Author: Laura

We hosted a coffee morning on Wednesday 23^rd February which was open to all Rotherham residents. The coffee morning was mostly aimed at the Connex participants to get them out and integrated into events in the community. Present were many people from the befriending service we provide, as well as some volunteers who make the calls to these people. A lot of the service users really enjoyed putting faces to the voices that have supported them throughout their time on the service.

Also, in attendance were 24 council tenants, and providers from around Rotherham who offer services to Rotherham residents. RotherFed projects Energy Know How, and Heart of the Community joined us as well as South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, and South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership.           

The event was well attended, with 51 people connected to RotherFed attending. 18 people managed to get energy advice from our team, and 8 visits by green doctor were booked in as well as winter warmth packs, energy saving lightbulbs and thermostats given out. As well as this, good connections were made with other community groups like the Sudanese group, who were in attendance. Above all, old friends and strangers got to connect face to face which so many people said they were so excited for!

A participant on the Connex project said, ‘I wouldn’t have dreamed of coming to something like this a year ago, but I’m so glad that I’m involved now and can’t wait for the next’.

I helped J with their Virgin bill. They had the full package that they didn’t really utilise. They were paying £96 per month but it was going up to £104 and they just couldn’t afford it any more. All they use is the internet and phone and only watch freeview channels. I spoke to Virgin and they could change the contract with zero penalty because J had received a letter to say the prices were going up, so they are entitled to leave the contract. They were told that 500mbps internet and talk anytime would be £57 a month. Looking online the same package is £51 so I queried this. They said this is because new customers get a ‘welcome’ discount. I was cheeky and asked why existing, loyal customers couldn’t have a ‘thank you’ discount for staying with them? Their answer………. just because, that’s how it is!

I remembered Martin Lewis saying that you could always cancel the contract and change it into someone else’s name. I did a bit of googling and found a lot of people have done this too. After a discussion of the pros and cons J decided to give it a go and has given 30 days’ notice. The contract ends on the 26^th March.

B went online and saw that they offer up to £50 reward for referring a friend. She contacted her friend to submit a referral form, the email came through and she proceeded to set up the account with 500mbps and talk anytime for £51 per month and a £35 set up fee. She did this in less than 10 minutes. (The thing to bear in mind is that they do a credit search which may not be right for some individuals). The old connection will cease on the 26^th March and the new connection will start on the 27^th March.

Virgin will send out packaging for J to send the old equipment back. They will need to send new equipment for B. They will also have to pay out £50 to B and £50 to her friend (B will still be £15 up after the set-up fee.) The household will be saving £7 per month over 18 months. In total over the 18 months contract they will have saved £141 (18 x £7) + (£50 – £35) = £141.

The thing that we couldn’t understand; for the sake of £7 per month, Virgin will have spent a fortune on postage as well as an engineer visit for installation. It just doesn’t make sense.

Energy Know How and Making Our Money Go Further came together to provide some training into our services to our RotherFed volunteers. We ran two remote training sessions on the 7^th February 2022. We had over 20 people attend the sessions to give them a small introduction into Energy Know How and some tips when looking out for referrals when speaking with the residents of Rotherham.

We discussed community groups we have worked with already and groups that would be interested in what we had to say, as well as offering the attendees their own telephone call for some 1-2-1 support around their energy usage and bills. There was an open discussion around the current energy market and we explained what has been happening across the energy network with providers going into administration.

Energy Know How can support anyone in Rotherham with any of the following:

• Give hints and tips about using energy more efficiently without putting health at risk.
• Ensure that householders know about schemes that can help them with their bills such as warm home discount.
• Ensure that customers with additional needs know how to be placed on the priority services register including elderly, those with health issues or young children.
• Arrange for minor draught proofing works and LED bulbs to be fitted free of charge through the Green Doctor scheme.
• Encourage switching between energy companies when this becomes appropriate.

We finished both of sessions with a friendly quiz about ‘The Robinsons’, an average family of four who wanted to know how much money they could save by making small behaviour changes in the household. This showed that they could be saving up to £604 a year if they made changes to their usage by doing things like only filling the kettle with what you need and by switching off appliances instead of leaving them on standby.

Keith rallied his community members to donate clothes to SHILOH in Masbrough. The charity supports individuals dealing with being homeless and therefore is host to the homeless community traveling through the area on a regular basis. Keith was delighted to have such as good response from his friends and neighbours as they managed to collect 15 bags of clothing.

“I saw an appeal from the SHILOH Charity in Rotherham. I mentioned this to Carol and knowing how much clothing we have, we decided to go through our wardrobes and see what clothing we didn’t want. We filled three bags. Whilst talking to a number of Group members, Carol mentioned the appeal to others and that was it. all of a sudden bag of clothing came from everywhere. John and I went out to collect from a number of group members and other friends and neighbours donated. What a wonderful gesture from some really nice people knowing that these people thought about others who are less fortunate than themselves. Although our group are still in voluntary ‘lockdown’ we still keep in touch with each other, and we all know that we are there for each other should help be needed. We don’t ask for much, but we enjoy helping others. We ended up sending 15 bags of clothing to SHILOH. Now we are coming forward with suggestions for the Royal Celebrations in June which again shows just how united we are.”

