Collaborating for comfort: a partnership with MND Scotland

How does the service work with Home Energy Scotland? 

A common effect of MND is reduced mobility, making people more vulnerable to the ill effects of cold and needing a warmer home to feel comfortable. MND Scotland’s welfare rights team approached Home Energy Scotland in June 2022 to find out whether there was a better option than signposting for getting their clients access to our support. The Home Energy Scotland online referral portal is a simple secure online tool that – with the householder’s permission – allows partner organisations to share their contact details if they want to receive our support and enables the referring organisation to track the outcome of the referral. 

Home Energy Scotland delivered a training session for the MND Scotland welfare rights team to get them set up on the referral portal and brief them on the support available from Home Energy Scotland, including the criteria for funding options like Warmer Homes Scotland. Because of the unique needs of their clients, we also arranged a training session delivered by MND Scotland for Home Energy Scotland’s Energycarers and advisors who make call-backs to householders to follow up on referrals. We keep in regular contact through calls and email and when MND Scotland has new advisors, we deliver training on Home Energy Scotland support. We also keep them up to date on any changes to funding. 

MND Scotland uses the self-service referral outcomes report feature of the online referral portal to track the progress Home Energy Scotland makes in contacting the people they refer, and the support provided. This allows MND Scotland to ensure that people they know would benefit from our support receive it, with MND Scotland advisors able to act as third-party contacts to support particularly vulnerable people to engage with the Home Energy Scotland service.  

What is the outcome of the partnership? 

Although everyone that comes into contact with MND Scotland is advised of the service available from Home Energy Scotland, many do not require it, so in the period from August 2022 to June 2024 MND Scotland made 59 referrals. While the numbers may seem low, when considered in relation to the MND diagnosis rate of 200 new cases each year in Scotland, the numbers are relative. The importance of the support to the people MND Scotland refer can be illustrated by the following example: 

• An elderly couple, one of whom had advanced motor neuron disease, contacted MND Scotland because their energy supplier had unexpectedly taken a large payment by direct debit. MND Scotland referred the household to Home Energy Scotland and one of our Energycarers contacted them to support them, resolve the debt, and provide the information they needed to decide to switch to another energy supplier. They were extremely distressed by the situation and our Energycarer had to speak to them multiple times. The Energycarer was able to engage with the energy supplier’s agency team to agree that the couple could switch supplier and referred them to Home Heating Support Fund, which provided funding to clear most of the debt. The Energycarer also referred the household to Warmer Homes Scotland, and as a result they received a new condensing gas boiler, heating controls and additional pipework and heating system insulation. They can heat their home to a more comfortable temperature, at the times they need the heating, and it uses less gas than the boiler it replaced.

Find out more about the partnership work we do, and if you’d like to get involved, contact our team today.