COVID Winter Grant Scheme

The request was successful.

David Butterfield

1. How did you distribute the COVID Winter Grant to vulnerable families, i.e. cash, food parcels or retail supermarket vouchers?
2. Did you use this grant to distribute financial support to families of children eligible for free school meals?
3. How many children were eligible for Free School Meals and how many children claimed financial support via the grant scheme?
4. Did you use the grant to distribute support to other vulnerable families / individuals and if so, which groups, i.e. homeless etc.?
5. If using supermarket vouchers
(a) which supplier(s) did you use to distribute the vouchers?
(b) how did you choose a supplier?
(c) what were your top 3 mandatory requirements for the service?
(d) did you coordinate the ordering to all beneficiaries/recipients, or was access delegated to schools to administer and order?
(e) did you enter into a direct contract with the supplier or call off via a framework?
(f) when does your contract end?
6. Following Government's extension of the COVID Winter Grant, will you continue to fund Free School Meal vouchers in May half-term and summer holidays?
7. Which role(s) and job functions manage the contract for this service?

FOI Team, Oxfordshire County Council

Our reference:  18174 FOI

 

Dear Mr Butterfield,

 

Thank you for your request of 23 April 2021 in which you asked for the
following information:

 

1. How did you distribute the COVID Winter Grant to vulnerable families,
i.e. cash, food parcels or retail supermarket vouchers?

2. Did you use this grant to distribute financial support to families of
children eligible for free school meals?

3. How many children were eligible for Free School Meals and how many
children claimed financial support via the grant scheme?

4. Did you use the grant to distribute support to other vulnerable
families / individuals and if so, which groups, i.e. homeless etc.?

5. If using supermarket vouchers

(a) which supplier(s) did you use to distribute the vouchers?

(b) how did you choose a supplier?

(c) what were your top 3 mandatory requirements for the service?

(d) did you coordinate the ordering to all beneficiaries/recipients, or
was access delegated to schools to administer and order?

(e) did you enter into a direct contract with the supplier or call off via
a framework?

(f) when does your contract end?

6. Following Government's extension of the COVID Winter Grant, will you
continue to fund Free School Meal vouchers in May half-term and summer
holidays?

7. Which role(s) and job functions manage the contract for this service?

 

 

 

Oxfordshire County Council does not hold this information.  COVID Winter
Grants and other financial support services is a City and District
Councils function in Oxfordshire. You may like to contact them via the
following links:

Oxford City Council -
[1]http://www.oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decV...

Cherwell District Council -
[2]https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/info/5/your-...

South Oxfordshire District Council -
[3]https://www.southoxon.gov.uk/south-oxfor...

Vale of White Horse District Council -
[4]https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-...

West Oxfordshire District Council –
[5]https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/about-the-co...

 

Internal review

If you are dissatisfied with the service or response to your request, you
can ask for an internal review as follows:

 

o Contact the Freedom of Information team in Law & Governance:
[6][Oxfordshire County Council request email]
o Write to the Freedom of Information team at the FREEPOST address:

 

Freedom of Information Team
Oxfordshire County Council
FREEPOST (RTLL-ECKS-GLUA)
Oxford OX1 1YA

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website: [7]https://ico.org.uk

 

Please let me know if you have further enquiries. I would be grateful if
you could use the reference number given at the top of this email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Renata Malinowski

Freedom of Information Support Officer

Oxfordshire County Council

Email: [8][email address]

[9]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

 

 

 

From: David Butterfield <[FOI #750028 email]>
Sent: 23 April 2021 17:03
To: FOI Team <[Oxfordshire County Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - COVID Winter Grant Scheme

 

1. How did you distribute the COVID Winter Grant to vulnerable families,
i.e. cash, food parcels or retail supermarket vouchers?

2. Did you use this grant to distribute financial support to families of
children eligible for free school meals?

3. How many children were eligible for Free School Meals and how many
children claimed financial support via the grant scheme?

4. Did you use the grant to distribute support to other vulnerable
families / individuals and if so, which groups, i.e. homeless etc.?

5. If using supermarket vouchers

(a) which supplier(s) did you use to distribute the vouchers?

(b) how did you choose a supplier?

(c) what were your top 3 mandatory requirements for the service?

(d) did you coordinate the ordering to all beneficiaries/recipients, or
was access delegated to schools to administer and order?

(e) did you enter into a direct contract with the supplier or call off via
a framework?

(f) when does your contract end?

6. Following Government's extension of the COVID Winter Grant, will you
continue to fund Free School Meal vouchers in May half-term and summer
holidays?

7. Which role(s) and job functions manage the contract for this service?

 

show quoted sections

FOI - E&E, Oxfordshire County Council

Our reference:  18174 FOI

 

Dear Mr Butterfield,

 

Thank you for your request of 23 April 2021 in which you asked for
information about COVID Winter Grants.  Please find our response to your
questions below in bold:

 

1. How did you distribute the COVID Winter Grant to vulnerable families,
i.e. cash, food parcels or retail supermarket vouchers?

