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with how 50% of those groups are, for example, from families with children, that's being the particular priority group, as have been multiple ethnic communities as well. Priority groups as I touched on significantly, we've been able to provide a new scheme supporting families who've got disabled person living in their household, some eligibility around that, some support in terms of, sorry, on the wrong way on this, focusing on care-experience young people as well, 150 pounds of support given over twice in kind of like a phased approach, particular support as well for people setting up home for the first time and living independently for the first time, so costs such a perch, carpeting, for example, has to go in new every time, so that's a huge cost. And it's things like that which make a massive amount of difference in terms of how care-experience young people are able to kind of simulate and sort of start beginning to live life a bit more independently, so that support is much needed. Crisis prevention in terms of our local support, again, a new scheme, we provided something like 900 pounds worth of funding as a maximum, that's really to kind of support an emergency or kind of immediate need, so in crisis, and that can go towards anything really, so for example, washing machine breaking down, significant areas up to a certain threshold and incorporating within that referrals to our debt advice partners cross-light, so we've been working quite closely with Alliance partners as I pointed out earlier, and cross-light have been able to kind of partner up with some debt advice on managing money, maximizing incomes from financial literacy, and then finally here, a point around the food bank, we've been working with them to develop some new schemes to kind of improve health eating, for example, and that's gone quite well, that's just a new initiative which has started, and that's kind of supplementing the kind of high level of need and demand, some like 5,800 food parcels being delivered across the borough, which is a huge amount, so it's really trying to kind of take us some of that down in terms of providing healthier options, and kind of links back also to the signposting work, one of the kind of outcomes of that hopefully will be to provide early intervention if we've got referrals, case management and so on, it means that we're able to get to the residents a little bit earlier, perhaps avoid some of that escalated need further down the line, so I'm going to pause there for some questions. I'm sure people got questions, any questions to officers, or that's... Thank you so much for the update, this is obviously like so important, I'm almost receiving my question because I was going to ask what has been the kind of like most impactful aspect in terms of making a difference, like money going to the right place at the right time, and have you pivoted from where you did a large amount of work last year and some things were seasonal, have there been any amends, I guess the delivery of this in order to target people in a different way or a more effective way? Thank you, I'm Matt Sales of Assistant Director here and I've been the officer lead for our cost-to-living program. I think it'd be very hard for us to kind of pick one of the schemes above others in terms of being most impactful, I think that's a very difficult question for us to answer, but what we've tried to do through the schemes that we've supported, for example, before we were referencing the crisis prevention funds, that's been a cash first approach, that's one of the first times or the first time the council's done that, so we've tried to do all that we can to have the most impact, if you saw what I mean, and we've, you know, through the 25 schemes, they've been delivered with almost 50 delivery partners, both council services, external partners, so we've reached far and wide into the borough, our dedicated cost-to-living advice team, for example, and we're one of the only authorities to have that dedicated team that supported last financial year, almost 6,000 residents, so we do think we are reaching far and wide in the borough, it's very difficult for us to isolate what's been the most impactful. In terms of have we responded in year, yes we have, we've been tracking a range of different indicators of impact in the borough and how residents have been impacting, and we have flexed and responded to that in discussion with the cabinet member, so for example, we have increased housing support during the course of the year because that's been one of the key areas impacted by the cost of living, rents rising and service charges, utilities, inflation and so on, and we also reacted for example, Besheba mentioned the winter support funds, that's the 340,000 that we invested in grants in third sector organisations because of the demands when we originally went out with that scheme because of the demand and the quality of the applications that we received with Councillor Harvey's agreement we actually increased our grant value so that we could reach more residents, and I think overall that scheme alone has helped around 4,000 residents households, sorry, in the borough, so yeah, we've tried to respond to demands and needs as they've arisen in the year. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Do you want to come back on your point? Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Well, just actually, I had one specific question which is very brilliantly there are now obviously three family hubs across the borough, and I was speaking to some people at the old oak launch last week about the fact that actually, so these were people who were providing services, supporting people with benefits, and a lot of it's referral by word of mouth and stuff, and they said it's very effective, they all sadly can't keep pace with the rate at which people are being referred in because they've got this trusted network. Basically, I wondered how we are monitoring that demand, and I know it's a very tight financial ties about how we can commensurately support according to, if we do have a stream of people who are coming to us despite the stigma of having to get the support, how we can make sure we meet the demand basically, because it may be particularly around family hubs would be interesting. Yeah, I mean, one of the key reasons the cost of living advice team has been in place is to help residents to maximise income, and that's what some of that advice and referrals will be about, so they've been there to do that. I think we need to fight the connections with the family helps to understand how we can work and close those kinds of links into the cost of living, and also how we can work better as a council to look at referrals right across all services, and with our partners. I mean, one of the key things Besheba mentioned, for example, is we develop links with Cross Light, where we provided additional grants that they could provide extended debt advice and money management support to residents. So we're working across that cost of living Alliance as part of our response, and we continue to do that, including building links to the family hubs. I'm going to bring Councillor Pera's in, but just on that exact point, I'll bring Councillor Harvey in as well. On that point, it seems to me that one of the pluses from all of this work is the Alliance, because they're so connected not just around this issue, but around issues more generally than perhaps was previously the case, and I certainly went to the family hub opening in Fulham at the Tudor Rose Centre, and I noticed that quite a lot of the people that we might refer to, for example, are part of that Alliance. So I was familiar with some of the people from the Alliance. I think that in Excel, this probably built a stronger relationship, and I just wondered if you could comment on that, and then I'll say Councillor Pera's. Harvey, you might want to come in with your answer and maybe comment on the stronger relationships we have. Sure. What I was going to comment on was we have created a winter booklet again for the cost of living this year, and we did one year before. But this year, we targeted schools and GP practices, so you will see and libraries. So in that booklet, it's got lots of information and advice around income maximisation, benefits and debt, financial inclusion grants. So it's something that is there to help people, and it might actually encourage take-up of advice services, because people become aware of what they could be potentially entitled to. They'll then go and seek advice to get that help. But we are investing quite a huge amount of money in our advice service in the borough, and we've offered sector as well. In relation to the point Lisa that you were saying about stronger partnerships, we have a really fantastic Alliance group, steering group that come and meet every six weeks, and are working really closely with Matt and Besheba to deliver priorities that the wider Alliance said what they would like, and the signposting tool is one of those key elements, that I'll let them talk about that. But one of the really great things that was recently said at the last Alliance steering group meeting was it feels really great that we are actually producing something, and we're not just sitting in a room talking, but we've actually said we want to do something, and now it's coming alive, it's actually going to happen. And they didn't believe when they started this journey that would happen. So we've worked really hard with our third sector to build up really strong relationships and deliver as well, which is great. Thank you. Councillor Paris. Thank you very much. It's fantastic to see how all sectors are coming together, the third sector. We're also involved in that process and also building those partnerships and collaborations. It's fantastic to hear as well that you've got the same posting and referral or some posting tool in place. So I've got one question in relation to that. So who will record the meeting, the same posting and referral tools, because that requires somebody to monitor incoming referrals if that's happening as well, and who's coordinating that. Also in relation to the partners that are involved, are we also supporting the partners as individual organizations? So cross life, for example, we're also funding the provision of those services at local level. It's really so important. Yeah, that's a great question. I could talk all night about what signposting could be doing for us. We've started looking at it at a very basic level in terms of basic sign posting. That's the starting point. And then referrals, possibly case management, that kind of build into that longevity. So once it's established, embedded across the organization, then we look to kind of develop it in that way. I think your point about cross life was really, really good. We've been working with them quite closely around money maximization, financial literacy. We've done training across the organization internally. We've got some, I think at the moment they've got 66 residents that we've gone through a referral process with. 11 of them are in receipt or in the posters of receiving debt relief orders as well. So there's real synergy in terms of how we're working with them and a lot of that has been built through the Alliance. They've identified the priorities. They've been driving the agenda. The signposting was a really key priority for them. They flagged it at every single event and we've been able to take that forward. Yep. Thank you. I just mentioned something that Bathsheba said, just because it feels great to be able to say it, as part of our strategy last year, we funded the cost of debt relief orders to help people that needed to apply for them because you can't get funding. You have to usually apply for grants. So as part of our strategy, we actually funded it