Shielding is a measure to protect extremely clinically vulnerable people by minimising their interactions with others in order to lower the risk of them coming into contact with the Covid-19 virus. Councils have been provided with lists of people who require shielding from central government.
As well as these people, there are a number of others (termed Group 2) who need similar support. These include people over 70 years, disabled people, users of mental health services, pregnant women, those with dementia or people who receive the flu jab for health reasons. These people are referred to their local council by a national helpline.
In East Renfrewshire, there are now almost 2,500 residents on the shielding list, and the figure is constantly updated as new information is received or people are newly diagnosed. The shielding resident are diverse, ranging from children and parents to elderly people. East Renfrewshire Council has been phoning all residents on the list in order to:
- Ensure they have made contact with the national SMS number, especially if they need food parcels or priority food delivery slots
- Find out if they have any food or shopping requirements
- Find out if they require any pharmacy deliveries/prescription collections
- Enquire about any other assistance needed, such as financial support, dog walking, befriending, digital support or social work referral.
For each person requesting help, the council assesses what support is already in place e.g. district nursing or home care, then works with Voluntary Action East Renfrewshire to meet their additional needs. A similar approach is taken with Group 2 individuals.
In the week commencing 13 April 2020, 90 staff from the council, NHS trust and Health and Social Care Partnership contacted 1,800 people on the shielding list.
Data analysis was undertaken to cross-match the shielding list with Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) and to match against Homecare, District Nursing, Telecare, Housing, Children & Families, Learning Disability, Community Care, Food Hub and Young Mums client lists. Over 150 million data matching checks were run in the first month. This showed any potential overlaps in households and will allows services to tie in with their own clients to assess their new ‘shielding’ requirements.
The data analytics enabled the council to:
- quickly and efficiently phone all those who are shielding to check they are ok and ask how they can help
- make contact with over 1,000 residents who haven't used support services (e.g. Home Care) before
- ask those who’ve signed up for the national food boxes, but also get assisted bin pull-outs, if they are able to lift the 18kg food box into their house and whether they need any assistance
- let different teams know if their customers are shielding so they can change the way they deliver their service if it is usually face to face
- begin to identify households at greatest risk of food poverty in the wider community so the council can reach out and make sure they have the support they need.
To date, the council has found that:
- Over 600 people need food support including government food boxes, priority shopping slots, food hub deliveries and shopping support
- Over 200 people need pharmacy support/prescription deliveries
- Over 500 people are in need of other services, mainly financial support
- Over 600 people didn’t require any support
The council also received 212 calls from ‘Group 2’ people which were transferred from the national helpline.
Community Hub
The Council is working closely with Voluntary Action East Renfrewshire ( VAER) to lead and co-ordinate the wider humanitarian/community support effort in East Renfrewshire through the Community Hub for access to food, pharmacy deliveries and other support e.g.social welfare calls or befriending.
This allows local people to apply for help with food (via the local food hub, based at Barrhead High School), shopping, pharmacy deliveries, befriending etc. There are also links between this Community Hub and more local-based organisations such as Cosgrove Care & Neilston Together.
The council is also working with NHS Prescribing Lead on how best to support local needs and deliveries from pharmacies. Volunteer drivers from Strathclyde 4x4 Emergency Response are helping with pharmacy deliveries across the area as they have the required PVG certification.
Food provision
Over 300 shielding clients have signed up for food box deliveries through the national text messaging service. However, these parcels do not take account of cultural and dietary requirements so the council has been working with local faith communities around food provision and support. It has also sought advice from a NHS dietician on supporting dietary requirements.
A humanitarian food hub has been set up to help around 150 households a week who cannot afford to cover shopping costs. These can be people who are referred by the Community Hub, social work, money advice and rights, the Scottish Welfare Fund team or from the shielding or Group 2 cohorts.
Much of the food is supplied by a Scottish Government contract with the charity Food Share and this is supplemented with local food provision.
The Food Hub distributes these emergency food parcels weekly, with deliveries direct to people's doors by the Council's Housing Repairs drivers, and also provides food for social workers to take to clients. The Education Department are also distributing 1350 free school meals a week to the homes of local children.
The Council has received a Food Fund allocation from the Scottish Government to assist with these costs.
Support to get online
The East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust is also providing digital support. Library staff can guide people through the process of buying/ordering something online, setting up their first online shopping order, making video calls or anything else digital they feel they need help with.
For more information on how East Renfrewshire Council is helping to shield residents, visit https://sway.office.com/VRTClNZR6Z6lsQUg?ref=Link. For information about its data-driven approach, visit https://sway.office.com/lr2WD6Gokr8s8fg1?
Any council interested in using a similar approach to data analysis as East Renfrewshire Council may be interested in the Data Hub, provided by the Improvement Service. The Data Hub can provide crucial personal data matching functionality, including providing Unique Citizen Reference Numbers (UCRN) for local authorities. It can also assist with address matching; not only being able to improve the address quality but seed datasets with a UPRN to identify residential properties. If you would like to know more, please contact: digitalpublicservices@Improvementservice.org.uk