WISH (Plus)
WISH (Plus)
Supporting vulnerable people in Sedgemoor and West Somerset by expanding the successful WISH project
"Without WISH we would not have had our heating done. WISH is a very, very useful [service] and should be more widely known."
(Interviewee on BBC Radio Somerset, 3 March 2010)
WISH (Plus) is a fuel poverty advice service that runs across the whole of the county of Somerset and supports older people in rural areas who live in cold damp homes or who struggle to pay their fuel bills.
A typical beneficiary of this service is an elderly person or couple living in a house that is solid-walled, so difficult to insulate, and off the gas network so heated by oil - an expensive fuel.
CSE works in partnership with two local home improvement agencies to provide an in-depth advice service that integrates all aspects of fuel poverty: housing, benefits, fuel debt services and energy efficiency, through home visits, case work, outreach and client follow up.
The project also provides training to health and social care professionals who will identify clients that are living in fuel poverty, to understand the energy-related needs of older householders and to refer them to the fuel poverty advice service.
We have big ideas for this project. We aim to provide fuel poverty related advice and support to 6,000 people aged 50 and over who are rurally isolated. A third of these people will receive long term in-depth advice and support.
As well as a warmer, more comfortable home, the project also aims to leave beneficiaries with more disposable income from increased benefit uptake and fuel debt alleviation. This will give more elderly people the means and independence to stay in their own home for longer.
The project hopes to raise elderly people's income and independence, and reduce their risk of fuel poverty*
The project approach
The new project aims to take the 'old' WISH model and replicate it so that there are case workers covering the whole of Somerset based in Somerset West Care & Repair and Mendip Care & Repair. CSE’s role will be to provide project management, training of referral partners, phone based advice and follow up, publicity, participation in larger outreach events, support for case workers, as well as the strategic input to Somerset’s fuel poverty strategies and wider dissemination to policy makers and national stakeholders.
The behavioural model that this project will adopt for giving effective advice (based on CSE’s long history of providing home energy advice to households) is that individuals are more likely to make changes to their homes and lives when they receive advice which is:
- specific and relevant to their own particular circumstances
- received in a face-to-face setting
- delivered from a known and trusted source – particularly peer-endorsed
- relatively quick and easy to act upon, with ongoing support provided
A key element of the delivery would be through home visits as these are already found to be one of the most valuable elements to all our existing advice schemes.
WISH (Plus) is funded by the Nationwide Foundation and will run until 2012. Somerset residents wishing to find out more about the service should call their local Energy Saving Trust advice centre on 0800 512 012.
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