Warmer, Healthier and Fairer

Warmer, Healthier and Fairer:
Tackling Fuel Poverty

Central London

Wednesday 20^th March 2013

Event Details  Website  Register to Attend

Fuel poverty affects local communities right across the UK and is one of the biggest contributors to health inequalities.

In October 2010, the government decided to review the fuel poverty target and definition. Subsequently, Professor John Hills was appointed to undertake an independent review, which was published in March 2012. This will now be followed by an updated government strategy and is due in 2013.

This special symposium provides an invaluable opportunity for local authorities, housing associations, NHS, energy providers, the third sector and other key stakeholders to examine the latest measures to tackle fuel poverty and explore the potential contribution a re-energised national strategy can make towards eradicating the physical, mental and social harm caused as a result of living in fuel poverty.

I am pleased to advise you that we offer a 20% early registration discount off the standard delegate rates for all bookings received by 16th January 2013. For further details about the symposium, please refer to the enclosed event brochure. Do feel free to circulate this information to relevant colleagues within your organisation.

In the meantime, to ensure your organisation is represented, please book online or complete and return the attached registration form at your earliest convenience in order to secure your delegate place(s).

Kind regards,

Alexandra Kelly
Public Policy Exchange
Tel: 0845 606 1535
Fax: 0845 606 1539

If you do not wish to receive further information regarding PPE events then click here.

Public Policy Exchange Ltd Registered in England & Wales, № 7350384
Registered Office: 253 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8QT

ADULT SOCIAL CARE PROVIDERS

Please find email below with regards to free affordable warmth training sessions designed to build up a network of people who can find residents at risk from the cold and help them access the services on offer.

Please direct any responses to Abdul Monnan: abdul.monnan@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Warm regards,

Orenda O’Brien Davis | Market Infrastructure Officer

Adults Health and Wellbeing
London Borough of Tower Hamlets

7th floor | Anchorage House | Clove Crescent | E14 2BE

t020 7364 0277 |eorenda.obrien-davis@towerhamlets.gov.uk

www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/providers

Please note my working days are Monday to Thursday

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Hi there,

You may remember that last year we held a series of free affordable warmth training sessions on energy efficiency matters. We have received more funding and are offering this training again.

We are looking to hold sessions in January and possibly February. If you are interested in this training, or know anyone who would like to do this training, please give me a list of names and email addresses. It doesn’t matter if you have already done it last year, you are still most welcome to attend and can refresh your memory on the subject.

Once we have a list of people interested, we will book a few dates and let you know so you can choose a session. The training is not restricted to council services, it is open to anyone in any organisation who preferably visit homes in Tower Hamlets.

The session will last for approximately 2 hours. If you would like a shorter session, you can have one at your location / office etc. If you would like training sessions at your work locations, we are able to provide this as long  as you have a minimum of 10 attendees.

We may also offer a ‘Train The Trainer’ session for those who wish to train others, maybe the whole team cannot attend and you can train your colleagues. Let me know if this is what you want.

Either way if you could give me a list of names and email addresses for people interested then that would be great. Also if you could pass this email to colleagues who you think could benefit, I would be most grateful.

Please find more information about the training below.

Introduction

The East London Affordable Warmth Champions Project is funded through the Department of Health’s Warm Homes Healthy People Fund.  The Affordable Warmth Champions training programme is designed to build up and train a network of people who can find residents at risk from the cold and help them access the services on offer.

Last winter, 39 training sessions were delivered to staff from local authorities, NHS and the third sector.  Over 600 individuals were trained. Funding is available for this year and the training is on offer again.

What does the training cover?

The sessions are designed to help trainees:  

• Know more about the problem of cold, damp homes
• Be able to look for the warning signs and to recognise people who may be at risk
• Feel ready and able to refer people to relevant advice, grant and support services
• Feel confident in giving basic advice to help people keep warm and well in the home

Who is the training for?

A wide range of teams and individuals from across local authorities, the heath sector and the third sector have an important role to play in identifying people that may be at risk from fuel poverty and helping them get support. In particular, anybody:

• Whose role involves visiting people in their home or assessing homes
• Who is involved in ensuring that a client’s home life is suitable for them and any conditions they may have (mental or physical)
• Who offers support or counselling to residents and may be in a position to find out about their home or financial situation
• The training is designed to be tailored to different audiences - it can focus on the health impacts of fuel poverty, on homes and energy efficiency, or specific impacts for children – whatever aspect is particularly relevant for the team in question.  The trainers are happy to adapt the training to your needs. 

If you have any questions, please send me an email.

Kind regards.

Abdul Monnan
Home Improvement Agency Technical Officer
Private Housing Improvement Team
LondonBorough of Tower Hamlets
Mulberry Place - 5 Clove Crescent - London E14 2BG

Tel:020 7364 2521 - Mob: 07507 563 951E-Mail: abdul.monnan@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Website: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk

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Employment Law Update

Advisory Bulletin 596 is available to download (log in required). In this issue: Disability discrimination: volunteers Case: X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau and another (Supreme Court) Equal pay: pay protection and GMF defence Case: Haq and others v the Audit Commission (Court of Appeal) Discrimination on political grounds Case: Redfearn v the United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights) Equal pay: justification and industrial relations Case: Kenny and others v Ministry of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and others (Advocate General opinion, ECJ) Collective redundancy rules: changes announced Increase in 'a week's pay' and unfair dismissal compensation LGA employment law training seminar: 27 February 2013

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Homelesness Case - Almeida v RLBKC - From Inside Housing

The High Court has ruled a council’s decision not to house a dying homeless man was unlawful.


