Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Conclusion 7
Fourth report: Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report
Published 22 Dec 2020
Paragraph 54
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Early in the pandemic, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) critical care guidelines and doctors’ inappropriate or blanket use of “Do not attempt resuscitation” (DNAR) notices were potentially discriminatory. While we welcome actions taken swiftly to address disabled people’s concerns, and steps subsequently taken by NICE and the NHS to review their practices and try to put things right, the fact that potentially discriminatory practices emerged in the first place is deeply concerning. These issues caused disabled people great distress and anxiety and left them feeling their lives were less valued than others’. A robust response is required to restore disabled people’s confidence that their needs are given equal consideration across government and public services, should we be faced with a similar public health emergency in the future.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Fourth report: Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report (HC 1050), paragraph 54, 22 December 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 April 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and sets out measures taken during the pandemic, while declining some recommendations and committing to publish the National Strategy for Disabled People in Spring 2021.
- On a statutory Code of Practice on the Public Sector Equality Duty, the government says it "does not see any compelling need to depart from the normal preference of its predecessors against additional statutory codes of practice".
- On publishing assessments of disabled people's food needs, it says that, "in line with the practice of successive administrations", it "does not routinely publish EIAs".
- On the SEND review, the Department for Education "intends to publish proposals for consultation in the spring of 2021", saying the pandemic "has unavoidably delayed" the review.
- On an independent inquiry and social care reform, it says there will be "opportunities to look back" at COVID-19 but is "focused entirely" on the response for now, and will "bring forward proposals this year" on adult social care.