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?

Freedom of Information, Dorset Council

Please note, due to the national coronavirus situation, services may in
some cases take significantly longer than usual to process your request. 
We are grateful for your co-operation and patience during this time and
will respond to your request in due course.

 

Thank you for your information request.

 

If you have submitted a request for non-personal recorded information, it
will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The EIR is broadly the
same as the FOIA but covers requests about the environment and
environmental matters.

 

You will receive a response within 20 working days in line with the
FOIA/EIR.  If the request will take any longer to process (e.g., if we
need to consult third parties or seek clarification from you) we will let
you know.

 

More details about FOIA/EIR requests can be found at

[1]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/foi

 

You may wish to know that you can submit requests online through our
e-form which is available via the link above.

 

If you wish to request information that is your own (or someone else’s)
personal data, it will be dealt with as a Subject Access Request (SAR) and
will be answered within one month. More details about SAR requests can be
found at

[2]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dataprotection

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. It may contain
unclassified but sensitive or protectively marked material and should be
handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to
receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it
to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in error please
notify the sender immediately. All traffic may be subject to recording
and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation. Any views
expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where
the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of
Dorset Council. Dorset Council does not accept service of documents by fax
or other electronic means. Virus checking: Whilst all reasonable steps
have been taken to ensure that this electronic communication and its
attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise supplied are free from
computer viruses, Dorset Council accepts no liability in respect of any
loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a result of accessing this
message or any of its attachments. For information on how Dorset Council
processes your information, please see
www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/data-protection

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/foi
2. http://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dataprot...

Freedom of Information, Dorset Council

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Butterfield,

 

Information Request – reference no. DC3384

 

Thank you for your information request dated 28.04.2021, which has been
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

 

Our response to your request is as follows:

 

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

Supermarket vouchers and utility bill vouchers. 

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

Yes, plus children schools deemed economically impacted as a result
of COVID who are not registered for FSM. Utility vouchers were available
to families and individuals who applied and satisfied criteria set by
Citizen’s Advice who administrated this scheme.  

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

There are approximately 8300 FSM eligible children in Dorset schools. 100%
were provided vouchers.  

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

Care leavers; 18-24 year olds who unemployed and being support by Job
Centre Plus; individuals who applied to the Citizen’s Advice utility bill
fund. 

5. If using supermarket vouchers 

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

Wonde (SchoolVouchers.com) 

(b) how did you choose a supplier? 

We approached our existing provider, who confirmed they were unable
to meet the requirement. We were approached by Wonde via direct email,
and invited them to demo the service and we compared that to the offer of
alternative providers.  

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

Data connector to schools to automate the collection of recipient data;
known and trusted by schools; financial model that reduced LA risk. 

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

FSM vouchers administrated by schools. Other groups by the LA. 

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

Direct contract. 

(f) when does your contract end? 

6^th December 2021 

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? 

The scheme has been extended for the May half-term. We will provide
vouchers as per previous holidays. We are yet to make a decision for the
summer.  

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

Senior Project Manager in Children’s Services’ commissioning team. 

 

You may wish to know that you can submit requests to Dorset Council via
our e-form at
[1]https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/your-co....

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may ask
for an internal review. Please email [2][Dorset Council request email] or write
to Information Compliance Team, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester,
Dorset, DT1 1XJ if you wish to request a review. If you are not content
with the outcome of the internal review, you then have the right to apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

Most of the information we provide is subject to copyright protection. You
are free to use the information for your own non-commercial research or
private study. Unless we have indicated otherwise, you may also use
information created by Dorset Council for certain other purposes under the
terms of the Open Government Licence [3]here. For information not created
by Dorset Council, other uses will require the copyright owner’s
permission. 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Jennifer Nash
Information Compliance Officer
Assurance [4][IMG]
Dorset Council
[5]dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

 

[6][IMG] [7][IMG] [8][IMG]

 

show quoted sections

David Butterfield

FAO Jennifer Nash
Information Compliance Officer

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you for your prompt response which is hugely appreciated.

Kind regards,

David Butterfield
Managing Director