As part of the Heart of the Community project we will be delivering Roadshow around the community. Engaging with local people to tell them more about our plans for the next three years and to uncover the little acts of kindness already happening.

For our first outing we took our stand to Tesco at Wharncliffe, armed with leaflets and chocolate we made our debut.

Being our first event we were unsure of how to approach the promotion. We decided to take a passive approach and not to overly give out the leaflets, we didn’t want Tesco to end up with leaflets all over their car park, especially as it was our first time working in store and Tesco’s is one of the main assets to the community at Wharncliffe. We engaged with 8 individuals and recorded 8 #littleactsofkindness, as well as speaking to 2 young people that are interested in giving their time to volunteering.

Kyle wants to be able to help others and use his community experience to achieve employment. Chloe wants to get involved to fill her spare time with a hobby as she works 9 – 5. Both are open to volunteering and traveling outside of their areas.

We also spoke to a gentleman in need of energy support, from what he told us he was in a position that he felt that he had to make a choice “Heat or Eat” however didn’t want to be contacted just wanted financial help to pay the rising energy bills. However we could not persuade him to be contacted by either our Money Management or Energy Know How teams that could help him.

Susan was referred to Energy Know How from the befriending team, she had mentioned that she was struggling with an energy bill.

Sharon called her initially in mid-December 2021. Susan explained that she had received a large bill from Scottish Power for £476.00 which was just for one months’ energy usage and then said that she hadn’t wanted to switch her energy to them.

When Sharon asked Susan further questions, she revealed that two people had knocked on her door about 6 weeks earlier saying they could make her bills cheaper. Susan had prepayment meters with Utilita and as a carer for her disabled son, these helped her to control her spending and she was happy with them.

One of the people at her door proceeded to persuade Susan to hand over her phone – he called a number and instructed Susan to say he had left although he was still there…he was guiding her to answer the questions and had placed the phone call onto the speaker – several times Susan had confirmed she did not want to switch but was assured she was just getting cheaper bills.

Her prepayment meters were converted, and she had just received a bill for £476.00 which she cannot pay as she was used to topping up small amounts regularly. She was very upset.

Sharon was very shocked by the circumstances and emailed the CEO of Scottish Power to make a complaint on Susan’s behalf.

Sharon received a response to confirm that the switch would be reversed using the ‘erroneous transfer’ charter and that she would be returned to Utilita from Scottish Power. It also confirmed that the situation would be reviewed by the manager of the sales team as I had stated clearly that these actions were out of order.

Sharon informed Susan and she was very pleased with this outcome, she was advised to put aside monies that she would have been topping up with as she will have to pay for energy used however, she will be put back on prepayment meters with Utilita as she had requested.

Susan will be very wary of callers at her door and is requesting ‘no caller’ stickers to place on her door to prevent this happening again.

Sam attended one of our first Job Club events in the autumn. They had not worked for over ten years and were very anxious about attending the session and discussing their situation. They were helped by Working Win, who give employment advice for people looking for work, in work and struggling or in work and off sick. Working Win supported them to find work as a delivery driver. Since finding employment and a job they like and are good at Sam’s confidence and skills have soared and they are now training to be an HGV driver.

Social Supermarket at Rotherham Minster referred B over to us because she was homeless and had been living in her car with her dog for 3 months. I called B on a Friday afternoon and she told me all about her struggles and the events up to her becoming homeless and it was evident that she was really struggling with her mental and physical health. I referred her to safeguarding straight away. I followed up on Monday morning and she seemed to be a totally different person. She told me that the homeless team had come straight out to her in her car and had placed her in a little bungalow, all before 9pm that Friday. She was so shocked at how quick she had been rehomed but was absolutely over the moon. She was crying on the phone when I spoke to her on Monday, but instead of the upset tears that she had on Friday, it was happy tears with the sense of relief that she had a roof over her head.

Rachel Cole, Project Officer

I was first asked if I could support this group in Summer 2021 through RMBC. A few residents who live on the Manvers estate had got together and wanted to try and challenge Manvers Lake Trust about the yearly fees they all must pay to help towards the upkeep of the lake. Their first meeting was held at the Wath Rugby Club and all residents from the estate were invited. About 30 residents attended this meeting and it was discussed with the help of Cllr Barley how they could approach the Manvers Lake Trust. After that meeting, I helped the group to select the key people required, Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, for the committee and helped write a constitution, they also opened their own bank account. Two members of the group attended the training that RotherFed and VAR delivered on Setting Up Groups. 

The group are now known as the Manvers Residents Association and whilst they still continue to challenge the Manvers Lake Trust regarding the fees, they are also starting to be very active group and are putting events etc on for the community. They organised their first community litter pick in December, it was a great turnout and over 40 bags of rubbish were collected. Their next litter pick will be in March. They also successfully applied for some CLF funding from the local Councillors and did a Christmas Elf hunt. They hid 50 elves around the estate and set up a treasure map. Very positive feedback was received from the community.

The group are wanting to hold an event for the Queens Jubilee and plans for this are now underway.  They have recently applied for the COMF funding. They have also applied to become RotherFed members. I will continue to work with and support this group as required.