The Sub-Committee received a report and presentation the detailed the Council’s response to supporting those considered to be Clinical Extremely Vulnerable (previously known as shielding).  The presentation covered; policy update and guidance to CEVs during current lockdown; the Council’s response to supporting CEV residents; and the latest reporting on contacts and support provided.  A summary of the discussions may be summarised as follows:

The Sub-Committee noted that:

• 30 percent of the calls to residents have acknowledged that some support was required and probably 20 percent of calls to residents identified a need for a significant level of support in terms of the complexities of discussions.
• 50 percent of residents do not have either a valid phone number for or do not actually respond to those telephone calls and therefore officers have started to put a programme of “door-knocking” together.
• If officers get no answer on the doorstep they leave a sealed envelope asking the resident to contact Public Health.
• Whilst the “door-knocking” programme in the Borough has only started recently in other Boroughs have reported up to 50 percent of people that they have contacted in this way have been able to contact afterwards which indicates a significant response in achievable using this method.
• The data is collected with the consent and used in the manner explained when the residents are making the decision to participate.
• That clear and user-friendly information serves to help promote voluntary participation and ensure residents are making informed choices to participate and are aware of the (i) purpose of the data collection; (ii) type of data that will be collected; (iii) the time-period the data will be held; and (iv) the benefits of the data collection.
• That one of the key strengths of this way of doing thing is that public health agencies then have a resident’s ethnicity/location which can be linked to other elements of their health records.
• That self-isolating can be difficult, but it is important to stop coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading to other people.  Help and support is available with everyday tasks from an NHS volunteer who can assist with (i) collecting shopping and (ii) collecting medicines and prescriptions.
• That if a resident is on a low income and they are asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace, they may be able to get a £500 Test and Trace Support Payment.
• Over Christmas, every child eligible and claiming Free School Meals will receive a £25 voucher through their school, for either Tesco or Asda.  Whilst schools have also been asked to identify those not eligible for FSM but who they are concerned about and vouchers will be provided to 18,600 children which is funded through the DWP Covid Winter Grant to support children, families and the most vulnerable.
• The Council’s Residents' Support Scheme supports residents who are either in or at risk of being in crisis and require immediate help and have no source of financial support available to them.  The Scheme helps with short-term living costs such as food and gas/electric  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5