The cost-of-living crisis continues to weigh heavily on so many residents in our communities. It was essential, therefore, that we stepped up our support, as we recently agreed, in our cost-of-living budget for the year ahead.

We know just looking after a family is becoming increasingly difficult – astronomical childcare costs, food prices going up and wages not keeping pace with inflation.

Children must not be disadvantaged because of this. We are putting child hunger at the heart of a comprehensive package of support for our communities. Key to this is our extension of the Mayor of London’s scheme of providing free school meals for primary school children, making this a permanent offer in Camden.

We’ve also launched a £1.3 million family support fund, focused on tackling food hunger in secondary school. This will partly be used to provide free healthy school breakfasts to children from families on low-incomes. A good breakfast is crucial to help a child concentrate and learn at school. This builds on work we already do with charity partner, Magic Breakfast, to help schools set up and run breakfast clubs, through which children receiving free school meals can get a free breakfast.

Ham & High: Cllr Richard Olszewski says children must not be disadvantaged because of the cost-of-living crisisCllr Richard Olszewski says children must not be disadvantaged because of the cost-of-living crisis (Image: Camden Council)

The fund will also help families to buy school uniforms. We will also continue to provide financial support and free activities during the school holidays to those families who need them most.

With the cold weather still not fully behind us, we’ll do our bit to help residents keep their homes warm. We have invested a further £2 million in our cost-of-living crisis fund. This allows residents in urgent financial need to apply for emergency payments of up to £500 to pay fuel bills, their rent or buy food.

Getting everyone through the cost-of-living crisis is a whole Camden effort and our voluntary and community sector (VCS) are often the ones to provide lifeline support – running food banks, providing housing and welfare advice, and supporting people affected by domestic violence or who are rough sleeping.

We appreciate everyone in Camden who uses their time to help others. We recognise it’s not easy for our VCS partners, who have their own cost pressures. So we are supporting their operations through a £1 million resilience fund which we opened in December and a £600,000 Cost of Living fund allocated throughout the winter. To help them expand the work they do to support to our communities, we have committed to a grant programme totalling £4 million a year until 2031.

Whether it’s supporting our children or our voluntary organisations, the common trend is we are investing now and intervening early – this will save money in the long run and ensure no-one in Camden gets left behind.

For cost-of-living support, visit camden.gov.uk/costofliving

Councillor Richard Olszewski is cabinet member for Finance and Cost of Living, Camden Council.