DFFF Update April - September 2022

In the past 6 months:

1. Update on work with Fuel Well

   1. Gave input and advice to the Senior Manager of Council Advice Services on how best allocate emergency cost of living funding

   2. Fuel Well was nominated for an Outstanding Service and Commitment Awards, and the Council’s Advice Service Team asked if a member of DFFF would attend the ceremony to honour our part in the creation of the scheme. We were delighted that Fuel Well won the Lord Provosts award!

2. Update on Community Wellbeing Centre

   1. The Community Wellbeing Centre Stakeholder group split into working groups over the summer, and DFFF got involved in the Communications and Engagements working group. DFFF gave insight on how best to communicate information about the Wellbeing Centre to the Community.

3. Work with the Fairness Leadership Panel

   1. The last Fairness Commission made a recommendation around how employability services in Dundee needed to be more “user friendly”, so the Panel asked the Council’s Executive Director of City Development to come give an update about the city’s employability strategy. The information given was insightful, but DFFF had more questions and the Fairness Leadership Panel agreed that more information was needed to ensure that the employment strategy for the city was going to work for the people needing help.

   2. Working with the Senior Manager of Council Advice Services, we had the opportunity to review and critique the new Money Advice Strategy for the city.

   3. At one of the Panel meetings, DFFF shared our concerns about how people were being affected by the cost of living crisis, especially when it came to Fuel Poverty. The Panel discussed what is being done to support people struggling to afford the rising cost of Fuel, and DFFF again urged that there needs to be a Fuel Insecurity Strategy for the city that included larger thinking than just the hard winter ahead.

4. Met with the Chairman of the Poverty & Inequality Commission to share with him how people in Dundee are being affected by the Cost of Living Crisis which fed into this report Publications - Poverty & Inequality Commission (povertyinequality.scot)

5. Several members attended an event in Stirling held by the Robertson Trof Living Crisis. It was very interesting to hear how other parts of Scotland are tackling the cost-of-living emergency and it was a fun day away.