The Assembly Rooms, Tamworth

Two half-day sessions:

9.30 – 12.30 (followed by  lunch)

OR 1 – 4 (preceded by lunch)

For anyone involved with a voluntary agency or community group in Tamworth; health and social care staff.

Why attend? To find out more about the extra, practical help available this winter. This ranges from simple home checks to heating repairs, from extra lunch clubs to home energy advice visits.

Every year, death rates rise by 19% in the winter months and more people die because of the cold than die in Road Traffic Accidents. This is the first year of the NHS Cold Weather Plan. Staffordshire has won £360,000 from the Department of Health, with part of the funding allocated to work in Tamworth. Agencies working ‘on the ground’ in Tamworth are the best people to find the vulnerable households that need the extra help.

Come to one of these sessions to find out more and how to refer into the extra services. You are most welcome to book to have a display, so that you can promote your day-to-day services to colleagues at the event.

Tamworth CVS is looking after publicity and bookings and promoting the event to its wide range of members. Please complete the attached booking form (Word version) (pdf version) and return it to them.

Taking part

Home Energy Advice Tamworth – Beat the Cold. Planning for cold weather; health risks; checking fuel bills and meters; changing behaviour.

Spirita Home Improvement Agency. Warm Home Checks; smoke alarms; cold alarms; repairs to heating (both crisis repairs and longer term.

Citizens Advice Bureau. Managing fuel debt; financial capability; the new customer champion with changes to Consumer Focus.

Staffordshire Community Foundation. Surviving Winter support for individuals with large fuel bills and for community groups, including how to apply.

Tamworth CVS. Support for and from the third sector.

Home Energy Advice Tamworth – MEA. making life in Tamworth more sustainable; the shake up coming with the new Green Deal; referrals to Warm Front; how to refer; how to contact partners; timescales.

Everyone. Round table discussion and questions.

Please come to help us find the households that need help this winter, and to work for affordable warmth in Tamworth into the future.

This is the link to the story on an inside page, with a bigger version of the photo on the front page.

Most of our events are listed in the Events column to the right of the page. Community hospitals, health centres and clinics are making us most welcome as we aim to reach the people who need most help to stay warm and healthy at home.

For each of the key contact numbers in Staffordshire, see ‘Extra help …’ below.

The site is read by many local students, and by others interested in in local news. We hope that students will talk about these extra services to their neighbours and families and help us to reach even more vulnerable households over the winter.

For a simple list of services and contact numbers, see the lead article on the front page of our web site.

What extra help is available?

In Stoke:

• telephone checks on vulnerable people
• comprehensive advice, face-to-face at home, going into the right detail for each household
• practical help in wintry weather
• falls prevention at home
• restoring heating and hot water
• additional help with heating systems and repairs

In Staffordshire:

Details vary a little between the eight Districts, but the main services are similar across the County.

• Energy efficiency advice, which may be given at home where bills and meters can be checked and a trained adviser can negotiate with a fuel company on your behalf
• Warm Home Checks – simple checks to improve warmth and safety in practical ways
• benefit and grant entitlement checks
• restoring hot water
• additional help with heating systems and repairs
• enhanced handyperson services.

Who should I contact?

In Staffordshire, each local authority area has its own contact number.

• Staffordshire Moorlands – Revival – 01782 749202
• Newcastle-under-Lyme – Revival – 01782 749202
• Stafford – Orbit – 01785 619630
• East Staffordshire – Orbit – 01283 497414
• Cannock Chase – Spirita – 0203 535 3670
• South Staffordshire – Spirita – 0203 535 3670
• Lichfield – Let’s Work Together – 01543 308000
• Tamworth – HEAT – 0800 043 2815

In Stoke-on-Trent, contact any one of the key agencies.

• Age UK North Staffordshire – 01782 204995
• Beat the Cold – 0800 389 2258 or 01782 683813
• North Staffs Warm Zone – 01782 479099
• Revival – 01782 749202
• Saltbox – 01782 207200

Do not delay, the extra services only run to the end of March 2012.

