Decision details

As part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Spring Statement, on 23 March 2022, it was announced that there would be a ‘doubling’ of the Household Support Fund that was due to end on 31 March 2022, meaning that a further £500 million (£421m for England) would be released to councils, to support those most in need with the cost of food, energy and water bills, phone, broadband and clothing and in exceptional cases, housing costs.
Due to lack of notice given by government and the impending Easter holidays, the Council has used a proportion of the new estimated £4m grant, to assist 22,000 Free School Meal/Pupil Premium children during the Easter period, by awarding a £30 voucher in respect of each child. The spend accounts for £660k of the allocation for these 2 weeks. This commitment is in line with previous support provided to these children for most school holidays since October 2020, by Bristol City Council.
The contract supplier has been chosen using the CSS framework and is a continuation of an existing and well-established good quality provision by them.
It was not reasonably practicable to await the next Cabinet meeting on 5th April due to the arrangements that need to be put in place beforehand to be able to have this in place by the start of the holidays. There was a clear and pressing urgent need for this decision to be taken to enable the free school meal vouchers to be available for the Easter school holidays.

To spend up to £660k of the Council’s allocation from the Household Support Fund for April to September 2022 to provide Free School Meals vouchers to 22,000 children over the Easter school holidays and use the Crown Commercial Services (CSS) voucher framework to appoint the contract supplier Hawk Incentives.
The Cabinet member for Finance, Governance, Property and Culture, the Chair of Resources Scrutiny commission, the Mayor’s Office, the deputy S151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer have been consulted prior to this decision being taken.

Other options were considered, including adding these funds in to a wider Hardship Support Fund solution, but due to the timing of the governments and impending Easter school holiday, it is believed that this is the most effective and efficient way to target low income families. It also builds on the same infrastructure and processes that have helped the same families with food poverty over the last 12 months, in school holidays.
A standalone tender exercise was considered but rejected on the basis that the supplier chose via the CSS framework, provides good value and is one that has also been used via a similar competitive tender exercise.