 

We used the Winter Support Grant in the following ways:

 

o Support to families of children eligible for free school meals and
those attracting two-year-old free childcare or Early Years Pupil
Premium in early years settings – support was delivered through
schools and early years settings who were free to establish the most
relevant delivery mechanism. This included retail supermarket
vouchers, food parcels and a very small number of bank transfer
payments where no other alternatives were available;
o Grants to our City and District Councils to establish Emergency
Welfare schemes for food and essential utilities;
o Direct support through our social care teams.

 

2. Did you use this grant to distribute financial support to families of
children eligible for Free School Meals?

 

Yes

 

3. How many children were eligible for Free School Meals and how many
children claimed financial support via the grant scheme?

 

Approximately 12,300 (the numbers change as new children and young people
become eligible). Ours was a fixed award rather than a claim process.

 

4. Did you use the grant to distribute support to other vulnerable
families / individuals and if so, which groups, i.e. homeless etc.?

 

Yes

o Care leavers
o A wide variety of other groups (including homeless individuals) were
supported through the City/District schemes

 

5. If using supermarket vouchers

 

(a) which supplier(s) did you use to distribute the vouchers?

 

The majority of funding was distributed by third parties (City and
District Councils, Schools etc). A very small provision was made for
direct purchase (£3,000 from total spent of £1.8m) through Blackhawk.

 

(b) how did you choose a supplier?

 

Following consultation with neighbouring authorities on effective
mechanisms and a rapid review of available options.

 

(c) what were your top 3 mandatory requirements for the service?

 

We do not formalise requirements in this form for this level of spend.

 

(d) did you coordinate the ordering to all beneficiaries/recipients, or
was access delegated to schools to administer and order?

 

Delegated for the majority of spending.

 

(e) did you enter into a direct contract with the supplier or call off via
a framework?

 

We made a single small purchase of vouchers and are not in an ongoing
contract.

 

(f) when does your contract end?

 

We made a single purchase of electronic vouchers and are not in an ongoing
contract.

 

6. Following Government's extension of the COVID Winter Grant, will you
continue to fund Free School Meal vouchers in May half-term and summer
holidays?

 

We intend to fund for the May half term. The extension does not provide
for expenditure after 20 June and so this grant cannot be used for the
summer holidays.

 

7. Which role(s) and job functions manage the contract for this service?

 

We do not have a contract in place.

 

 

Internal review

If you are dissatisfied with the service or response to your request, you
can ask for an internal review as follows:

 

o Contact the Freedom of Information team in Law & Governance:

[1][Oxfordshire County Council request email] 

o Write to the Freedom of Information team at the FREEPOST address:

 

Freedom of Information Team
Oxfordshire County Council
FREEPOST (RTLL-ECKS-GLUA)
Oxford OX1 1YA

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website:  [2]https://ico.org.uk

 

Please let me know if you have further enquiries. I would be grateful if
you could use the reference number given at the top of this email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Robin Rogers

Programme Director COVID Response

Customers, Org Development and Resources

Oxfordshire County Council

Email: [3][email address]

[4]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

 

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David Butterfield

Robin Rogers
Programme Director COVID Response

Hello Robin,

Thank you for your prompt response which is hugely appreciated.

Best regards,

David Butterfield
Managing Director

David Butterfield

Robin Rogers
Programme Director COVID Response

Good morning Robin,

I'm a little confused by who is replying to which request.

I was reliably informed that Oxfordshire County Council had been disbanded and that I'd need to write under separate cover to each of Oxford City, Cherwell District, South Oxfordshire District, Vale of White Horse District and West Oxfordshire District Councils.

I've since received a full reply from Oxford City and partial responses from South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

So does your reply cover the outstanding Cherwell and West Oxfordshire requests?

Best regards,

David Butterfield
Managing Director

FOI Team, Oxfordshire County Council

Dear Mr Butterfield,

Thank you for your email and my apologies for any confusion that our response may have caused.

To clarify Oxfordshire County Council has not been disbanded and works under the two tier Local Authority system of separate County and District Councils. (The City Council is formally a District Council.)

In two tier areas, the Winter Support Grant was provided by DWP to County Councils with the expectation that where appropriate resources were then shared with district councils as agreed locally. We did this in Oxfordshire as we referred to in the original response. ("Grants to our City and District Councils to establish Emergency Welfare schemes for food and essential utilities.")

We understand that you submitted FOI requests to each of the City and District Councils as well as ourselves. The City and Districts will have, or will, respond in relation to the element of funding that we delegated to them. We have responded for the overall programme and the direct spending that we were responsible for.

Kind regards

Robin Rogers
Programme Director COVID Response
Oxfordshire County Council

show quoted sections

David Butterfield

Robin Rogers
Programme Director COVID Response

Thanks for the clarification, Robin. Your input is much appreciated.

Enjoy your weekend,

David Butterfield
Managing Director