Loneliness: West Midlands

(asked on 6th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle loneliness in the West Midlands.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 11th February 2020

Government’s first annual report on tackling loneliness was published in January 2020. It highlighted the progress made so far across the country, including in the West Midlands.

This includes: action by frontline workers across the public sector to recognise and act on loneliness; the launch of the Let’s Talk Loneliness campaign; the commitment to include measures in the Public Health Outcomes Framework so we can understand local rates of loneliness; and the announcement of an additional £4m of grant-funding, in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, to help frontline grassroots organisations that bring people together.

The report also highlighted the good work of the 126 projects supported through the £11.5m Building Connections Fund to bring people and communities together. 14 grants, totalling £1.2million, have been made to projects in the West Midlands. This includes grants to the Chell Area Family Action Group to appoint volunteer social isolation champions to work with the people most at risk of loneliness and to Edward’s Trust to create and support a compassionate community of bereaved young people.

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