Fuel poverty affects millions of children across the UK. Households with children have a high prevalence of fuel poverty, with one in five households with children experiencing fuel poverty in 2020 in the UK.
Children don’t have any control over where they live and yet where they grow up could determine their health and future prospects for the rest of their lives. No child should have to grow up in a cold, unhealthy home but it is the reality for too many.
Our Safe & Warm partnership network works alongside a variety of charities and community organisations to help lift households out of fuel poverty, with some focusing specifically on families with young children.
Children First: Keeping Scottish children warm and well
Around one in four children in Scotland are living in poverty. As Scotland’s national children’s charity, Children First has a proven track record of supporting society’s most vulnerable children and families, and they are trusted to do so. By partnering with them, we’re able to provide energy-related support to families as part of the charity’s ‘one-stop shop’ approach to supporting Scottish families.
Together, we’re working to minimise the health and wellbeing impact on children and families who are living in fuel poverty across Scotland and ensure they have the required energy safeguards in place to maintain a safe and warm home.
Since this project launched in April 2024, we’ve so far supported 3,364 families, more than double our original target. We’re doing this by:
- Upskilling the Children First financial wellbeing team to enhance their existing energy advice knowledge
- Providing emergency financial support to families who are in energy crisis
- Promoting the Priority Services Register and helping families sign up for the free service
- Raising awareness of carbon monoxide (CO) safety and providing free CO alarms where appropriate
As well as the national support line service, Children First works alongside communities in centres across Scotland. Our partnership will expand the existing community-based adviser service into two areas, Ayrshire and Glasgow, where the support is needed most.
Lauren Hill, Corporate Fundraising and Partnerships Manager at Children First, said: “Child poverty in Scotland is far too high with one in four children living in relative poverty. Thanks to your support, we’re helping to keep children safe, warm and well. When children have full tummies and can sleep in warm beds, they can concentrate better at school, have better relationships with their family and can fulfil their potential. Thanks to SGN for helping to give children a safer and brighter future.”
Find out more about this partnership here.
Home-Start UK: Fuelling Futures in southern England
Home-Start UK stands by families grappling with issues that hinder their ability to provide a nurturing childhood for their children – be it poverty, isolation, mental health struggles, disability or illness.
With a network of local Home-Starts spread across the UK, they do more than just help parents cope – they empower them to thrive, fostering an environment that ensures the best possible start for their children.
We’re proud to have partnered with Home-Start UK to support young families in fuel poverty across our Southern network area. Together, we’ve opened up access to vital support and energy safeguarding services to help young families maintain a safe and warm home.
Since we started working with Home-Start UK in April 2024, we’ve:
- Trained 1,183 Home-Start employees and volunteers on energy safeguarding
- Reached 15,067 young families through safe and warm energy advice workshops and by providing personalised energy advice
- Referred over 15,000 households for specialist home energy efficiency assessments
- Promoted the Priority Services Register to 12,530 families and helped eligible households sign up for the free service
- Raised awareness of CO safety and provided 1,173 free CO alarms
Our partnership is making a considerable difference, with one Home-Start UK service user saying: “I have learnt so much about energy saving and making the children warm. Through the training with SGN, I realised that my heavily frozen freezer was losing me money. I was so shocked and it was making my bills increase significantly every month. With my new information provided by my local Home-Start group I have the knowledge to help my family and it has eased my worry about keeping the children safe and warm.”
Find out more about this partnership here.
