Attendees

• Louisa Ingleson (Forum)
• Lauren Murtagh (Living with Water)
• Pippa Robson (Forum)
• James Hall (OSHI)
• Severine Kifaili (Borashaaba)
• Sharon Clay (Hull City Council)
• Mike Mercer (Humbercare)
• Nikki Moses (Alzheimers Society)
• Jan Boyd (EMS Limited)
• Claire Thomas (Oasis Hub Hull)
• Tammy Hancox (Humber All Nations Alliance Student)
• Julie Rodrigues (Humber All Nations Alliance)
• Fred Owen (RSPCA)
• Elena Sayers (Rethink Mental Illness)
• Franklin Onukwugha (Youth Aspire Connect)
• Tracey Laws (Hull CVS)
• Hannah Meadway (Hull CVS)
• Philip Stevens (Art Link)
• Jamal Choudhary (Peel Street Project)
• Angela Murden (Hull Afro Caribbean Association)
• Andy Dorton (Hull Churches)
• Andy Haynes (Age UK)
• Stacey Ulliot (Citizens Advice)
• Tracey Wharvell (Citizens Advice)

Welcome

Pippa welcomed everyone for attending the VCSE assembly and explained the agenda for the session ahead.

“Do you make IT and technology work for you?” discussions:

Various IT processes were being used by the range of organisations present.

Fred Owen (RSPCA) stated they had assistance from an organisation called Stonemail, which enabled their organisation to grow and develop IT practices. They also found that Office 365 and having shared diaries and a SharePoint are great to use. Work occurred to improve cyber security of buildings.

Voicemails have also been able to be changed to emails, and this has been successful in their organisation. Having dedicated support within an organisation to develop IT systems really helped an organisation to grow.

Julie (HANA) stated that owing to financial pressures they are not able to get in depth support from external sources. They had previously used windows vista, which sparked discussion from Pippa. Another factor which caused some difficulties was the fact that some members of organisations do not speak English as their first language this poses some difficulties when training in IT.

However, moving into the digital era, some members of the organisation do not understand it, due to new uses of technology evolving. Elane Sayers (Rethink Mental Illness) stated that their volunteers have difficulties using technology, and as a result, so they had to adapt practices to suit, such as posting out their information to members instead of using emails.

It was also brought to the attention of the VCSE assembly that charities are able to benefit from free IT licenses if registered charities.

Minutes from Last meeting

At the last meeting Matt Wright (Head of Community Development) provided an overview of the leadership programme and provided the benefits of taking part in the programme.

Matt Wright also provided an update on the Know your Neighbourhood Fund and a range of funding available and an overview of the forthcoming funding under the community safety strand.

Outstanding action – Matt Wright to seek clarification on Humber Violence Prevention Partnership – Matt is meeting VPP soon and will update at the April Meeting.

Living with Water Input (Lauren Murtagh – lauren.murtagh@hullcc.gov.uk)

Hull is the second highest place in the UK to flood. It is also below sea level making it vulnerable to flooding. 95-98% of dwellings are at high risk of flooding.

Currently Hull has the second highest flood risk in the UK and 95% are at risk of one type of flooding. The city is 100% reliant on pumping. As a result, millions of pounds were spent on developing Hull’s flood defences.

In Hull 84% of all surface water drains into the combined sewer system and the complexity of the drainage network means that it is difficult to determine the responsibilities of each authority.

The combination of topography, geography and an interconnected drainage system makes Hull unique in terms of flood risk.
Rosmede Street – Please find the engagement and investment on their website https://livingwithwater.co.uk/projects/rosmead-street

Blue –Green vision – Sustainable drainage systems (SUDS)

Lauren stated that sustainable drainage systems are being planned for the city. If everyone has a sustainable drainage system in place at home (for example everyone had a waterbutt in their garden, this would slow down the water flow and channel it away from drains and sewers.

Lauren (living with water) is wanting to work with community groups, come to community events to discuss their work and encourage anyone who knows of any community groups who would benefit to come forward. Living with Water are looking to develop volunteering opportunities, and are looking for community champions to offer advice at flooding at some point in the future.

Pippa suggested if anyone is planning to submit a heritage bid then they should look into opportunities with Living with Water and Lottery funding.

