Recommendation 4

Government chose a centrally-directed system to support clinically vulnerable people as it did not have confidence all local authorities and supermarkets could meet people’s needs, particularly for food. MHCLG spoke with some local authorities and supermarkets early on to assess their capacity, but could not do a full assessment of local authority capacity to support the most vulnerable because of the urgency of the task. Instead, it used the information it had available to have a centrally-directed supply of food boxes which cost £200 million, as this was likely to guarantee a supply of food to every part of England, particularly given its concerns about shortages in supermarkets. However, some local authorities had queried why government chose a centrally-directed rather than a local system of support, particularly for food, and felt that they would have provided better quality support. Starting in April, as confidence grew in the supply chain and as it developed its understanding of local authority capacity, MHCLG moved to a locally-led model which was in place by summer 2020. This model focused on access to supermarket deliveries and having local authorities offer food to suit the needs of the local population where needed. MHCLG calculates that it has provided local authorities some £4.6 billion in un-ring-fenced funding in 2020–21 to help with COVID costs. Recommendation: MHCLG should ensure that local authorities will continue to have the capacity and resilience to support the needs of clinically extremely vulnerable people, particularly given the significant increase of people advised to shield in February 2021 – from 2.2 million to 3.9 million people.