Delivering the Crisis and Resilience Fund: Insights from DWP, Trussell and Plymouth City Council

The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) marks a turning point for local crisis support in England.

It provides the first ever multi-year settlement for locally delivered crisis support, underpinned by defined outcomes and a clear policy shift away from reactive crisis management towards prevention and long term financial resilience

In December, we published recommendations with Trussell to help shape the Crisis and Resilience Fund. Following the release of DWP’s guidance, we explored what the rules say and what councils are being asked to deliver.

This blog focuses on the practice: how the CRF can be delivered well by councils, using data, partnerships and frontline relationships to support people beyond crisis.

The insights below draw on our recent webinar with speakers from DWP, Trussell and Plymouth City Council, bringing together central and local government and the third sector. Record attendance highlighted how timely this conversation is as councils prepare for the launch of the Crisis and Resilience Fund in April. You can listen back here.

At the heart of the CRF is a deliberate shift in mindset.

The Crisis and Resilience Fund presents an opportunity to rethink how England supports people in crisis. At its heart is a shift away from reactive only support towards addressing underlying needs and building long term financial resilience.
Ashleigh Naysmith, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Work and Pensions

For years, local crisis support has been shaped by short term funding, emergency timeframes and blunt eligibility rules.

The result has often been :

• support that arrives too late
• one off interventions that don’t stick
• repeat applications from the same households
• and systems that respond to categories rather than need

The CRF changes this by anchoring delivery around three outcomes:

1. Effective crisis support
2. Improved financial resilience
3. A stronger local support landscape

Crucially, these outcomes are meant to be delivered together, using moments of crisis as opportunities to stabilise income, connect people to services and reduce the likelihood of future emergencies.

Listen back to Ashleigh Naysmith, DWP, talking about the design and delivery of the Crisis and Resilience Fund on our recent webinar

Few aspects of the CRF have attracted as much attention as its cash-first principle.

For organisations working closest to people experiencing hardship, this represents long overdue recognition of what works.

Food banks provide a lifeline for so many people facing hardship, but they should not have to exist in a just and compassionate society. Effective crisis support must prioritise cash first, dignified help that prevents people from needing emergency food parcels in the first place.

Beatrice Orchard, Head of Programme (Social Security and Work), Trussell

Trussell’s evidence shows that people don’t turn to food banks because they lack budgeting skills or motivation. They do so because their income is too low and they have no financial buffer. In that context, vouchers and food parcels may address symptoms, but they rarely address causes.

Listen back to Beatrice Orchard, Trussell, talking about the role of cash payments in delivering crisis support on our recent webinar

It was clear from the recent payment events we spoke at with Huggg and the Post Office that there was scepticism around the concept of cash first, and the DWP were at pains to point out that cash first does not mean cash only.

However, a cash-first approach:

• gives people choice and dignity
• allows them to address the actual source of crisis
• works across different types of emergencies, not just food
• supports faster, simpler delivery

A needs based and person-centred approach to the CRF means that councils retain flexibility.

In some situations, such as supporting people with addiction issues, vouchers may be more appropriate, and councils may be able to replace a broken cooker or fridge at a lower cost with their payment partners than a resident could themselves with cash.

To help councils support a flexible approach we are integrating the ability to fulfil CRF awards into the LIFT and Apply Once platforms, enabling a cash-first (but not cash-only) approach to supporting people.

The ability to use LIFT to disburse payment through a link that gives the resident choice, where appropriate, over how they receive their support ensures a streamlined and error-free approach that means decisions are made with people, not for them.

Read our research: Resetting local crisis support in England: Recommendations for the new Crisis and Resilience Fund

Data alone doesn’t change outcomes. But when used well, it can fundamentally reshape how councils engage with residents.

Nowhere was this clearer than in the example from Plymouth City Council.

We are talking about data, but this work is really about people and their lives, not just numbers.
Zoe Sydenham, Community Empowerment Organisational Lead, Plymouth City Council

Shifting from crisis management to prevention

Until recently, Plymouth’s Household Support Fund operated largely as a reactive scheme. In 2025, that changed with the introduction of a council-wide pivot towards prevention, combined with investment in Policy in Practice’s LIFT platform.

This enabled Plymouth to:

• identify households most at risk before crises escalate
• cluster residents by financial resilience and vulnerability
• layer financial data with housing and environmental risks

One early focus was improving the take up of Pension Credit. Using LIFT to identify eligible residents who were not claiming, Plymouth carried out proactive outreach through trusted routes.

