Cost of living: Calderdale groups that help most vulnerable could close because of lack of cash

That is according to Chief Officer of Calderdale Voluntary and Community, Julie Robinson, who has told Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board there are a number of groups who are in danger of not continuing in the months ahead.

Some of those groups may be the ones who help the most vulnerable people in Calderdale, with the council and other agencies referring people to them.

Calderdale’s Director of Public Health, Deborah Harkins, said partners across communities needed to fully understand the implications.

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet will be receiving a report detailing its own response at its early October meeting – and other organisations were doing the same at regional level, including the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

But a national response was required too, said Calderdale Council’s Chief Executive, Robin Tuddenham, who is also the Place Lead for Calderdale on the new NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

“The scale is beyond anything we have experienced in public services and I think is clearly posing a threat to the voluntary and community sector but also businesses beyond the pandemic,” he said.

“We clearly need to understand what that will mean in practical terms over the next few weeks at a national level.

“It is a scale of depth and impact that is beyond any of us to be able to mitigate in its entirety.

“It needs a national response.”

Chairing the board meeting, Councillor Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the assessment would be important because as councils, housing organisations and other agencies, there would be no point in referring people to organisations that no longer existed because they no longer had the money or the people and could not pay their own energy bills.

Some were exhausted by extra call on them in the pandemic in terms of the reserves that they had, she said.

The Courier has reported how headteachers have warned schools are facing a huge financial catastrophe if no Government help is offered soon, because of soaring energy prices, inflation and unfunded pay rises.