Wakefield Council - Hotspots Fuel Poverty Referral Scheme
Hotspot’s is an innovative referral initiative based on effective cross-partnership working. Developed and launched by Wakefield Council, and rolled out across West Yorkshire in the last year, the scheme is a partnership with the Primary Care Trust, the Fire Service, the Pension Service and the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre.
The scheme enables frontline agencies to refer vulnerable households for energy grants, fire safety and income maximisation assistance. Citizens are helped to be warmer and healthier in their homes; save energy and reduce their environmental impact; be safer with fire safety advice and smoke alarms and maximise their income and so remove them from fuel poverty.
Referrals are made using a simple card to pass clients’ details between frontline agencies. Each partner can effectively refer citizens they meet through their normal work, to each other for additional assistance.
Hotspots relies on in-kind contributions and therefore costs very little to setup but the results are nothing short of amazing. To date over 3,500 households in the district have received Hotspots assistance.
Hotspots is now recognised as best practice and as a result has been rolled out across West Yorkshire. It has also won two National Energy Action awards in recognition of its success.