This month, we’ve published our Vulnerability and Carbon Monoxide Allowance (VCMA) annual report outlining our work to help vulnerable customers stay safe and warm.
Here, our Group Social Impact and Vulnerability Manager Kerry Potter reflects on the report and how we’re supporting priority customer groups by forming partnerships with expert organisations and our work with The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire.
At a time when everyone’s struggling financially, we’ve seen how our vulnerable customers have been disproportionally impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation. Working together with our Vulnerability and Carbon Monoxide (CO) Steering Group and strategic, we’ve identified 11 priority customer groups most in need of our help to maintain a safe and warm home:
- Carers
- Critically ill people
- Digitally and culturally excluded groups
- Disabled people
- Families with young children
- Financially vulnerable people
- Older people
- People at risk of homelessness
- People with health conditions made worse by living in a cold and unhealthy home
- People with mental health conditions
- Young people
For many of our priority vulnerability groups, life costs more, due to greater energy consumption because of essential medical equipment, hygiene needs and being less resilient to cold.
To tackle this, we’ve collaborated with national and regional organisations to support vulnerable people in our priority groups. For example:
- We’re working with the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to remove some of the barriers to staying safe and warm at home for people living with long-term health conditions.
- We’ve partnered with Mental Health UK to establish a dedicated referral pathway for our engineers to refer vulnerable households to the charity’s Mental Health & Money Advice Service.
- Through our work with Scope’s Disability Energy Service, we know disabled people have been most impacted by the energy and cost-of-living crisis. As a direct result of our pilot project with Scope, we’ve introduced emergency fuel vouchers and heated blankets as resources we can offer disabled people.
- Building on the success of the Safe and Warm Community Scheme pilot in 2023, we’re expanding our service with Worthing Mencap with a new in-house energy advice capacity to help at least 1,875 disabled people across West Sussex to use energy safely, efficiently and affordably.
Case study: The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire
That’s why we’re collaborating with The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire to bring together a large network of local community partners to proactively support 131,000 carers. We’re providing them with tailored support services that help to tackle fuel poverty and introduce energy safeguards to help those most vulnerable maintain a safe and warm home.
We’ve established ten hubs across Hampshire for carers to access tailored energy safeguarding support. Each hub provides engaging, social and relaxing activities to help create a welcoming environment, as well as refreshments and lunch. Carers discuss their energy-related concerns with a skilled energy ambassador, who works through available support provisions to help them sustain their caring role for longer.
We’ve supported 275 carers with this longer-term help, as well as providing immediate practical and financial support to carers in households in energy crisis. This includes measures such as emergency fuel vouchers, winter warm packs and heated blankets.
As well as our face-to-face service, we’ve provided energy safeguarding information to 27,000 households across Hampshire to date, detailing the practical, financial and emotional support that is available locally for carers and promoting our new carer hubs.
A Princess Royal Trust for Carers service user said: “I visited the SGN Hub with my disabled daughter as she had a £600 energy bill for the last quarter. Together we called the provider, queried the bill and it was reduced! The impact on our mental health was awful, I can’t thank you enough, we can sleep again.”
Find out about more of our partnerships in our VCMA Annual Report 2024 here.