in the council. And then what was really great is the government this year decided that actually they were changing the rules that people didn't have to pay for debt relief orders. So it was really nice to see that we were ahead of time and ahead of the government on it to help people. I just wanted to mention that. Yeah. And just to finish off on that question, I'm sorry, I didn't complete it. In terms of delivering it, it's project led by me at the moment, hoping we can find some more resources to support it. We've got a great project team set up across the organisation, so representatives from the different service areas as well, kind of feeding into it. So, digital strategy, accessibility, engagement, all of those elements that are hopefully going to be covered. Brilliant. Thank you very much. In relation to the household support fund, so please correct me if I'm wrong. So will it finish in September? Or is there a possibility of continuity? And what impact, if it's not extended, will this have in the continuation and the sustainability of the fantastic model that you have in place? Yeah. So on the 6th of March, I think it was, the Chancellor announced the six month extension. And so that's from 1st of April to the 30th of September. We've got no certainty or clarity at the moment. And we may not get any until very late in the day on what might happen with household support funds. Thereafter, of course, we might have a general election around that time. So it could be perhaps the end of this current round, but we don't know what we have to see. So it's an important, it was a really important source of funding for us last year, 2.83 million. We've got half of that for about 6 months. And that's going to be an important source of funding over this period, although the Council also put in additional funding, recognising the importance of cost of living, which we've drawn down and will continue to use in this financial year as well. If it doesn't exist, that's going to place a great deal of pressure on the Council to stop things or to find alternate funding. It's difficult to predict until we get the kind of clarity on the future, but it's not helpful in thinking through some of the structural issues that lay behind and around the cost of living. You can't plan your response and actions if you've got such temporary funding. So yeah, it would be great to get more certainty on that in time. That's a little warm. Thank you, Chair. I noticed part of the reports, it talks about building economic resilience and inclusive economy and mentions some of the work that's been done about improving skills, sort of accessing employment through H&F works and the adult learning service, and also working with local businesses. I wonder if you could say a bit more about that and how much I mean, obviously it may not be the main focus of the work, but how much take up there's been of training and skills and whether businesses as well as receiving support have also been able to employ people in the borough. I think we may have to come back to you on those questions, so absolutely kind of economic resilience, helping people into working skills, etc, has been part of our strategy throughout. What we're referring there is some of these are long-standing the programs that the Council has funded around employment and skills development, and we've been, so for example, building the links from residents that might come into the advice team, they might be sign posted, are you aware of H&F works? You can go there for skills or CV training for job opportunities. It's those kind of things and links that we've been seeking to look at. We haven't provided any sort of additional funding around those things. I mean, in the cost of living alliance though, it's got business representative organizations and businesses we're being keen to get their kind of voice at the table as well, so for example, the bids have attended conferences and events, and we've been one of the key, a key supporter of the program is our economic development team and we liaise with them regularly, but it's not something we've dedicated provided dedicated funding to. I mean, so some of the point you'll be interested here a bit more about the... I should say it's probably a broader program that continues to work, but it's good that people have been sign posted in that way as part of this work. Just on that, is there sign posting to apprenticeships anywhere within that? H&F works, does that? Thanks. Councilor Daley. Thank you very much, Chair. Well, can I say thank you on behalf of residents for some fantastic work delivered over the last year and a half, and it's been really quite immense and quite a huge workload for everybody. Some of the things that have happened, and have happened at quite a lot of speed, a lot of the innovation that's gone on, things like being able to develop a the sign posting tool itself, finding new ways to assess, need, you know, definitely some successes and some failures probably within that, bringing together this huge alliance and these kind of working parties and actually within the council itself kind of across departmental work. A lot of what you've been doing in the last 18 months has been really innovative and really new, and I wondered if you'd found a way of capturing what it is that you've done in a way that you can sort of take that essence and feel like you can move on with it and bring it to other areas and other kind of areas of need within the borough. Yes, so we're absolutely keen to evaluate what we've done and how things have gone and to learn from that. And we're doing that on an ongoing basis. I think it was Councillor Roboto who answered an earlier question about how you've responded in years. So we've tried to learn as we've gone through. But absolutely, you know, we want to learn and evaluate now. We're doing some analysis at the moment looking back at some of the data that we've achieved in 2324 to look at how we can