Gas distributor Cadent has handed Birmingham Community Healthcare Charity a grant of £2.4m to fund its work to support 100,000 residents impacted by fuel and general poverty.

The service being funded by the fossil fuel firm aims to help patients who struggle to be healthy and warm when returning home.

It will offer energy efficiency advice to help patients return home as well as free up NHS bed space.

Through the service patients who have returned home will receive additional support to prevent repeat hospital visits.

The charity is the charity for Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

“Working in partnership with Cadent, we can help to address health inequalities and the underlying causes of poor health, in which poverty and housing are significant factors,” said the Trust’s chief officer for strategy and partnerships Suzanne Cleary.

This project will help our most vulnerable patients and users to get the best out of the NHS services that we provide and ultimately, help people live well for longer within their communities.”

Through the partnership the charity’s ‘Direct Access to Wellbeing Services Team’ (DAWS) service is being funded through a £1.7m grant from Cadent and a further £700,000 from the gas firm’s Foundation.

Cadent’s director of social purpose and sustainability Mark Belmega added: “Poverty rates and health are intrinsically linked and for those sadly living in fuel poverty, it really does have a significant knock-on effect to so many different areas of their lives.

“We are all incredibly excited about this flagship partnership with Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Charity.

“Not only is this the first time we’ve worked directly with the NHS but also being able to collaborate with our Cadent Foundation, means we’re able to significantly extend the reach of the programme.”

---