Pippa also mentioned the Local Resilience Forum which are the disaster/emergency response recovery planning bringing in the Police and other emergency agencies. There is a sub-group set up specifically for voluntary sector:

Questions: what could the sector do to in emergency response situations? e.g. emergency accommodation, emergency transport, emergency training.

James (OSHI) asked Lauren (Living with Water) if members of the public wanted water butts, is this possible.

She stated that they have 1000 water butts and they are currently deciding on a distribution plan as not sure of this yet.

Training Audit – Tracey Laws (Training and Conferencing Officer – Hull CVS)

Tracey provided input on the internal audit of training that has been undertaken and the range of training courses that could be rolled out to the sector in response to need. However to identify what is prioritised she asked people to complete the VCSE Training and Skills Survey at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFvsBzAscBO6mO1siB1y0d5HDgjbmhE066f-W_U_TWwDM1iQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Tracey also said that she is looking at how First aid training courses can be priced at £100 a session and food safety courses are priced at £60 can be offered at a discount rate for the sector by working closely with trainers and delivery from sector premises.

She also encouraged people to check out the current training available from Hull CVS and Sector Connect at present on the Hull CVS website on https://hullcvs.org.uk/training/

Training includes Bitesize Fire awareness, Good Governance Training and Writing Good Grants Applications.

Tracey (Hull CVS) and Kersty (Hull CVS) have also completed the train the trainer Yorkshire Ambulance Service ‘Community Emergency First Aid Training” that will be offered for free to residents and sector partners soon.

Finally Tracey encouraged people to share any other training that may be need by the sector to her at tlaws@hull-cvs.co.uk.

James (OSHI) stated that Health Education England is a fantastic training resource for statutory training including Adult and Child Safeguarding, Fire Safety training. Action – James (OSHI) to send link via Matthew Wright.

EMS – use Noodle Now as a resource for Food Hygiene Courses and training support https://noodlenow.co.uk/

Fred Owen (RSPCA) Use Home office for their safeguarding and prevent training and advised that the insurer can sometimes provide training.

Tracey shared that organisations have access to online safeguarding training and safeguarding children training and Hull CC have created a portal for this. Need to await dates for the next round of training in April.

Action: Tracey to send the link to safeguarding survey Commissioning

Pippa led a discussion and some of the main challenges were:

• Complex procurement systems
• Understanding TUPE (the requirement to transfer existing staff working on a service into a new provider when a contract changes hands)
• Unrealistic deadlines
• Lack of provider input (or lived experience input) into contract specifications
• Too competitive or not competitive enough!

Next Pippa asked people to share their experiences of commissioning as well as remagining commissioning. “If you started with a blank sheet of paper, how would you want to see commissioning change?”

• Inflation is increasing and the money usually put into funding these services are placed somewhere else. Had to invest into commissioning processes.
• Commissioning is so prescriptive and does not offer creativity.
• Quality performance used to happen but does not anymore.
• Partnership working between larger providers and smaller organisations required to increase creativity in the sector.
• One size does not always fit all when it comes to commissioning in the sector.

Building Forward Together action is to act on commissioning processes.

Sector Connect Update Premises:

We (Sector Connect) are receiving increasing numbers of queries about premises. This includes new leases, struggling to meet running costs, requests about Community Asset Transfer, interest in purchasing a freehold.

Community Asset Transfer – A community asset transfer is the process that community organisation to take over publicly owned buildings in a way that recognises public premises.

Hull City Council keen to work with the sector on the new Community Asset Transfer strategy – update at a future Assembly. Hull City Council is keen to work with the sector on the new Community Asset Transfer strategy – and there will be an update at a future Assembly.

Second raft of changes enacted in the Charity Act 2022 are due to come into force any day – these are related to the disposal of land (including leases), the definition of a connected person, and permanent endowments. If any of these concern you or your charity, please speak to us.

Funding Pots available:

Football Foundation Grants support for clubs to become more environmentally and financially sustainable, grants of up to £25k https://footballfoundation.org.uk/grant/energy-support-programme – Deadline 13th April

Morrison’s Foundation: Funding of up to £25k for UK registered charities, aimed at projects that make a difference to people’s lives with special consideration to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups https://www.morrisonsfoundation.com/about-us/

Workshops:

Housing Standards, Rights and Access to Accommodation, Friday 21 April 2023, 10am – 12pm at Welcome House, 3 Wright Street HU2 8HR

Session is aimed at workers in organisations supporting newly arrived communities, which include asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers, will aim to equip you with knowledge of the services available as well as useful information.

