The UK, Welsh Government and Conwy County Borough Council feel that tackling poverty is really important and we can only do this together. As part of Conwy County Borough Council’s commitment to this we have a Tackling Poverty Board which looks at what we can do to support people out of poverty.
One of the areas that the board has looked at is the Welsh Government’s funded tackling poverty programmes that include Flying Start, Families First, Communities First and Supporting People. But we decided that there was an opportunity to look at other funding so we have now included Adult Social Care Third Sector Grant funding as well as the Rural Development Fund and Vibrant and Viable Places funding.
This is a new way of working where all the grants and other funding are looked at as a whole and not as separate parts. We want to make sure we are not missing anything and we are meeting the needs of our communities.
From what families are already telling us we feel that working more closely together is already making a positive difference to the people of Conwy. Here is a brief overview of an example;
A referral was received from HOST regarding a family who had lost their entire belongings in a house fire and were temporarily staying with friends whilst seeking emergency assistance.
Team Around the Family were able to source clothes and a food parcel for the family. A referral was also made to Welfare Rights, in order to establish whether they were claiming the benefits to which they were entitled. TAF were also proactive in placing an advertisement on the council intranet, requesting donations for clothes, household items, bedding and such like.
TAF identified that the family lived in a Flying Start area and were able to joint work in order to ensure a smooth transition of service. Flying Start delivered the sourced donations and continued to work with the family.