meet the grant conditions. This time takes away from the support we could offer to people who need it.

It would be helpful to have a van/transport to be able to support with donations. Often there are people willing to donate items but we can't get anyone to pick it up/drop it off. We prefer not to order from places like Amazon, but when you factor in the time to pick up/deliver an item, the cost of petrol etc. it doesn't make sense to buy things locally sometimes. We know there are people locally who have items to donate but we don't have the means to get these items to the people that need them.

Impacts from the cost of living crisis that are being noticed

As you'd expect, we are seeing more stock being contributed towards community assets (such as food banks) and further development of these assets to support local people. We are also seeing networks developing around these assets, linking together different offers (e.g., food, clothing, housing) to provide more holistic support for residents.

Unexpectedly, we have seen decreased use of our hardship fund. We have carried out some comms and publicity to raise awareness of the fund, but it continues to not be as well utilised as we would like.

One impact that does seem to be on the rise is around the accessibility of services due to the cost of travel. We are seeing a rising number of people unable to travel to access healthcare or other support as the cost of doing so is not within their means. That this is happening alongside a rise in the need for some kinds of support (e.g., around mental health or domestic violence) only exacerbates the issue. We are also seeing an increase in loneliness and social isolation, especially amongst older people, as residents prioritise spending on 'essentials', leaving them less able to afford to spend time with and connect with others socially.

We have unfortunately also seen an impact from the loss of some funding streams. For example, we have had to close our Hopeful Families Service as the funding for it came to an end, which has been a significant loss for us and for local communities.

The biggest financial challenges that your communities are facing

One of the major challenges we come across is around the stigma of being in financial difficulty for many people. People don't want to admit they are in difficulty and this does impact on whether they will access support. There are more people struggling than ever before and this often impacts on people's perceptions of their situation and their basis for comparison, i.e., comparing themselves with others that are doing much worse and using that as a justification for not seeking support (as they see themselves as less deserving). There is also stigma attached to accessing support based around the small, number of individuals that exploit the system, i.e., people do not want to be seen in this light, especially if they already feel that they are less deserving of support than others.

Meanwhile, community groups are struggling with a rise in venue costs that is having an impact on their sustainability, either because they are struggling to continue to afford their current venues or they are unable to find a new venue within their means.

How your organisation and organisations like yours support people to enable them to cope financially if they are struggling

We provide infrastructure and logistical support for other community organisations in our capacity as a community anchor. We do also have a range of specific services as an organisation in our own right, but our aim is to always support people in as holistic and person-centred a way as possible, by referring and signposting on to other services where needed. We aim to give both our staff and volunteers the skills to support people through a crisis, whatever that crisis might be.

We ran a cost-of-living roadshow last year in partnership with the Active Citizens and Places Team and Community Plus. This allowed us to have hundreds of conversations with residents that we otherwise wouldn't have and was a great opportunity to signpost people to support and 'make every contact count'.

Assets locally or across Kirklees which are helping you to support people

There are so many great services across Kirklees that have been helping to support people, including Community Plus, Wellness Service, social prescribing link workers, school hubs and libraries. Specifically in North Kirklees, Rainbow Baby Bank, Batley & Cleckheaton Food Banks and Batley Care and Drop-In have been fantastic!

Barriers or challenges to accessing or delivering support and the help needed to overcome these

Stigma is a massive barrier for people, around both poverty and mental health. We find this particularly in some BAME communities, who struggle to talk about mental health and wellbeing, and we'd like to open up this dialogue a bit more and help people feel comfortable discussing it.

Many people have struggled with knowing where to go to get the support that is right for them at that moment in time. This is especially the case for those people who may not have struggled with their finances before. Better comms and messaging would help people to navigate the system better and find what they need.

Things that could be done differently at a local level to support those in poverty

We would always advocate for people and services to work at a hyper-local level wherever possible. This allows for opportunities to really meaningfully engage with and listen to local communities. All communities are unique and a 'one size fits all' approach doesn't really cater for this kind of diversity. There is a lot of passion, assets and insight in local communities and our role should be to support and build on this to empower them and give them a voice. To do this, we need to be willing to share power with communities and work with them as equal partners, and to facilitate true co-production. This kind of approach then needs to be reflected in all of our networks and mechanisms, including stuff like the Tackling Poverty Partnership.