To book place contact: marianne.toutountzi@hullcc.gov.uk

Hull Boards:

Please see the handouts for the reports from the Safer Hull Annual Report, the Director of Public Health Annual Report and regarding engagements with various boards across the city (see attached).

Pippa Robson is due to meet Tracy Harsley on 31st March to discuss representation and attendance at various collaborative boards.

VCSE Round table updates:

1. EMS
   
   Pizza for Easter: They have received funding from the Hull Activities and Food and have applied for equipment needed for their sessions.
   Seed to Table: New cooking session, growing at Rooted. Once their service has expanded they are hoping to go to Patt Foundation as further outreach.
   
   Link to their website with details can be found here: https://www.emsyorkshire.co.uk/
   
   
2. RSPCA
   
   They have had a full re-brand of the RSPCA Branch displaying the full history of the RSPCA.
   
   They have received a pot of money to deliver food to food banks across the city for animals. Was told about the Hull 4 Heroes service and to speak to Helen Skinner for further assistance on this.
   
   
3. Youth Aspire Connect
   
   Sponsor a child to go to Oxford University. 100 children go to Oxford and last time they had 40 children signed up. Costs £31 per child to attend.
   
   Wanted to say thank you to Hull CVS and RSPCA who supported students to go.
   
   
4. Age UK Hull and East Riding
   
   Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Support came up to Yorkshire to see Age UK alongside the New York Times to complete some filming on the care market place in the UK.
   
   
5. Hull Afro-Carribean Society
   
   AGM is to be held in 2 weeks on the 15th April. They hold weekly sessions on a Wednesday eve. Fridays they hold a food project – since 2020 they have given out bags of food to the community.
   
   Dates of relevance:
   
   1st April at Filey – opportunity for service men who served in the WWII to attend.
   
   1st April – Year since Christopher Alders Death.
   
   22nd April – Steven Lawrence Remembrance Service
   
   In addition they have:
   
   Starting a new HACA group called HACA Gen 2 – focused on young people. At the meet and greet session they had 100 people interested in attending.
   
   Secured funding – Green Social Prescribing – Green Fingered Gremlins.
   
   Started a walking and wandering connect group
   They need more volunteers and funding for paid staff – Hull CVS can support with this.
   
   
6. Artlink
   
   Wanting to build network of individuals since launching in 2017 and to grow their skills.
   
   If you know of any groups that work with people with learning disabilities let us know.
   
   They also host a disability arts network for people with learning disabilities.
   
   They also campaign for people with learning disabilities to have access to places of cultural significance.
   
   Big Help Out – volunteering day for the kings coronation. Details can be found here about how to get involved: https://thebighelpout.org.uk/
   
   
7. Peel Project CIC
   
   Hold youth projects throughout the year for youths from a BAME background. Have a girls youth club, girl self-defence classes.
   Over the last few years they have had 4000 children attending the programmes that they run.
   
   They are taking part in the Hull Activities and Food programme and have 40-60 children attending. Invited agencies include fire services, Hull City Council and RSPCA. They are also looking for add value providers. So if you or your organisation are interested, contact Jamal on jamal.choudhary@thepeelproject.org.uk
   
   
8. OSHI
   
   Offer addition support -OSHI Project is an innovative initiative that provides immediate help to those who ask for it. It is peer led and driven by personal experience. Have a response team that respond in 24 hours to requests. They can also get a recovery coach involved in the recovery journey for individuals. For more details on their services please visit: https://oshi.org.uk/about/ If you or someone you know would like support from OSHI, please contact help@oshi.org.uk.

Next meeting

1pm – 3pm on Friday 28th April 2023 – Venue to be confirmed – Book your place HERE.

VCSE Assembly meeting of 28th April 2023 Household Support Fund (HSF) 4 2023/24

The distribution of HSF4 funds for 2023/24 was agreed by the Councils Cabinet at the meeting of 27th March 2023. Hull should receive around £6m over 12 months until end March 2024. We would like to seek your views on three elements of the HSF4 distribution. The table at the end of the paper confirms how the agreed funds are to be allocated, and highlights the three elements that would benefit from a collaborative discussion with voluntary sector organisations.

