Winter Wellbeing

Helping Vulnerable People keep Warm and Well in Winter

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are in the top ten areas for the UK for households which are in fuel poverty. 

In Cornwall fuel poverty affects over 12.6% of all households (31,826 homes). On the Isles of Scilly it is 20.9% (231 homes), (BEIS Fuel Poverty statistics 2018). Both are above the England average of 10%.

As part of a joined up effort to tackle this, Inclusion Cornwall, Cornwall Council, Public Health, Council of the Isles of Scilly, NHS Kernow and many more partners, joined forces to help vulnerable people escape the effects of fuel poverty, and the health risks associated with damp or cold homes.

Since its foundation in 2011, before the winter of 2011/12, the Winter Wellbeing campaign has

  • Helped over 10,000 households
  • Prevented 848 hospital admissions
  • Helped 448 households remain in work or progress towards work
  • Assisted 614 households through the Warm Homes discount.

The new 2024/5 Winter Wellbeing Guide is now available here https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/zithqd0e/winter-wellbeing-guide_2024-25.pdf

Preparing for Winter

Winter Wellbeing has a raft of services that could help someone at risk during the winter due to poor health, or a cold/damp home. Home visits and follow-up support are available for:

  • Access to heating and insulation grant
  • Providing practical advice on:
    • understanding and reducing energy bills
    • combatting condensation and damp
  • Support for families with children if they have additional needs
  • Debt advice
  • Benefits advice
  • Health information

For advice and access to services provided by over 30 partner organisations, call Freephone 0800 954 1956 or email advice@cep.org.uk 

Winter Wellbeing Guide

The winter wellbeing guide is updated every year, and circulated to households at risk.

It is designed to help people stay well, warm, happy and safe in the winter months, and includes sections on:

  • Looking after yourself in the winter months, with activity, exercise, getting treatment for minor ailments and common winter illnesses
  • Staying warm, with information about energy bills (reducing, switching and support to pay),
  • Keeping safe, around snow and ice, carbon monoxide risks, chimneys, trips and falls, winter driving and travel, emergency housing, condensation and mould, and domestic abuse
  • Keeping happy, including dealing with money worries, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, loneliness and isolation
  • Organisations that can offer support, from Active Plus to YZup.

See the Winter Wellbeing page on the Cornwall Council website for further information and to download the latest editions of the Winter Wellbeing Guide for Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly, as well as a top-tips poster/leaflet.

Paper copies are available from:

  • Council Information Points
  • GP surgeries
  • NHS premises
  • libraries and
  • many other sources, including all the partners listed below.

You can contact the Community Energy Plus helpline on Freephone 0800 954 1956. Or email advice@cep.org.uk for further information and advice.

Warm Homes Fund

The Warm Homes Fund, Warm Home Discount Industry Initiative, Green Homes Grant and LA Flexible Eligibility (known as LA ECO Flex) help households with heating. They help any home that hasn’t had central heating or need help with repairs and insulation to stay warm and well.

To see if someone could be helped by any of these schemes or for independent energy advice, please contact:

You can find out more about the Central Heating Fund on the Cornwall Council website.

Cold Weather Priority Service for Oil Fuel Customers

The Fuel Petroleum service (FPS) runs a Cold Weather Priority scheme. This is designed to identify those customers most vulnerable to cold conditions. It ensures that your fuel supplier knows who you are and where you are. They can then take appropriate steps to ensure fuel availability. This is especially true in times of fuel shortage or extreme cold weather. 

Around 15% of homes (37,500) households in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, use oil for heating their homes.

  

Former video highlighting our work

Case Studies

  • Support for fuel

    Customer A has been awarded both a Discretionary Housing Payment and Exceptional Relief. Along with your support for fuel, this has made a massive difference to him and he is over the moon. There was huge pressure on him financially and he was struggling to keep his head above water but he now feels that he is able to cope….

  • Broken boiler

    Customer B from Redruth was referred to by the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust’s onward care team for help to repair her broken boiler. Funding from the OVO-SSE’s Warm Home Discount Industry Initiative (Public Health, Inclusion Cornwall and Community Energy Plus) repaired and serviced the boiler so Customer B could be warm again.

    She has mobility and pre-existing mental health issues which worsened when made redundant during Covid-19. She now claims Universal Credit, and a referral to Inclusion Cornwall to check she was receiving the correct benefits and provide other help and support as appropriate.

    Community Energy Plus helped apply for the Warm Home Discount payment (£140) from their energy supplier and South West Water’s Water Care tariff and now added Western Power Distribution’s Priority Service Register. Due to the age of her boiler it is likely that it will need replacement within the next year and we will help with this.

Winter Wellbeing Partnership

There are over 30 partners who work together to reduce fuel poverty, improve health and progress people to work.