Beat the Cold is organising a series of promotional events across Stoke and parts of Staffordshire. We hope to chat to people attending clinics at hospitals, shopping at markets, and attending lunch clubs. Many of these events will appear in the listing on the front page of our web site.

You are welcome to ring us to talk through what is available, but please be patient if our telephone lines are busy.

You can see a copy on our ‘Links’ page.

Contact us if you would like to give a copy to a neighbour or if you would like some to give out at a club or fellowship. There are two editions – one for Stoke and one for Newcastle and the Moorlands.

Across the whole country, the Department of Health has funded schemes to help keep vulnerable people warm and safe and to prevent people needing to go to hospital during the winter months. Our leaflet was designed and printed before the local schemes were approved. Now that local schemes are in place, filling in the reply-paid slip and sending it back to us, could lead to extra help.

In Stoke, ask about ‘Staying Warm, Keeping Well‘. On offer are:

• telephone checks on vulnerable people
• comprehensive advice
• practical support in wintry weather
• falls prevention
• restoring hot water and heating where health is at risk
• help that will complement other grant schemes

In Newcastle, Staffordshire Moorlands and the rest of the County, ask about ‘Staffordshire Warm Homes’. On offer are:

• energy efficiency advice
• warm home checks
• benefit and grant entitlement checks
• temporary heating in cases of boiler breakdown
• referral to Warm Front and similar schemes
• handyperson services

In both the City and the County, Beat the Cold is only a small part of wide-ranging partnerships that will support hundreds of people to maintain their health, safety and well-being through the worst of the winter. More details will be available in the New Year, including local participation in the ‘Big Energy Week’ organised by Citizens Advice.

Department of Health funding is through their national Warm Homes Healthy People Fund.

The funding from E.ON will pay for a series of community events, providing expert home energy advice for residents on topics including cavity wall and loft insulation and solar panels, metering and bill assistance, referrals for debt advice and benefit entitlements and grant checks.  Local residents attended the first of these events on Friday 16^th December along with a very special guest.

The funding has also paid for the installation of an energy monitoring unit and display at the newly opened Blurton Community Hub to help reduce running costs and promote energy awareness to the local community.

Christine Pratt, Chairperson of Blurton Farm Residents Association, said: “As a volunteer group working to improve the lives of around 80 families in our community, we’re really grateful to E.ON for their help and support.

“We were delighted by the feedback from Friday’s event and hope that we can make a very real difference to keep these families warm with less worry this winter.”

Tony Jenkin Jones, from E.ON’s Community Relations team, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to help Blurton Farm Residents Association support local residents with energy advice and measures to help them get energy fit in their homes.

“It’s vital that people have all the support they need to help them reduce their energy use and keep their bills as manageable as possible, and we’re pleased to be working with like-minded partners and community groups in Stoke who can help us deliver this as part of our partnership with the city.”

Martin Chadwick, from Beat the Cold, said: “Many households in Blurton will struggle to keep warm at home this winter. Helping residents of Blurton make changes to save money on their energy bills is essential. Our 15 years of experience shows that these households could save anywhere between £90 and £1,300 a year but that many households are not aware of where to go to for help.

“We’re pleased E.ON is helping community groups like Blurton Farm Residents Association to support local residents in a community setting, taking the advice and support to them. 16 households have booked a Home Energy Advice and Support Visit, with the first scheduled for 29 December.”

E.ON’s Sustainable Energy Fund helps local community groups and not for profit organisations by offering funding for energy efficiency events or renewable energy technologies.  So far E.ON has helped 47 community groups and projects since launching its Sustainable Energy Fund and has awarded over £580,000 of grants.

This is a free offer for all households in Tamworth. Originally, this offer was to run until 31st July 2011. Demand has been so great that it has been extended until the end of March 2012.

You do not need to be receiving benefits or tax credits.

Why is it FREE?

Local company, Rockwarm, is making this offer to residents in Tamworth:

• To keep local people in work.
• To work near to their base, saving on the cost of diesel.
• To reduce travelling between jobs.

They are passing on the savings so that they can install measures free of charge.

