BLACKBIRD LEYS NEIGHBOURHOOD SUPPORT SCHEME LTD 

towards three years‘ running costs of an organisation providing an advice service for people from disadvantaged communities in Oxford, Oxfordshire.

The funding will be used to continue the provision of benefits debt housing advice and crisis support service to vulnerable local residents in Blackbird Leys South-East Oxfordshire. The project aims ....more

The funding will be used to continue the provision of benefits debt housing advice and crisis support service to vulnerable local residents in Blackbird Leys South-East Oxfordshire. The project aims to help those on severe financial hardship to gain control of their finances avoiding crisis and improving overall wellbeing.

We will spend this grant on our core running costs between September 2022 and March 2023 to help us to cope with the unprecedented demand for our services that has resulted from the Covid-19 crisis. ....more

We will spend this grant on our core running costs between September 2022 and March 2023 to help us to cope with the unprecedented demand for our services that has resulted from the Covid-19 crisis. In 2019-20 we advised 1185 individuals/households - this rose to 1406 in 2021-22. The number of foodbank referrals rose from 81 in 2019-20 to 148 in 2021-22. Since the onset of Covid we have distributed the Government's Covid Winter Support Grants and Household Support Grants on behalf of the City Council. This has mostly been distributed as fuel vouchers to top up gas and electric pre-payment meters for people who have run out fuel. In 2021-22 we distributed over 500 £49 vouchers to households in crisis. We expect to have further funding to help local households in the coming months. For every person who contacts us for crisis support, we offer a benefits check and debt advice to maximise income and help people regain control of their budgets in the longer term. We have had to take on an additional adviser to help us cope with the increased numbers of clients. We are also seeing people with more complex queries as a result of Covid - during the Covid crisis, Universal Credit claims were 'expedited', without the usual verification of income and other details. Now, the Department for Work and Pensions is asking people with expedited claims to provide proofs, which are then often rejected as insufficient. Our advisers have to disentangle what has happened over many months since the start of the claim to help people provide proofs and/or challenge wrong decisions. The grant will help us maintain our essential service despite the increased number of clients and complexity of issues resulting from Covid-19.

The 2022 Spring Grants Round aims to support the provision pro bono provision throughout the UK, at a regional and/or local level.

Grant to Blackbird Leys Neighbourhood Support Scheme Ltd

An unrestricted grant of £10,000. Agnes Smith is an independent advice centre in Blackbird Leys, providing advice and support on housing, debt, and welfare support.

The funding will be used to continue to provide advice and support to communities in Oxford. The project will also trial a virtual appointments system to support people that are not able to use ....more

The funding will be used to continue to provide advice and support to communities in Oxford. The project will also trial a virtual appointments system to support people that are not able to use online and telephone support services due to lack of access to or familiarity with digital services.

NET, Comic Relief and Children in Need will use this funding to provide: increased support to vulnerable people and hidden groups, thus reducing the burden on public services; reach local grassroots ....more

NET, Comic Relief and Children in Need will use this funding to provide: increased support to vulnerable people and hidden groups, thus reducing the burden on public services; reach local grassroots and small organisations who can provide an on-the-ground community response to the crisis; and, support local charitable organisations to mobilise volunteers to enable better targeted support in communities through empowered local groups.

Advice & Support - delivering vital social-welfare advice, debt and employment rights, Universal Credit and other benefit claims.

"The fund aims to:1) To reduce closures of essential charities that provide essential services to vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have the financial resources to ....more

"The fund aims to:1) To reduce closures of essential charities that provide essential services to vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have the financial resources to operate, thereby reducing the burden on public services.2) To ensure essential services are provided to vulnerable people, both in the short and long term through increased community support through the work of charitable organisations."

An unrestricted grant of £10,000. The Agnes Smith Advice Centre offers face-to-face advice and casework on issues like housing, welfare benefits & debts.

towards three years' running costs of a project providing information and advice to disadvantaged people in the Blackbird Leys estate, in Oxford

Funding awarded to support the welfare advice centre.