learn from that. So what's gone particularly well from the data, what can we learn from it, areas where we didn't meet our expectations and so on. I'm slightly hesitating because what's happened is developing the strategy for 2425. It's kind of got in the way in completing that because we're working with Councillor Harvey at the moment because we've got this immediate six-month window for the House of Support Fund. So the priority is on that deciding our strategy for 2425, but we are and we will be looking more to evaluate the success of 2324 and look where we can use it more widely in the Council. Any server questions? If I may just add to that, one of the things that I'm really keen for us to do is to take all that learning that we've done along with our corporate plan and build that into financial inclusion strategy and thinking about the needs of our third sector who reflect the residents across the borough as well. So there's a lot of work still to be done and the financial inclusion element of it will be really important to bring businesses together but of core partners across the borough who work with people around money and poverty so that we can look at it holistically and building on some really great successes. So I know we haven't got anyone here tonight from the Food Bank, but at the recent Steering Alliance group meeting, Phil from the Food Bank was telling us that he'd done some work around accessing food directly from the supplier through another organisation and it's saved him 40% of the cost, which means that money can be reinvested into other food for other residents. So yeah, there's so much learning that we can build on the successes. You may perhaps need some AI to make sense of all of that. Probably. You might might just add one more point around the point that Councillor Bayley has made here. It's been really reactive on household support, obviously incredibly fast-paced. It doesn't give us both authorities and it's a lot of time to develop the strategies and we're having to double off on things like compliance and regulation. So it's just obviously working process as well as having to develop the strategy. What it also doesn't allow us to do is build any prevention into the work. So whilst we can learn from the lessons learned approach, monitoring and reporting that people who are doing what it doesn't allow us to do sufficiently well is putting that upstream approach and having something like sign hosting, it isn't an innovation but it's not meant to be delivered in this way. It's not meant to be vented to a piece of work. It's meant to be reactive and that's where the support comes from the cloud. It doesn't feel into the profile and opportunities to cover the burden that we have in for example. It would be good to see, for example, maybe 20% cost going into a kind of help us to let us hold these teams in a much more agile addition way. On the back of that, have you been feeding that back and or other local authorities feeding back that very point about long-term prevention? Okay, any other comments or questions on this report? I think it's something that's not going away so you'll probably give us an update at some point in the future. It'll be very interesting to see what happens when the current stream of funding stops. We might be in an entirely different political world. I suspect our residents will still be struggling with the cost of living for a while yet. We will revisit it at some point in the future but in the meantime, I think lots of the learning we can actually build into what we do as a council regardless of the funding so that we can actually be more responsive to residents and something like the sign posting tool won't go away. It's going to be there so it's all worth doing and it will be sustainable regardless of the funding but funding going forward would obviously be really useful. Thank you for that update. Thanks very much. So that leads me just a couple of items left. I will go to the reports that have been provided from the latest PACS. Do any of the chairs want to comment on any of the notes? I know that the last group of PACS were only a week ago so I don't know if anything came up that anybody wants to highlight from their particular PACS. PACS is a book of bank power. I don't know. No there isn't. Thank you. Right. Okay. Thank you. Just one thing I'm going to pick out I think from the climate change PACS you had an item on greening the gray. Yes. That's some think which I'll probably encompass in the item that I've got on the forward plan in relation to sort of green corridors. So it's kind of very much in line with that. Just a bit of feedback there. Okay. Thank you very much. That just leads me to ask you to note or comment on the forward program. I don't think we got to know. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I think that we should have an agenda item discussion on the level of fines and traffic parking fines and yellow box junctions and cameras and so on and so forth. It's a huge income stream for the council which has only recently been published and I think we ought to have the bus lane fines and everything like that. We need to know how much income the council is getting. Councillor BORN, is that something that comes under your policy and accountability committee? Public realm? Okay. Well, thank you for the suggestion but we will definitely take it away looking to it. It may well be more appropriate for the pack but yeah. Well, it hasn't been scrutinised and I think it's an overview given the size. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Noted. Thank you. Any other comments on the forward program? No. Could I thank everybody for coming along this evening? I think we're all going to go off with AI in our heads now. It's better and cost of living. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. And the next meeting is on the 1st of July, I believe. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. You You