Changes to the Household Support Fund (HSF).
Coventry received an allocation of a government grant called the Household Support Fund (HSF), to cover this financial year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024). This fund is designed to be used to support households in the most need due to financial hardship, particularly those who may not qualify for other types of government support.
The City Council has used this to support residents with fuel, food, clothing and bedding, household appliances, household furniture and vouchers for children and young people entitled to free school meals during school holiday periods.
Unfortunately, the grant received for this financial year has not been sufficient to meet the level of demand and has already been nearly totally allocated. As a result, Coventry City Council has had to make difficult decisions as there is insufficient funding for everything it would like to support. This means that we will be unable to provide funding to schools to pay for food vouchers for pupils eligible for free school meals in the Christmas 23 and February 24 school holidays.
If you need to access food support, this continues to be available through application to the Household Support Fund: www.coventry.gov.uk/householdsupportfund. This includes the provision of three emergency food parcels to support households in the short team and work with the Coventry Food Network to support residents in exploring longer term options through engagement with a Community Supermarket.
Children and young people eligible for universal-benefits Free School Meals can also access our Coventry Holiday Activities and Food Programme offer. This includes free holiday activities all with nutritional food provided for the child. For more details please go to: https://www.coventry.gov.uk/haf
School Business Manager