Our idea is to offer social welfare advice to patients of the Leys Health Centre, our local GP surgery. We will provide our full range of benefits, debt and housing advice to patients, through ....more

Our idea is to offer social welfare advice to patients of the Leys Health Centre, our local GP surgery. We will provide our full range of benefits, debt and housing advice to patients, through referrals from the surgery. We will offer appointments at The Farmhouse, around 100 metres down the road from the Health Centre. The project will expand our client base, helping us to reach people at an earlier stage, before they would consider self-referring. The project takes a preventative approach - we aim to reduce the need for more expensive, crisis funding by preventing problems from reaching crisis in the first place. The project will also reduce pressure on local GPs. Research has shown that a high percentage of patients visit their GP as a result of problems caused by social and economic factors. The Leys Surgery employs a ‘Care Navigator’ who supports such patients to source help with non-medical issues. Through our project, the Care Navigator, GPs and other staff at the surgery can refer patients to us where there is a need for social welfare advice. Working with the Care Navigator, we will help free up GPs to focus entirely on medical matters. Further, the project will help us demonstrate the health benefits of welfare advice to funders. Using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMBS), we will take a baseline assessment of clients’ health and wellbeing when they first come to us for advice, and compare this with health and wellbeing at the end of the advice process. The WEMBS is widely used in the NHS to measure patients’ subjective feelings of wellbeing. By providing us with evidence of the health benefits of our advice, the project will enable us to access new streams of income from the health sector or health-related charitable trusts. The project will therefore enable us to make a step change on two fronts. Firstly, we will expand our client base, reaching clients at an earlier stage, before crisis. In doing so, we will develop connections with the GP surgery and raise awareness of our services in the community. Secondly, we will improve and develop our evaluation process to demonstrate the health outcomes of our advice. The evidence of the health benefits of our work will help us to expand our funding base, in order to increase the financial security of our organisation. We will recruit an additional part time (3 days per week) adviser/project worker who will: • offer social welfare advice appointments to patients who have been referred • promote and develop our service in the GP surgery • capture outcomes We expect to need 1.5 hours per week management time to supervise and evaluate the project. We already have a diverse funding base for our ongoing work. We have funding from Oxford City Council until 2021, along with ongoing grants from three local housing associations (Catalyst, Green Square and A2 Dominion). We are also currently funded by Thames Water and a number of charitable trusts. We are asking the project to fund an additional part-time worker, management costs and overheads for the duration of the project. Beyond the first year, if the pilot is successful we would hope to secure funding to continue the work. This is initially likely to be from one of a number of charitable trusts who support projects which improve health outcomes. In the longer term, we would hope to access funding directly from the health sector, possibly through a partnership with other local advice agencies. The advice sector is being encouraged by its membership body to work more collaboratively with the health sector for the benefit of the patient/client, but also as a way of accessing new funding streams as local authority funding dwindles. There are numerous examples across the country of advice agencies who have been successful in achieving this already. We have minimised the risk of low take-up of the project’s service by trialling referrals from the surgery on a smaller scale. We have already established a good relationship with the Practice Care Navigator at the surgery. We would reduce the risk of not being able to recruit a project worker by advertising widely, and ensuring pay scales are similar to those offered by other local organisations. We would recruit an adviser on a 1 year contract, initially. Should it not be possible to continue the project at the end of the year, we will still have useful evidence of the health outcomes of our work as a result of the project, which will help diversify funding for our core work.

The project will offer support and advice on areas including benefit entitlement, money management, housing advice and employability skills.

Salary of a welfare benefit caseworker, volunteer expenses and general overheads.

£10,000 towards core costs. The Agnes Smith Advice Centre offers face-to-face advice and casework on issues like housing, welfare benefits & debts.

Also known as the Agnes Smith advice centre. Their area of delivery is Blackbird Leys and the surrounding area. Funding awarded to contribute towards their core costs to deliver free independent, ....more

Also known as the Agnes Smith advice centre. Their area of delivery is Blackbird Leys and the surrounding area. Funding awarded to contribute towards their core costs to deliver free independent, impartial and confidential advice.

Promote reduction of isolation and disadvantage and access to local services

This charity based on a highly deprived estate in Oxford provides information and advice on a range of issues in particular on debt and welfare benefits. it is seeking funding towards the salary of ....more

This charity based on a highly deprived estate in Oxford provides information and advice on a range of issues in particular on debt and welfare benefits. it is seeking funding towards the salary of one outreach worker and a contribution to core costs

towards two years' core costs of a project providing free, independent, impartial and confidential advice on welfare benefits and debt to a disadvantaged community in Oxford