To find out more or to book your survey, phone 0800 043 2815 or 01782 683796; or contact us through this website.

Do you use twitter? Don’t keep this offer to yourself. Using the box below, tell any of your followers or friends about this offer so they don’t miss out. REMEMBER: This offer is only available until the end of March 2012.

The small print:
Free cavity wall insulation for all properties (up to 120m and with a normal cavity of less than 75mm);
Free loft insulation for all properties (up to 90m) that have less than 60mm of existing insulation.
Savings are based on a 3-bedroom semi-detached without prior insulation.
If in doubt, book your free survey today.

Vulnerable groups have been described as hard to reach but they are easily reached by the tobacco industry, and by cheap available alcohol.

Zafar Iqbal, Acting Director of Public Health for Stoke-on-Trent, includes this telling phrase in his report for 2011.

Like many agencies trying to bring affordable warmth to households across the UK, Beat the Cold needs to find the people who need our help most. Who are these vulnerable groups, and where are they?

There is no agreed definition, but Professor Iqbal points the way in his report. The following issues are relevant:

• not in employment, education or training
• not in suitable housing
• having a disability oir a long-term illness
• lone parents
• older and infirm pensioners
• deprived people among ethnic minority groups
• many with chaotic drug and alcohol misuse
• young and ex-offenders
• many people with mental health issues.

The report says: ‘The impact of social exclusion is great, and work is urgently needed to minimise its effects. Demand on health services is higher in more deprived groups.’

In the proposals for the Green Deal, government includes a way to help vulnerable households keep warm at home – the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The Affordable Warmth element of ECO is designed to provide support to those low income and vulnerable households least able to heat their homes to an adequate standard and most prone to suffering health or social detriment.

How will government define these vulnerable households? ‘Low income households who include an older person, a child or someone with a disability, and who do not have access to alternative sources of support to improve their heating arrangements.’ The proposal goes on to say: ‘entitlement to certain means tested benefits and tax credits is an effective and accurate means of targeting households on low incomes and at risk of the health consequences of living in cold homes.’ The details are on page 123 of the consultation.

Our own work, particularly through Emergency Warmth, shows the importantance of practical, prompt response in some cases. It also shows tht it is possible to demonstrate a positive impact on health. Vulnerability, in real life, will be recognised by concerned and committed practitioners who recognise the wide-ranging cause and effect discussed by Professor Iqbal.

There are two real-life stories of how we made a difference in Penkside. One household not only learnt how to save energy, they made an application to the Npower Energy Trust Fund for help with their outstanding bills. A second household learnt how to make best use of Economy 7 and reduced their fuel bills by around a half.

Find out, too, about Warmer Holmcroft, solar pv, cycle ways, and more.

The newsletter is on our website, on the Links (Documents) page.  Click here.

Gill and Rosie were invited to attend the Christmas Market at Ipstones in the Staffordshire Moorlands on Friday 25^th November.  This is the 3^rd year Beat the Cold have had a stall there. The stall included information about the ‘Warm Homes Discount’ that many energy suppliers are offering to vulnerable customers.  It offers £120 discount on your electricity bill each year regardless of the tariff you are on with extra free services to certain customers.

The Christmas Market was well attended and Gill and Rosie spoke to lots of people, everyone was given a computer powerdown which powers down computer appliances instead of leaving them on standby thus saving electricity, and a thermometer card with advice on fuel bills and fuel suppliers, and information on local and national grant schemes.

Some of the people Gill and Rosie spoke to had elderly relatives or neighbours that our advice would also apply to.  Gill and Rosie emphasized the importance of the thermometer card for elderly and vulnerable people and the temperature where they would be at risk of health problems if there room temperature fell below 20 degrees.

One of the people who spoke to Gill lived in Ipstones and had recently had a stroke. He was using a walking stick and receiving benefits.  Gill advised him to ring his energy supplier about the ‘Warm Homes Discount’ since he would qualify for the discount under the broader group criteria.

On the whole the evening was a great success with the people of Ipstones going home better informed about the importance of keeping warm at home and reducing energy costs.