Kensington and Chelsea council has refused to house and support Portuguese national Adalberto Jesus de Almeida since 2010 saying it had ‘scarce resources’.

Mr de Almeida is suffering from HIV/Aids and skin cancer and in November 2011 he was told he had about six months to live. But the local authority decided he ‘did not have eligible needs requiring care and attention’.

Mrs Justice Lang in the Queen’s bench division’s ruling, released on Friday last week (April 27), said the local authority had acted unlawfully in refusing to give care and accommodation. It had also breached Mr de Almeida’s rights under article 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr de Almeida applied to the council once he became too ill to work and was evicted from his private rented accommodation. Friends had also supported him until they could no longer do so financially and he became too ill.

Housing lawyer David Watkinson, from Garden Court Chambers, said although the case did not set a legal precedent it could influence other judgements.

‘It just might lead to courts in judicial review cases looking more closely at the factual basis of the local authority decision than they have done up until now,’ he said.

Local authorities might be more careful in refusing accommodation in such cases, he suggested. Mr Watkinson also said it was ‘shocking’ that Mr de Almeida had to ‘reach the condition described in the judgement to be certain of obtaining a decision in his favour’.

Child Poverty Map: Bethnal Green, Bow And Tower Hamlets Revealed As Worst Affected Areas In UK

The East London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow has the highest levels of child poverty in the UK, according to the Campaign to end Child Poverty, with more than half (51%) of children stricken by poverty.

The child poverty map, published on Tuesday, reveals high levels of child poverty throughout the UK, with one in five children (20.9%) currently classed as below the poverty line.

The London constituencies of Poplar and Canning Town (48%), Islington South and Finsbury (46%), Hackney South and Shoreditch (45%) and Regent's Park and North Kensington (44%) all feature in the top ten list of the worst affected areas.

The figures also reveal "serious concentrations" of deprivation for local authorities with high levels of child poverty found in Tower Hamlets (52%), Islington (43%), Manchester (40%), Hackney (39%) and Westminster (38%).

The parliamentary constituencies with the lowest levels of child poverty include Buckingham (5%), Sheffield, Hallam (5%), Henley (6%) and the Vale of York (6%).

The local authorities with the lowest levels are the Isles of Scilly (3%), Hart (5%) and Wokingham (5%).

The figures were arrived at using 2009 tax credit data to “give the percentage of children on low incomes in local authorities, parliamentary constituencies and wards across the UK”, updated with more recent “regional trends” to take into account parental job losses.

According to a statement release by the Campaign, “between 1998 and 2010, the number of children in poverty was reduced by 900,000”.

However, forecasts by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggest present coalition policies “will cause a further rise in child poverty”, with the Treasury’s income distribution analysis for tax and benefit changes published with the Autumn Statement 2011 responsible for putting “children’s wellbeing at risk”.

The report also highlighted the effect of recession on child poverty, stating that more children are now living in families where nobody works (the number of children in workless households rose from 1.7 million to 1.9 million in 2009).

According to the authors, the report “serves as a warning of the situation we are in, and the pressures we face, as Britain’s poorest children look to the current government to live up to their goal of making British poverty history and ending child poverty”.

Under the Child Poverty Act 2010, the government has an obligation to reduce child poverty to a series of targets across a set of measures by 2020. So far, 89 constituencies have already met the Government's headline target for 2020, boasting child poverty rates of 10% or less.

Both the Prime Minster’s Witney constituency (7%) and the Deputy Prime Minster’s Sheffield Hallam constituency (5%), feature in the top 10 for the lowest rates of child poverty.

“The Prime Minister should make a New Year’s resolution to keep his pledge to ‘make British poverty history’ so that not just children in Witney, but children all over Britain can enjoy a childhood free from poverty,” said Alison Garnham, Executive Director of the Campaign.

“The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality,” she added.

“But it also gives us reason for hope. The child poverty target has already been met in the Prime Minister’s constituency and nearly a hundred others, so never let it be said that the targets are impossible to meet. If we can do it in Witney today, we can do it in Hackney tomorrow.

According to Enver Solomon, Policy Director at The Children’s Society, the map paints a “bleak portrait… with some areas having child poverty rates of as little as five percent, while others face as much as ten times that. It’s not a fair picture either, revealing 100 local wards with child poverty rates between 50 and 70 percent. Such pockets of deprivation should not be tolerated in this country.”

Solomon warned that the situation could worsen “as caps on housing benefit and benefits for out-of-work households creates excluded areas for low-income families.”
“The Child Poverty Map should act as a stark reminder for the need to reduce child poverty across the nation,” he said.

Local authorities with the highest levels of child poverty:
Tower Hamlets 52%
Islington 43%
Manchester 40%
Hackney 39%
Westminster 38%
Newham 37%
Camden 37%
Derry 36%
Nottingham 35%
Belfast 35%

Parliamentary constituencies with highest levels of child poverty:
Bethnal Green and Bow 51%
Manchester Central 49%
Poplar and Canning Town 48%
Belfast West 46%
Birmingham, Ladywood 46%
Liverpool, Riverside 46%
Islington South and Finsbury 46%
Hackney South and Shoreditch 45%
Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath 45%
Regent's Park and North Kensington 44%