Items 2. Foodbank support to facilitate food distribution

The Council would like to seek the views of a number of voluntary sector organisations in relation to the allocated funds at Item 2 highlighted below to support the distribution of food. We would like to therefore use this session to capture any comments, questions or challenges you may have.

Funding Source: Household Support Fund: £842m Household Support Fund has been distributed by DWP to authorities in England to support people most in need with the recent significant rise in the cost of living

Duration of Funding: To end of March 2024

Amount available for food related activity: up to £50k

Objective: To provide food related activities or services that alleviates cost of living pressures for families and individuals in Hull

Criteria for fund

• To be used to provide support with food, whether in kind, through vouchers or cash, also to fund enablers such as fuel, transport, fridges etc
• Authorities can work with third party organisations to identify people or groups in need, administer the grant and provide activities or services
• Access to food related services through the grant must be publicised and transparent
• Administration costs must be reasonable and proportionate

Who can apply: Any organisation, or a group of organisations working together collaboratively, with a lead organisation managing the grant and administration

Putting forward a proposal: Interested organisations should speak to Forum or Hull Food Inequality Alliance for a further discussion. The council would welcome a small number of outline proposals via this route

Timescales: Proposal(s) to Hull City Council by 23rd June 2023, with project to start Autumn 2023 and run over the winter months when cost of living pressures may be particularly challenging

Contact for further information: Council contact is Sharon.clay@hullcc.gov.uk.

Item 8 – Proactive Payments to an identified group.

Item 8 highlights the sum of £300,000 to pro-actively assist an identified vulnerable client group/s. Using collaborative data, we need to identify which groups of people need financial support and a create methodology for doing so.

The funds need to be paid directly to individual people and cannot be distributed to another organisation to distribute.

Examples of previous groups assisted are at point 8 within the table are namely” those with disabilities, young people on low income and care leavers, large families disproportionately affected by increased energy and food costs.”

Specifically, we need to know what data you hold that would help to identify specific households that meet criteria and could benefit from a payment.

Item 4 – Smaller interventions to help reduce energy consumption at home

Item 4 relates to smaller in-home measures, as distinct from the investment in larger value home improvements such as loft insulation and boiler replacements. For guideline purposes, these would be £100 or less per household. Previous similar allocations have been used for community groups to distribute items such as slow cookers, air fryers, electric blankets and warm clothing.

Options to deploy this funding include:

1. Scheme to train VCS staff / volunteers to accredited standard to give energy advice (typically 3 days plus exam for qualification). Funded course places, plus small grant of around £3-5k to help fund sessions where the qualified advisors would be on hand – e.g. social activities, food bank sessions, exercise groups. Note that this would run starting summer.
2. Large consortium scheme (e.g. group of ten VCS organisations sharing £100k+) for accredited energy advisors to go into homes, especially of people less able to get out, and make bespoke recommendations such as around heating habits.
3. Small interventions identified such as LED lightbulbs, radiator foils, draught excluders would be funded and installed as part of the service.
   Small grants scheme similar to Winter Warmth Community Grants whereby VCS organisations would each make their own suggestions on how to deploy a small slice of the funding, such as distribution of electric blankets (e.g. £5-10k). Note that this would run to cover the winter period.
4. Other suggestions.

These options are not mutually exclusive.

Views on which of these would offer most benefit and be most practically achievable, as well as comments on grant value, would be welcome by 5pm on Friday 12th May to emma.warwick@hullcc.gov.uk or talk to colleagues from Hull CC / Forum.

HSF4 Distribution

Payment Proposal

Food

1. Food vouchers to Free School Meal recipients during holiday periods,£15/week.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: Based on 14,000 Free School Meal recipients at £15/week for 13 weeks holidays.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £2,730,000
   
   
2. VCS foodbank support to facilitate food distribution
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: To enable food distribution beyond Fareshare (Discuss at Financial Inclusion network workshops)
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £50,000

Fuel and Energy

The options below will also seek to leverage other possible match funding through the Governments ECO 4 / ECO Plus schemes to increase the overall expenditure in this area with the aim of reducing residents’ energy costs through increased efficiency.

