Fuel Poverty Research Library
Previous research has pointed to a strong link between living in fuel poverty and a range of health problems including respiratory issues and mental illness, as well as other negative social outcomes. Given that a significant proportion of households living in fuel poverty are families with children, maximising the take-up of financial assistance and other forms of support such as advice and guidance available to families is vital. Extant studies suggest rates of participation in such schemes are low, and therefore an understanding of what works will be valuable if progress is to be made in tackling fuel poverty. The impending publication of a national fuel poverty strategy provides immediacy to this issue.
Key research Question
The Reaching Fuel Poor Families project was designed to assess the effectiveness of strategies used to engage fuel poor families with various available assistance options. Specifically, it sought to explore whether Children’s Centres could act as suitable brokers in this process and highlight the criteria for successful schemes.
Summary of activity
The research comprised three main elements:
Findings
The review of past research indicated that, while fuel poverty among families with children is a significant issue, multiple barriers exist that prevent full advantage being taken of the various assistance schemes. However, the role of ‘trusted intermediaries’ offers opportunities to remedy this. This evidence, plus the fieldwork completed for the study, indicates that Children’s Centres offer significant possibilities for promoting access to fuel poverty assistance. These could be categorised as follows:
However, there are also factors that could limit the success of such an approach. These include low attendance at fuel poverty sessions, the short-term nature of funding, reticence among families in discussing the issues, inadequate training of staff and poor communication.
Recommendations
The lessons learned can be rolled out across Children’s Centres. Beyond this, the report has a range of recommendations, including:
Outputs