Question 1: Coronavirus Emergency Assistance Grant for Food and Essential Supplies (DEFRA)
a) According to DEFRA, you were allocated £757,021. How much of this allocation did you spend in 2020/21?
b) Approximately what % (if any) of this fund was used to provide direct local welfare assistance grants to individuals/households?
c) if this fund was used to provide direct grants to individuals or households, how many were awarded in 2020/21?
d) If the answer to B is less than 100%, please provide approximate percentages indicating what the remainder was spent on (e.g. xx% of the fund was allocated to local food banks, xx% was allocated to schools for food vouchers, etc.).
In Autumn 2020 a grant of £757,000 was provided to the County Council by DEFRA. The purpose of this grant was also to provide help for people in economic hardship as a result of COVID19, and it was distributed to the District Councils to add to their local welfare schemes. The County Council does not hold specific records of numbers helped by the District Councils, but can confirm that the DEFRA grant was administered by the District Councils in line with its intended purpose
At the outset of the COVID19 pandemic in April 2020, Devon County Council (DCC) allocated a fund of £1,000,000 to support people experiencing financial hardship. This sum was transferred to the eight District Councils, each of which developed a welfare scheme to meet their own local economic circumstances. The fund is used to provide food and other household essentials (food, heat, power, nappies, baby milk) or access to money advice and other forms of support.
Question 2: a) according to the DWP, you were allocated £2,042,754 + £710,157. How much of this allocation did you spend in 2020/21?
DCC spent 100% which is £2,388,132.63 – the allocation we received differs from what is suggested in this request. However DCC did receive 454,695.54 from the COVID LSG 1 grant. This would make the figures align with what the requestor is suggesting
b) Approximately what % (if any) of this fund was used to provide direct local welfare assistance grants to individuals/households in 2020/21?
None
c) If this fund was used to provide direct grants to individuals or households, how many were awarded in 2020/21?
None
d) If the answer to B is less than 100%, please provide approximate percentages indicating what the remainder was spent on (e.g. xx% of the fund was allocated to local food banks, xx% was allocated to schools for food vouchers, etc.).
For the winter grant we supported 57655 families with children and 1749 families with no children .
For the COVID LSG1 grant we supported 18736 families with children and 891 families without children We used a variety of measures
For the Winter grants, Approximately 55% was spent on free school meal (FSM) Vouchers for schools and colleges. For the COVID LSG1 Grant Approximately 58% was spent on FSM vouchers for schools and colleges
For the Winter Grant The remaining 45% was split between third party organisations, early help and childrens services. For the COVID LSG1 Grant the remaining 42% was split between third party organisations early help and childrens services.