Impacts from the cost of living crisis that are being noticed

We have seen a steady increase in the use of our food pantry over the course of the cost-of-living crisis. This increase has been most marked in areas of higher deprivation across our patch. Residents who are elderly and / or disabled are struggling to get to food shops, and this has been exacerbated by cuts to public transport locally (the impact of which is disproportionately felt in rural areas such as ours).

We know that there are households where residents are not able to afford to keep regular mealtimes, and somewhere parents may only eat every other day. Some of this comes down to lack of financial awareness, such as around effective budgeting but, for many, they simply cannot afford to eat as regularly as they otherwise would. Many others cannot afford to eat a healthy, balanced diet and instead have to opt for less healthy but cheaper, more calorie-dense options.

Moving from impacts on people to impacts on organisations like ours, we have noticed that residents are reducing engagement (in some cases pre-emptively) with many of the activities and services we provide, especially where there is a cost to doing so. In many cases this has led to activities and services ceasing, as we are dependent on people making use of them in sufficient numbers for them to be sustainable.

The biggest financial challenges that your communities are facing

Many people are proactively cutting down on non-essentials, including leisure and social activities. In some cases, cost-of-living is causing people to become more socially isolated and this is only further exacerbated for people living in rural areas, who are already at higher risk of isolation and loneliness.

People are travelling less often with a resultant reduction in use of services such as public transport. This then becomes a vicious cycle where services are cut due to lack of use, which only serves to reduce usage further. This has a disproportionate impact on people that rely on these services for shopping, travel to work, accessing healthcare or just seeing family and friends.

How your organisation and organisations like yours support people to enable them to cope financially if they are struggling

We offer a range of services to local communities, including:

• A food pantry where people can buy vouchers which allow them to buy a range of reduced-cost products. This gives people choice and allows them to pay something for their food, which has been important in terms of tackling the stigma of food poverty, allowing people to retain their dignity at a difficult time.
• A community transport service which can get local residents to where they need to be for low cost.
• A helpline for local communities and frequently signpost to other local offers and services.
• Winter care packs, which have provided people with warm items.
• Groups, community interest events and expos on a range of topics.
• We have a training department that offers a range of courses. These are free of charge to local communities but a paid offer for businesses, the latter paying for the former.

Part of our core ethos is to facilitate time together, by focusing on community places, activities and transport. In other words, getting people to where they need to be to do what they want to do with the people they want to do it with. We may not be specialists in physical or mental health and wellbeing but we ARE specialists in kindness.

Assets locally or across Kirklees which are helping you to support people

All of our local communities have an incredible amount of strength, passion, insight and resilience and are experts on their own lives and experiences. This is something we tap into to help deliver our services and it's important to actively listen to local people as, often, they will have the answers that we're seeking. We also need to be mindful of community dynamics and preferences when planning and delivering interventions. We also work very closely with local ward councillors, who have a great range of expertise and connections in local communities.

Barriers or challenges to accessing or delivering support and the help needed to overcome these

One of our major challenges is around comms and marketing, i.e., getting the word out about what we can offer to the people that need to hear it. Sometimes we don't end up reaching the people we really need to. Framing our comms appropriately and using the right language to promote what we do is also really important. Stigma around poverty is also a huge barrier and framing our messaging in the right way is an important way of overcoming this.

Things that could be done differently at a local level to support those in poverty

We need to make better use of community assets and work with community and voluntary sector organisations as trusted partners to help deliver stuff that matters to local communities. Working through these kinds of routes allows us to be more agile, to tap into community insight and to overcome the mistrust that some residents have for statutory services (such as the Council).

Warm spaces have helped a number of people this Winter, but this work could be further enhanced by ensuring that there are activities and support available in those spaces, rather than just giving people a space to be 'lonely together'.

The power of a compelling narrative and of storytelling is something that we need to take advantage of much more. This allows us to communicate our impact in ways that are more innovative and impactful than simple facts and figures, and feeds into social media by sharing people's lived experiences and realities.

Impacts from the cost of living crisis that are being noticed

Increased costs as a result of inflation are impacting on both the organisation as a whole and on individual employees. Employees are experiencing a range of financial issues, for example around childcare, which can then have a knock-on effect on staffing more broadly. We try to review salaries and keep them competitive where we can, but we can't afford to pay our staff as much as we would ideally like to and certainly not in line with inflation.

