Agenda item

Purpose: To identify existing and potential impacts of the rising costs of living on residents of West Berkshire, the support that is currently available, and any gaps in provision

Sean Murphy (Public Protection Manager) presented the report on the Rising Cost of Living Impacts (Agenda Item 10).

It was noted that due to the fast-moving nature of events, some of the information in the paper was out of date. The report highlighted some of the potential implications of the rising costs of living together with some of the mitigations, including services provided by the Council and other local partners.

The report proposed that a sub-group of the Health and Wellbeing Board be established to consider the implications further and co-ordinate the local response, and for further reports to come to the Board.

It was noted that meetings had been held with the voluntary sector to scope out the support that they were able to provide, which could then be signposted. 

The Leader and Chief Executive of West Berkshire Council had attended a meeting of South East Leaders to discuss how local areas could respond.

It was confirmed that a ‘cost of living hub’ would be set up along the same lines as before with Covid and Homes for Ukraine. This would bring in partners such as Greenham Trust and the voluntary sector to ensure a cohesive response across the district. It was recognised that there would be impacts for residents, businesses and staff.

Due to the fast-moving nature of the situation, Members proposed that the Steering Group be empowered to take decisions from the outset rather than to do this at a subsequent meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Martha Vickers indicated that she was happy to volunteer to be part of the sub-group.

It was stressed that people who were engaging residents in the community needed to be educated about the help on offer at the national and local levels. It was suggested that the Council needed to use the expertise that was already available in the community to do this. Warm space hubs were highlighted as potential locations to engage with people and promote the help that was available. Councillor Steve Masters had recently arranged a meeting on warm spaces that had brought together volunteers from across West Berkshire.

It was noted that during Covid, the hub had over 90 voluntary groups and around 3,000 volunteers, so the importance of communications was recognised. A central site with relevant information had been set up on the Council’s website which was being promoted to partners. The residents’ e-bulletin would also be a key communications tool, but it had not yet been agreed if there would be a specific bulletin around the cost of living challenges. Communications had been temporarily halted during the period of national mourning, but would be resumed shortly. It was stressed that the aim was to help people to help themselves.

It was highlighted that it was important to reach people who did not currently use the Council’s communications channels or services. Such people may be digitally and socially isolated, and potentially ethnically diverse.  It was noted that non-digital communications such as flyers and use of social prescribers could be used to improve engagement with these groups. Also, local ward members had good intelligence about harder to reach groups in their areas.

A question was asked about what funding was available to help support people and if the Council was lobbying central government to secure additional funds. It was noted that local authority budgets were already under pressure due to inflation, rising interest rates, etc. Household Support Grants were being made available for critical interventions in addition to the Energy Price Cap.  Councillor Lynne Doherty was Chairman of the South East Strategic Leaders, which was writing to ask central government to look at issues such as adult social care, where pressures were anticipated. Councillor Doherty had requested a meeting with the new Prime Minister in order to highlight the challenges facing local authorities. She also sat on the Local Government Association’s People and Places Board which was raising awareness of the pressures facing local government. In addition to It was suggested that it was important for the Health and Wellbeing Board to work out what pro-active solutions could be put in place and to ensure that funds were being used effectively across all statutory partners with effective prioritisation.

It was suggested that the effects of the cost of living increases may be as serious as those arising from the Covid pandemic, so a similar response would be required. Community volunteers had managed to reach people that statutory service providers did not know about, so it was important to re-engage the sector.

The Integrated Care Board was encouraged to consider potential impacts (e.g. patients being able to get to appointments due to a lack of transport or an inability to pay for travel). Also, prescription charges were highlighted as another potential barrier, and the form that eligible patients needed to complete to obtain free prescriptions was very long and complicated.

Councillor Jo Stewart indicated that she was meeting with other adult social care leaders to discuss current and future pressures.

It was noted that the Mental Health Action Group had organised a finance and mental health event and a report would be brought back to a future meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board. 

Action: Councillor Jo Stewart to liaise with Adrian Barker to see if the Finance and Mental Health report could be brought to the December 2022 meeting.

Officers confirmed that lessons learned from the Covid Hub were carried forward to the Homes for Ukraine work and would be applied in the Cost of Living Hub. Also it was recognised that all forms of communication would be needed to get messages out and the Communications Strategy would be one of the first things to be discussed. In addition, it was acknowledged that the Sub-Group would need delegated authority to be able to make quick decisions.

A question was asked about membership of the Sub-Group. It was suggested that this would be worked up off-line and circulated to Members via email.

RESOLVED:

To note the causes, implications and existing work being undertaken with respect to the cost of living increases including impacts and mitigations

To set up a sub-group of Health and Wellbeing Board be set up to consider the implications further and co-ordinate the local partner response to the cost of living increases.

To receive further update reports on the local response to the cost of living increases.