1. Support for Low Income households to improve energy efficiency, including insultation improvements and boiler replacements.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: Boiler and other heating system improvements at £2,500, Insulation enhancements at £350, To be supplemented with ECO 4 / ECO plus funding if secured.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £1,000,000
   
   
2. Warm Homes funding for smaller items to improve energy efficiency. Including smaller insulation improvements and domestic appliances.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: 2000 households at £100 each.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £200,000

Health

1. VCS warm spaces support for winter 2023/24
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated:  To facilitate the provision of warm spaces / hubs
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £45,000

Money and Debt

1. Local Assistance Scheme (LAS) top up. Current LAS budget £350k
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: Based on 15000 additional direct applications with a maximum payment of c£100 per application.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £1,475,000
   
   
2. School Uniforms – funding to support low-income residents with the purchase of school uniforms through supplemented funding of Children’s University Cost of Living programme
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: Based on 500 grants of £50-00.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £25,000
   
   
3. Proactive payments to specific vulnerable groups identified in conjunction with VCS partners, using existing HCC, DWP and DWP data.
   For example, those with disabilities, young people on low income and care leavers, large families disproportionately affected by increased energy and food costs.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: Based on 3000 payments of
   £100
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £300,000

Housing

1. Tenancy Support and Sustainment for those renting homes.
   
   This funding contributes to a wider strategy aiming to prevent homelessness and protect tenancies. Work is undertaken in conjunction with key partners on a holistic basis with dedicated mental health support via the Humber Trust, co- located DWP job coach and substance misuse workers.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: To provide support across tenures.
   
   £90,000 to support those in the private rented sector and £60,000 relating to Council housing.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £150,000

Administration

1. Administration costs.
   
   Cost Assumptions Estimated: The work to distribute HSF is significant, 4 temporary staff are in place to process applications for direct financial support. Funding for temporary staff to process direct applications for 12 months.
   
   Value of Payments by 31 March 2024: £101,587

Total: £6,076,587

Attendees

• Andy Haynes – Age UK Hull
• Carl Norton – Hull and East Riding Community Counselling Services CIC (HER CCS CIC)
• Claire – Alzheimer’s Society
• Dot Parker – HER CCS CIC
• Philip Stevens – Artlink
• Craig Moody – HER CCS CIC
• Andrew Dorton – Church of England
• Sharon Clay Hull – City Council
• Stacey Ullyott – Citizens Advice
• Hannah Meadway – Hull CVS
• Jan Boyd – EMY
• Matt Wright – Hull CVS
• Pippa Robson – Forum
• Anna Route – Hull Food Partnership
• Julian Rice – Freedom Centre
• Elena Sayers – Rethink
• Jodie – Goodwin Trust
• Lesley Wilson – Therapy Services UK
• Julie Rodrigues – HANA
• Bashir Siraj – Welcome House

Matt Wright and Pippa welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained that the agenda had been amended due to last minute unavailability of Jacquie Edhouse and Jason Stamp. They will both be invited to a future meeting to give an input on Safeguarding and accessing Local Authority Designated Officer and the Commissioning – Building Forward Together update respectively.

Check-in group discussion

Matt Wright split attendees into groups and asked them to consider the following:

• What training does your organisation offer to the community?
• How can this training be better promoted?
• As a collective can we make this a larger income stream for your organisation, if so how?

Some of the training offered were:

• EMS – Growing Food Training, Cooking on a budgets, Energy Training. They also offer Health & Safety and Fire Risk Assessment Training.
• Artlink – Community Engagement Training for Artists
• Alzheimer’s Society – Dementia Friends Training
• Citizens Advice Offer lots of training of advising to frontline staff that could be offered further – like an Advice Emergency 1^st
• Age UK Hull & ER – Age Awareness Training
• Fareshare – Warehouse Training which includes Manual Handling, Food Safety, H&S, First Aid and Forklift Training.
• HANA – Cultural Awareness Training currently developed for HMP Hull

General feedback:

Phillip Stevens said that he’d not considered how his training could be offered further to the sector but there is value in exploring this further.

Andy Dorton said that this training offered was really good and actually it should be sold to business to sustain local delivery to the VCSE.

Matt Wright said that there was value in understanding the wider public training offer from VCSE and suggested a directory could be developed by Tracey Laws. This would support organisations in promoting their training and help in responding to training audits similar to that requested by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. It also fits in well with societal resilience.