Letters were signed by the Director of Public Health. Drop in sessions were held in familiar community spaces. People were told to expect a call, so they knew it wasn’t a scam.

The impact

In just six months:

• 94 households received tailored support
• £25,000 in direct awards unlocked around £125,000 in potential annual income
• Engagement with community sessions for older residents increased by 67%

This approach also built relationships as evidenced by one conversation about budgeting at a Family Hub that led to a resident helping set up a peer support group. Crisis support became a gateway to services and community connection.

Listen back to Zoe Sydenham, Plymouth City Council, talking impact achieved using data to proactively allocate discretionary funds our recent webinar

One of the strongest themes running through the CRF guidance is the idea that every crisis interaction is an opportunity. However, turning these interactions into genuine gateways to resilience requires a mix of smart intelligence and trusted community relationships.

The CRF explicitly emphasises community coordination, reflecting a reality many councils know well: preventative support cannot be delivered in a silo. Voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations are often the first point of contact for those reluctant to approach a council.

By working together, frontline organisations can ensure that regardless of the ‘front door’ a resident chooses, the outcome is the same: they leave the process better informed, better connected, and more financially secure.

Relational work supported by data

The shift to multi year funding is particularly important and welcome here. It creates space to invest in relationships, data sharing agreements and shared delivery models, allowing a move forward from short term decisions often driven by urgency

As Beatrice Orchard from Trussell put it:

Strong partnerships are not optional. They are fundamental to effective crisis and resilience support.

However, as Zoe Sydenham from Plymouth City Council reflected during our webinar, good partnership working is about more than just software:

It’s relational. It takes time. It involves trying, failing, and trying again. And it requires investment.

In Plymouth, where housing advisors use the Better Off Calculator to anchor their conversations, this relational work is enabled by data. As one advisor noted:

It has been a game-changer because it allows us to have direct, informed conversations about residents’ finances and budgeting pressures.

By combining the trust held by community partners with the analytical power of the Better Off Platform, councils can shift from a reactive crisis response to a proactive, preventative gateway.

Finally, the CRF asks councils to build an evidence base that enhances future delivery.

Reporting requirements are expected to mature over time, informed by what local authorities learn through practice. The goal is not compliance for its own sake, but understanding of:

• what reduces repeat crisis
• what improves financial resilience
• what strengthens local systems

Tools like LIFT that automate outcome tracking and Apply Once that removes barriers to support make capturing feedback easier and more meaningful. They also help reconnect policy decisions with real lives, ensuring that future funding decisions are grounded in impact, not assumptions.

Delivering the Crisis and Resilience Fund well will require a different way of working, one that starts with people rather than processes.

It will mean:

• using data to understand need more clearly
• using cash to support dignity, choice and control
• using partnerships to reach people in places they trust
• and using moments of crisis as opportunities to build longer term resilience

Across the country, one in three local authorities already work in this way, supported by Policy in Practice. The good practice examples shared here show councils combining data led insight with frontline expertise to identify risk earlier, target support more effectively and connect crisis funding with advice and resilience services that help residents stay out of crisis for good.

These councils have not waited for the Crisis and Resilience Fund to innovate how they work. They are already meeting many of its core objectives by joining up data, decision making and delivery, supported by the tools we’ve built. Their experience offers a practical blueprint for others, showing how thoughtful use of data can support more dignified, preventative and person centred crisis support.

When councils and community partners share a common digital framework, the ‘no wrong door’ principle moves from theory to practice. Tools like LIFT, Campaign Manager, the Better Off Calculator, and Apply Once act as the glue between different organisations, allowing partners to:

• Identify and target households: Use LIFT to find households facing overlapping pressures and proactively reach out before a crisis peaks
• Create and send campaigns in a few clicks: Campaign Manager helps councils quickly send communications to identified households at scale and without extra admin
• Remove friction in application processes: Use Apply Once to create a single, joined-up journey where residents don’t have to retell their story to many different departments
• Maximise every contact: Even if a crisis payment isn’t awarded, the Better Off Calculator ensures every interaction includes an income maximisation check

Download our Crisis and Resilience Fund cheat sheet here for a quick guide on aligning these tools with your local delivery plan.

• Listen back to our webinar in full, including the discussion and Q&A with guest speakers
• Read our earlier CRF blogs:
  • How to shape the new Crisis and Resilience Fund
  • Crisis and Resilience Fund guidance for councils: A practical delivery guide
• Explore more case studies about how local authorities delivered discretionary funds using data