Warm Homes in Bradford – Healthy People in Bradford
A ground-breaking project to help people to be warmer
What happened and did it make a difference?
Between January and April 2012 a ground-breaking initiative took place in the Bradford District. Funded by £204,500 from the Department of Health through its ‘Warm Homes Healthy People Fund’, it aimed to help vulnerable people keep warm or to be warmer by:
- Giving people cold weather information and advice.
- Providing practical support.
- Getting neighbours to help each other.
Activities undertaken in this Warm Homes programme included:
- Written information and face-to-face advice on how to keep warm.
- Practical help like food parcels, warm clothing, blankets, or heaters.
- Hot meals for vulnerable people and children who would not get them otherwise.
- Financial help to people who would have not been able to turn on their heating otherwise.
- Provision of household thermometers.
- Snow and ice gritting equipment to volunteer groups to help communities deal with snow problems.
- Setting up local street schemes so people help each other when it is cold.
- A Summit looking at key messages and next steps.
The activities were delivered by a number of organisations including voluntary and community organisations, and coordinated by Bradford Council’s Department of Community and Adult Services. All the partners came together in a Warm Homes Partnership Board.
Did it make a difference?
An independent evaluation of the programme was commissioned. This evaluation found that despite very short timescales, the programme was extremely successful; providing real, immediate and direct help to some of the most needy and vulnerable people.
Nearly 50,000 people were helped by the programme. No duplication of activity identified and potential exists for a larger volume of activity.
The evaluation found unanimous agreement that there is a need for winter warmth activity in Bradford to continue.
You can download a summary of the evaluation and the full report at the links at the end of this page.