Matt also suggested that in time VCSE may want to assess the training with a pool of of accredited L3 Award in Education + Training coming together to ensure that training is of a high standard. He also said that he’d look into whether this training could be offered to the sector.

ACTIONS:

• ALL – Send any training you offer and whether you have staff with L3 Award in Education + Training (or equivalent) to Tracey – TLaws@hull-cvs.co.uk
• Tracey – To pull together new VCSE Training List
• Tracey – To develop a VCSE Training Community of Practice Group.
• Matt – Identify possible L3 Award in Education + Training available to the sector.

Update – The following is available via for FREE from Hull College – book a place via TLaws@hull-cvs.co.uk

L3 Award in Education + Training (HABC) 1800 – 2100hrs (Every WEDNESDAY  for 10 Weeks): 23^th August 23 – 1st November 23

Review of last meeting (April)

Matt took attendees from the key areas at the last meeting.

• Household Support Fund Paper (see attached) includes:
  • Matt explained that the VCSE Foodbank Support + VCSE Warm Spaces are being merged with £12k maximum – Launch July 2023 – Final date TBC
  • Lisa Buttery would still like ideas from the VCSE on how funds could be delivered. Specifically she was asking the following area:

The sum of £300,000 to pro-actively assist an identified vulnerable client group/s. Using collaborative data, we need to identify which groups of people need financial support and a create methodology for doing so.

The funds need to be paid directly to individual people and cannot be distributed to another organisation to distribute.

Examples of previous groups assisted are “those with disabilities, young people on low income and care leavers, large families disproportionately affected by increased energy and food costs.”

Specifically, we need to know what data you hold that would help to identify specific households that meet criteria and could benefit from a payment.

ACTION:

All – Please send details of any data that you have available which will help identify those eligible for proactive payments to Lisa.Buttery@hullcc.gov.uk

• National Conference of Societal Resilience
  • Matt and Pippa shared that they had discussed training linked with societal resilience with the Humber Local Resilience Partnership and are looking at options on how work could be delivered to communities on preparedness and wider community resilience (i.e. bystander first aid).
• Know Your Neighbourhood Fund – Mini workshop
  • Full update later in the meeting.

Outstanding Action:

• PCC Crime Fund – issues with grant reporting/returns
• Pippa has met with PCC and funding team to share VCSE groups concerns about the recording and monitoring process. They have agreed to change some areas to save organisations time – receipts for just high value items, but are still operating with post-delivery funding.

Hull Food Partnership – Anna Route

Anna introduced the Hull Food Partnership and the wider national framework they operate under.

This is based on 6 key issues:

1. Food governance and strategy
2. Good Food Movement
3. Healthy Food for all
4. Sustainable food economy
5. Catering and procurement
6. Food for the planet.

The focus currently of the Hull Food Partnership is developing the Hull Food Strategy with a real emphasis on food insecurity.

Anna shared some of the Hull Food Partnerships work including The Hull Food Charter, the development of the “Worrying about money” leaflet, Nature Hull website with details of food banks and pantries in Hull, Veg Summer Eating Challenge Campaign, Food Insecurity Research with Hull University and a new Food exchange Platform to aid growers in supplying food banks in Hull.

Anna explained a little about the complexity of food in Hull and why it is so important for a holistic view on food in the city. She explained that lack of choice and poor nutrition are two really big concerns in the city. In addition the level of deprivation is huge.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report shows that the cost to run a household is now £125 per week higher that than Universal Credit. While the Broken Plate Report shows that the poorest 5^th of the population would need to spend over 50% of their budget a week on food to achieve the governments eat well plate guidance.

Anna asked that the wider VCSE feed into the Hull Food Strategy Consultation as it really is a whole system report and needs VCSE voice to be heard too.

Andrew Dorton raised that Labour have announced that they are not going to support free school meals for all in their manifesto and suggested that we all email our local MPs to get this changed so it is part of their pledge if they form the new government.

AOB

It was agreed there would not be another face to face meeting over the busy sumer holiday period with the VCSE Assembly returning in September.

However a virtual meeting will be held to cover off any key development in early August.

ACTION: 

Matt Wright – To circulate date and link for virtual Assembly.