The Cost-of-Living Support Helpline service will come to an end on 31st July 2024 as planned. This is a natural end of a contract, as funding provided through the COVID Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) budget also came to an end. The longer-term strategic discussions will be part of the poverty action plan which will be launched early in September 2024.
The cost of this service, as with the suite of Cost-of-Living interventions, was funded through the temporary COMF budget upon agreement of NCC Corporate Leadership Team (CLT).
Costs have included internal workforce capacity, freephone line tariff and contracted services to HealthWorks. No further funding is available after 31st July 2024 as the COMF grant no longer exists.
During the COVID pandemic of 2020, the Cabinet of Newcastle City Council (NCC) requested a freephone Helpline which was created to support residents contact the council for generic support and advice, alongside the specialist and digital communications in place throughout.
The original need for a free direct point of contact by phone was in response to Voluntary and Community Sector engagement regarding accessibility issues relating to digital exclusion, financial barriers (phone credit/data) as well as the complexity of welfare and wellbeing issues residents were experiencing.
The Cost-of-Living Support Helpline had been managed in-house up to October 2022, before the decision was taken to commission an external provider to manage the service. HealthWorks were the commissioned provider.
We remain committed to supporting our community in any way possible and have recently developed an anti-poverty action plan which includes our strategic response. While the freephone service operated by Healthworks will no longer be available, NCC is still committed to supporting our residents and options for support can be found on the NCC website Cost of living support | Newcastle City Council