Call for Hartlepool's poorest families to get help with electricity bills while homeschooling

Most pupils are now learning from home after schools switched to remote learning under the latest national lockdown, with only the children of essential workers still attending physical classes.

Councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council Audit and Governance Committee praised the work done to date to ensure children who are being educated at home due to Covid-19 have access to a computer.

However they said more needs to be done to support deprived families in Hartlepool with electricity bills, and to prevent them having to make difficult choices between food, education and heating.

Cllr Marjorie James warned although laptops are being provided to children in deprived families where possible, there is an additional cost in terms of electricity bills which they need help with.

She said: “If you have got two or three children who are fortunately provided with laptops, if you are in a deprived family you are then going to have to make the decision whether you actually eat, keep the house warm or the kids do their lessons.

“If you are on a metered electricity supply then, which a lot of them are, then there is a cost of running laptops for four or six hours a day, two or three laptops at a time.

“It’s yet another question and issue that these deprived families with two or three kids are having to meet and yet nobody seems to be talking about the fact there is a cost to running laptops at home, especially if you’re in a deprived community.”

Cllr James added the council does have arrangements in place to help support families who are in danger of losing their electricity due to the cost of bills, but many will be unaware of the support on offer.

Cllr Brenda Harrison supported the calls, noting it would be a good idea to provide the support for deprived families who are not sending their children to school at this time.

“The kind of impression I’ve certainly got is that Hartlepool has done a very good job in attempting to get every child a computer so that they can do the online learning if necessary,” she said.

“I understand that people are getting help with computers and routers, because obviously that’s a cost as well, but I’m not sure if they’re getting the same sort of help if they’re looking at the cost of the electricity,” she added.

“I think it would be a good idea to put that into the whole cost families are facing with using computers at home.”

Council officers said they would be looking into the issue after it was raised by the councillors.