Project Director: Jan Gilbertson
Project Duration: 2013

FILT is a charity set up to help the clients of home improvement agencies (HIAs). Funding for the Warm Homes Service(WHS) is from Department of Health over winter 2012/13. The WHS aimed to assist older and vulnerable people at risk from cold weather and prevent cold related harm and illness.

The evaluation will i) identify the impacts on health and wellbeing of households in receipt of WHS as seen from the perspective of HIAs and households in terms of physical health, comfort and mental health and wellbeing and ii) understand which interventions have worked well for whom and why.

This first stage of the evaluation consisted of a survey of 55 HIAs, 10 telephone interviews of HIAs and 10 telephone interviews with clients. The next stage will consist of in-depth qualitative exploration of the impact of WHS as well as economic evaluation of the service. The evaluation team is from The Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR) and the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CHSCR) at Sheffield Hallam University in collaboration with FILT.

The project team also included Professor Angela Tod (Sheffield Hallam University).