Recommendation 4

HM Government · verbatim extract Rejected

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Defra has taken seriously the issues faced by disabled people accessing food. This includes providing support to the clinically extremely vulnerable cohort who were first advised to follow shielding guidance in March 2020. CEV individuals were advised to shield by a letter from the National Health Service, their GP or clinician. The letter encouraged them to register their support needs—including access to food—through the GOV.UK website registration system or telephone line. In March 2020, the Government rapidly stood up a National Shielding Service call centre 1 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/retailers%E2%80%99-legal-responsibility- disabled-customers 4 Fourth Special Report of Session 2019–21 in England along with user support teams at local authorities, which used NHS data to identify and notify people who were recommended to shield and ensure they had access to the support they needed, including access to food and essential supplies. In 2020, the government and wholesalers collaborated to deliver 4.7 million parcels to the CEV who were unable to access food. This scheme ended in August 2020 when the clinical advice to shield was lifted. This scheme was introduced as a temporary emergency response at the beginning of the pandemic in response to availability and access issues within the food supply chain. As food supply has returned to expected levels, it is not deemed necessary to re-implement the scheme. However, Defra understood that schemes for CEV individuals only would not be sufficient in covering all disabled individual’s needs. So, Defra—alongside other Government partners—put in place additional support structures for vulnerable individuals, which included: • Priority delivery slot scheme—introduced in partnership with seven major supermarkets to ensure that individuals who had more specific needs could order their food and essential items, to be delivered directly to their homes, at a time when supermarkets were facing unprecedented demand. • A further scheme was introduced whereby individuals could refer themselves as vulnerable to their Local Authorities and to four national charities.2 This would allow those referred to receive priority delivery slots with 2 major supermarkets. • Online guidance—the Government published online guidance on gov.uk around the different ways that individuals could access food and essential supplies which is updated regularly. • Volunteer Responders—NHS Volunteer Responders help people avoid busy places by collecting their shopping, medicines and other important items, as well as providing regular friendly phone calls or lifts to medical appointments where needed. Individuals can be referred for support by a range of health, social care, charity or other professionals, or they can self refer into the service for support. The service has been available since April 2020 to provide support across the whole of England during the pandemic and was designed to complement local provision. It is currently commissioned until March 2021. Over 1.4m tasks have been undertaken in this time to support vulnerable people. • Safe payment options—the Government worked with retailers to ensure that there were different payment options available to support individuals who were shopping for others. Since the start of this pandemic, the Government has worked hard to ensure disabled people have access to food, as well as medicines, disability benefits, financial support, and accessible communications and guidance during the COVID-19 outbreak. This has been entirely consistent with the UK ‘s commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2 Age UK, Scope, Mind and the Royal National Institute of Blind People Fourth Special Report of Session 2019–21 5 The National Strategy for Disabled People will also take into account the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on disabled people and will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects of life. The Government has engaged extensively with a diverse range of stakeholders to support the development of the National Strategy for Disabled People and future work. In order to hear the widest range of perspectives, this engagement has sought to listen to a broad range of voices from across urban and rural England; impairment type and other protected characteristics. It has been conducted through structured fora such as the: • Disability Charities Consortium3—a consortium of the UK’s largest disability charities • Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) Forum which was set up in July 2020 and is made up of DPOs and their representative organisations, • Regional Stakeholder Network—a network of 225 disabled people, their organisations, parents and carers across 9 regions in England and chaired by a local chair who is well connected in their regions, • Numerous workshops and roundtable meetings bringing together disabled people, their