Blog: Designing and testing new delivery models to help children living in fuel poverty 

Warm Start, Healthy Futures is a new pilot that brings together the core elements of our End Child Fuel Poverty campaign into a practical, scalable model. It is designed to show how support can be embedded around children and families, rather than delivered through disconnected services. The pilot will support organisations working with families and young people across the North West and East Midlands of England.  

The model integrates energy advice and support into trusted, everyday settings, including health services, schools, and community hubs, while building the confidence of frontline professionals to identify need and act early. This ensures support is proactive and preventative, not just crisis led.  

Reaching families where they are 

There are two distinct strands to the project. The first focuses on reaching families at key life stages and addressing fuel poverty as a driver of poor child health by working with community and health-based support where our teams work with services such as maternity care, health visiting, GPs, and family hubs. We work with families to receive tailored energy advice and income maximisation support. We offer early interventions, checking bills and tariffs and ways to save money on consumption. We also offer solutions to more complex issues including energy debt, accessing grants and our Winter Warmth Support Packs to alleviate fuel poverty for these households. We can also offer referrals for housing and longer-term solutions. 

Educating the next generation 

Another vital part of the programme is our work through the education system. We know that engaging directly with young people is vital as they will be the energy consumers of the future. From our recent research, we know schools act as hubs for prevention and teachers often report being the ‘fourth emergency service.’ This makes schools an ideal location for us to deliver energy and healthy homes workshops for pupils and provide training for teachers and pastoral staff. Children and teachers can share what they’ve learnt with parents, which builds trust, so we can engage directly with the parents through advice sessions. This builds awareness early, supports families, and helps identify hidden need while placing children at the centre of the solution.  

We’re in the early stages of the programme but it is going well so far. We’ve delivered advice sessions in hospitals and at children’s centres to support families with understanding tariffs and bills, reducing energy use, keeping homes warm and free from damp and mould. We provided tailored advice to help families stay warm, save money, and get the support they need. We’ve delivered sessions with young people to explain how electricity is used in our homes and how small changes can have a big impact on saving energy. Using thermal imaging cameras, they investigated how much infrared radiation was being emitted by different appliances, helping identify where energy is being wasted. 

A multiplier effect 

We look forward to the pilot getting bigger. We will train 300 professionals across health, education and community services, creating a multiplier effect by embedding knowledge and referral pathways into day-to-day roles. We’ll also directly support 720 households and deliver 60 school sessions across high-need areas.  

Crucially, Warm Start, Healthy Futures is designed to test a model that can be scaled nationally, combining direct support with long-term systems change, so we can help the 6 million children living in fuel poverty across the UK.  

We still need more people to get involved with pilots in the North West or the East Midlands. Whether you’re a community organisation, school or support service, we can work with you to deliver meaningful support to families and expectant parents. Contact shelly.mcdonald@nea.org.uk to discuss opportunities.