Decision

That the Crisis and Resilience Fund for 2026/27 be allocated as follows:

Funding Strand

Allocation 2026/27 (£)

Proportion of total funding

What does this include?

Council administration

£109,272

1. 37%

Officer capacity to administer crisis payments

Crisis Provision

£1,446,168

1. 85%

Cash payments administered by Torbay Council £643,449

Foodbanks and social supermarkets - £354,969 (with requirements to provide data on use of the schemes)

Supermarket vouchers distributed via Family Hubs £80,000

White Goods/Home Essentials Replacement to be co-ordinated by partners £80,000

Council Tax reduction for households in immediate arrears £287,750

Resilience services

£355,000

1. 20%

Age UK Torbay capacity (50+ includes hoarding support to prevent homelessness) £105,457

Citizens Advice capacity (working age and families) £110,201

Torbay Advice Network capacity (complex mental health/autism) £26,092

Employability support and mentoring £70,750

Mental wellbeing support where linked to financial crisis £42,500

Community Co-ordination

£135,000

£5.40%

Warm spaces winter 2026/27 £30,000

Community Helpline*/Triage conversations £50,000

VCSE application support (to assist with crisis payment and benefit applications) £25,000

Food Alliance co-ordinator* £30,000

Housing related

£454,536

1. 18%

Housing payments £314,536

SWEP (to include onward signposting and referral to wrap around services £15,000

Rent in advance and deposits for homeless residents £85,000

Emergency furniture/white goods for residents moving from temporary accommodation £40,000

Totals

£2,499,976

100%

Reasons for the decision

To meet the grant restrictions and to begin shifting from crisis support to helping improve the resilience of Torbay residents who are experiencing challenges, whether through homelessness, debt, food poverty or other issues.

Alternative options considered

Torbay has well-established relationships with partners such as Age UK and Citizens Advice.  The Torbay Community Helpline and multi-agency VCSE partnership behind it offers proven, established infrastructure which de-risks the transition from crisis support to resilience.  Utilising partners provides additional data around residents’ broader life circumstances and supports resource being targeted appropriately.

Therefore, a partnership delivery model was proposed which ensures that a crisis payment becomes the entry point to holistic support, and long-term, sustainable solutions for people who are struggling.  Enabling a move from a crisis driven model to a model which supports informed and conversations to understand what is happening in a person’s life and directs them to a range of targeted support to improve their longer-term resilience.