On top of this, funding available to us as an organisation has, on the whole, reduced since the pandemic ended. There are fewer opportunities available and, for those that are, the levels being offered are not proportionate and realistic to the ask. Many opportunities are also time limited, which in turn impacts on the sustainability of what we can do.

On the other hand, however, we have found that the willingness of local people to volunteer and provide support to their communities has increased since the pandemic, which has been great to see.

The biggest financial challenges that your communities are facing

We have seen an increasing number of people in financial difficulty and in need of support as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, with many people that have never struggled before now struggling to make ends meet. This has clearly been impacted by creeping, incremental increases in the cost of a whole range of things, but primarily essentials like food and energy. In many cases, the crisis has served to exacerbate barriers that were already there, with the impact of this being that an increasing number of people have been affected.

This trend has manifested in a number of ways, with more people than ever accessing food banks and struggling with the cost of things like travel and childcare. Schools have also been affected and are able to offer less support to parents, children and families. This all impacts on people's ability to access key services and support and also leaves people at much higher risk of poor mental health and social isolation. It also means that more people than ever are living hand to mouth with little ability to weather unexpected circumstances and financial shocks.

We do find that financial wellbeing is increasingly a topic of conversation in all of our groups and that people WANT to focus on it. In some ways, the stigma of struggling financially is lessened by the fact that everyone seems to be in the same boat.

How your organisation and organisations like yours support people to enable them to cope financially if they are struggling

Financial wellbeing is not necessarily a core focus of the organisation but, having said that, we recognise its importance and the impact that it can have on people's health and wellbeing and, as such, aim to embed it into all of our activity where we can.

Kirklees Public Health funded our Money on Your Mind Project which was directly focused on financial wellbeing. This project directly signposted individuals to support available at a local, regional and national level and, whilst the funding has now ended, we still make use of the legacy assets we have in our other work.

We aim to embed messaging on health and wellbeing (including financial wellbeing) into all of our work, signposting people on where we're unable to support directly. Every interaction with someone is a chance to make a positive impact on their health and wellbeing ('wellbeing by stealth').

We try to focus our work to those groups and communities that need the most support, ensuring that what we do is tailored and culturally competent. We also have a number of projects with barrier breakers in place, which enable us to address key blockers to people being able to access our services, e.g., travel, childcare, etc.

Assets locally or across Kirklees which are helping you to support people

The winter health packs made available through Third Sector Leaders (TSL) were hugely beneficial to those people that received them.

More broadly, our local communities and volunteers are our biggest asset and there is a huge amount of passion, insight and willingness to make a positive difference in the residents we work with. More than ever, people (especially young people) seem willing to speak up and be honest about what's working, what isn't and what they need, which is both inspiring and incredibly helpful in terms of how we make a difference for those who are most vulnerable.

We have also worked closely with a range of partners at a local level, including Kirklees Council's Active Citizens and Places Team and ward councillors. We work together well as a system, from the grass roots up to statutory services.

Barriers or challenges to accessing or delivering support and the help needed to overcome these

We struggle with clear and consistent messaging, as there is so much information out there on this topic from a wide range of sources. How do we narrow this down to ensure that we are getting the right information and messages out to the audiences that need to hear them? Related to this, messaging around the cost-of-living should be 'always on' and shouldn't vanish outside the winter months. Funding streams available should also reflect the fact that cost of living isn't just a winter issue.

For our workforce, the levels of pressure and stress are very high, at the same time as many of them will be impacted by the same issues that they are aiming to help our beneficiaries with. On top of this, staff need to be trained and enabled to help support people around financial wellbeing. Whilst most staff members are pretty confident and willing to be proactive around upskilling themselves, capacity to do so is an issue. There is also a pull on our organisation to provide specialist capacity and support to others around mental health, which adds to capacity pressures.

Things that could be done differently at a local level to support those in poverty

Organisations like us are often asked to provide capacity to undertake work on a voluntary basis that really should be paid for. Whilst we can tap into local communities to bring volunteer capacity to pieces of work, this needs to be adequately funded and resourced. Commissioning and funding of work also needs to reflect the need to provide a decent living wage for paid staff.

We are seeing more people than ever needing access to mental health provision and the funding environment needs to reflect this.

Finally, we should take the opportunity to meaningfully engage with local communities more, ensuring that we listen to them and make use of their insight to inform everything that we do. This will involve being willing to share power, in order to actually co-produce work with communities, accepting that this may be more difficult and take longer, but that the outcomes will be better as a result.