The Cabinet has decided to approve the Crisis and Resilience Fund expenditure plan for 2026/27 to support vulnerable residents and strengthen local welfare and resilience services.

URL: https://sandwell.moderngov.co.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=1191

Decision Maker: Cabinet

Outcome:

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Purpose: To consider the Crisis and Resilience Fund 2026/27-2028/29

Content: Reasons for Recommendations In the June 2025 Spending Review, the Government announced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), launching in April 2026.   The CRF was a national government grant-funded programme, introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions, partly to replace the previous Department for Work and Pensions’ Household Support Fund (HSF) and Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) schemes, both of which were administered by local authorities.   HSF was used to support financially vulnerable households with essential costs relating to energy, food and water, and wider essential costs. The scheme ended on 31 March 2026.   DHP was used to help residents to cover the cost of a deposit on a new property or help with a shortfall in rent or removal costs. This support also ended on 31 March 2026.   Entering into the Crisis and Resilience Fund grant arrangements would provide the Council with significant funding to support vulnerable residents and strengthen local welfare and resilience services. This funding enabled the Council to deliver targeted support, address financial hardship and develop longer?term preventative approaches in line with national requirements, while ensuring compliance with grant conditions and enabling timely implementation of services.   The DWP published statutory guidance in January 2026 outlining the purpose of the CRF, eligible expenditure and delivery expectations for local authorities.   The CRF provided a three-year, ring-fenced funding settlement to enable local authorities to support residents experiencing financial hardship while also investing in longer term financial resilience and prevention.   The CRF ran from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029. The CRF was intended to provide immediate support to households experiencing financial shocks whilst reducing future demand for crisis intervention through investment in financial resilience, advice and community?based support.   Alternative Options Considered Option 1 – Continue expenditure as per the previous Household Support Fund, allocating a proportion of funding to free school meal holiday vouchers – Not recommended. This option would continue the provision of free school meal vouchers to all eligible families during school holidays, which was previously aligned to the (now-discontinued) government grant-funded Household Support Fund programme. Whilst this would provide short-term support, it would not align with the primary objectives of the new CRF grant conditions, which required a significant focus on crisis intervention and building long-term financial resilience. The CRF was an entirely separate scheme which required local authorities to address both ‘crisis’ and ‘resilience’. Universal voucher provision in many cases did not meet the definition of ‘crisis provision’, it did not address the underlying causes of financial hardship and it would reduce funding available for preventative and resilience-building support. This option was therefore not recommended. The Council would continue to provide targeted crisis support, including emergency food assistance and crisis payments, to ensure families experiencing hardship can access support when needed.   Option 2 – Deliver the programme primarily through the voluntary and community sector – Not recommended. This option would allocate a significant proportion of funding to voluntary and community sector organisations for delivery. Whilst this could extend community reach, it would reduce the Council’s ability to maintain strategic oversight, monitor performance, and redirect resources in response to emerging needs. It also presented risks relating to provider capacity, consistency of delivery and equitable access across the borough. This option was therefore not recommended.   Resolved:-   (1)  that approval is given to the Crisis and Resilience Fund expenditure plan for 2026/27 as set below:   CRF Component Scheme Proposed 2026/27 Expenditure £m Housing Housing payments 1.451 Crisis Crisis payments 1.335 Other crisis support: ·       Council tax hardship fund ·       Additional rental cost support ·       Payments to childrenleaving care and to foster carers ·       Welcoming spaces ·       Support to food banks 1.850 Resilience Welfare Rightsteam (additionalstaff and software to enable enhanced support and proactive targeting of resilience initiatives) 0.494 New resiliencepilot projectssupporting food security, healthy living, financial resilience, skills development and access to employment 2.000 Administration Administration costs 0.469 Total 7.599     (2)  that approval is given to the ‘Crisis Payments Policy’ as set out in appendix B;   (3)  that delegated authority is given to the Executive Director – Finance and Transformation and the Assistant Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, to determine a set of ‘resilience scheme’ pilot projects to commence within the 2026/27 financial year;   (4)  that delegated authority is given to the Executive Director – Finance and Transformation and the Assistant Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, to formulate and agree the expenditure plans for 2027/28 and 2028/29 and to make in?year adjustments to the 2026/27 programme, where necessary, to ensure delivery of the objectives and requirements of the Crisis and Resilience Fund;   (5)  that delegated authority is given to the Executive Director – Finance and Transformation (S.151 Officer) to submit a Crisis and Resilience Fund expenditure plan for 2026/27 to the Department for Work and Pensions by 1 August 2026, and to submit corresponding expenditure plans for 2027/28 and 2028/29 in due course, once those expenditure plans have been agreed, in accordance with recommendation (4) above.    

Date of Decision: July 15, 2026