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Cash First approaches in Glasgow

Calendar icon Communities, Food, Poverty

Folder icon Apr 2024 - Ongoing

Background

What are cash first approaches?

Cash first approaches provide people facing food insecurity with cash transfers or vouchers alongside advice and support to help maximise their incomes and prevent future crises. Where appropriate, they are an alternative to food aid referrals.

Why use cash first approaches?

Providing food aid provides immediate but temporary relief for people facing food insecurity. Cash first approaches offer more comprehensive support by enabling people to decide what their own immediate needs are, whether that includes groceries, paying an energy bill or shoes for their children. The ability to make these decisions can have an immediate impact on people’s lives and contribute to long term wellbeing and resilience.

Leaflet (link below)

Download IFAN infographic Cash first is common sense.

The Scottish Government published its groundbreaking plan towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland in June 2023 with a commitment to respecting and fulfilling human rights which includes the right to food, and for people to be able to access food that meets their dietary, social and cultural needs. 

Leaflet.

Download IFAN infographic How to end the need for food banks.

Following on from this plan, the Scottish Government has funded eight Cash First partnership pilot projects for two years across Scotland to learn what works in different contexts. These Cash First partnerships are based in urban, rural and island settings across Scotland, and are taking different approaches to addressing levels of poverty and food insecurity, in line with their local context, infrastructure, challenges and user needs. The partnerships have been provided with learning and evaluation support to take a national approach to learning from the pilot projects, enabling any findings to be implemented by Scottish Government to achieve their long-term ambition of a Scotland without the need for food aid referrals. 

Leaflet.

Download IFAN infographic Ending the need for charitable food aid.

The importance of advice

A woman in her fifties advising a younger man. They re both sitting at a table in an office.

The provision of localised, accessible, and well-promoted advice services is critical to the delivery of cash first approaches in a community. Although many people still cannot manage on meagre social security payments and inadequate wages, any help to access any existing financial entitlements is key to a cash first approach to food insecurity given £23 billion in benefit payments and social tariffs goes unclaimed.

The importance of cash first referral leaflets

To enable frontline workers to refer people experiencing food insecurity to relevant, local cash first advice and support, the Scottish Government has funded the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) to develop cash first referral leaflets (Worring about Money) for each local authority area.

Glasgow’s Worrying About Money Leaflet is available to download here, with translated versions available here.

Content icon Overview of page

  1. Project objectives
  2. What is involved
  3. Project outputs
  4. Further resources & reading

objectives icon Project objectives

Glasgow’s Cash First project is working collaboratively with and in partnership with public and third sector partner organisations across the city to: 

  • Understand the context of food insecurity in Glasgow, the existing service provision and organisations involved.
  • Use data to identify groups of people experiencing food insecurity.
  • Identify gaps in service provision.
  • Improve the access and consistency of support to people experiencing food insecurity, taking a coordinated approach to referral pathways.
  • Facilitate training and/or materials for frontline staff and volunteers in community food organisations. 

involved icon What is involved

The  Good Food Nation Plan and the Glasgow City Food Plan provide a national and local policy context to the Cash First partnership in Glasgow. The Glasgow City Food Plan is overseen by the Glasgow Food Policy Partnership and aims to reduce duplication of effort and make the best use of limited resources across the public, private and third sectors in the range of work towards a more equitable, healthy and sustainable food system. The Cash First project in Glasgow is hosted by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and aligned to the Glasgow City Food Plan’s theme of “Fair Food for All: addressing food inequalities”.  

The Fair Food for All Partnership group was formed in May 2024 by bringing two existing groups together: the Fair Food for All sub-group of the Glasgow Food Policy Partnership and the Glasgow Food Poverty Pathfinder Partnership as they have overlapping priorities in line with the themes of the Glasgow City Food Plan. This partnership has members from across the public and third sector of Glasgow and functions as a steering group for the Cash First project in Glasgow to provide support and guidance to the cash first coordinator who started in April 2024. 

Output icon Project outputs

Publications & Documents

Events

resources icon Further resources & reading

About Cash First:  

Scotland: 

Trussell Trust reports: 

Glasgow 

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