Support for ‘shielders’ continues

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Support for people who are shielding due to underlying health conditions will continue until at least August 16, the county council has confirmed.

Powys County Council’s (PCC) Economy, Residents, Communities and Governance scrutiny committee will discuss “welfare calls” at their meeting on Thursday.

Councillors will be told how support was provided to people who were at the highest risk of severe illness if they caught Covid-19.

The report explains that these people, known as “The Shielded Group” were identified by the National Health Service (NHS), and have been advised by letter to self-isolate.

Portfolio holder for corporate governance and engagement, Councillor Graham Breeze, said: “The role of the authority has been vital in supporting our vulnerable residents throughout this challenging period.

“The letter sent from Welsh Government to the shielded group asked them to rely on family, friends and other local support networks to help with anything they may need during the period that they were being asked to isolate.

“If the shielded person did not have anyone to rely on for help, they were asked to contact their local authority.”

These people received a basic package of food and household essentials, delivered direct to their door each week by a food service supplier.

On March 25, Powys received its first data from the Welsh Government, identifying 538 residents in this group.

Since then another 16 updates have been received from the Welsh Government as further health conditions were added to the list and GP’s identified more patients, bringing the total to 5,766.

On top of this a further 4,538 people were identified as vulnerable from data held by PCC’s social care, housing and customer services. They were also included in welfare calls.

At the moment, 10 PCC workers, redeployed from other departments, are making the calls and calls being received by the council are being dealt with by the customer services team.

Up to June 13, a total 18,383 calls have been made or received by the council.

At the outset, the Welsh Government received 915 request for food boxes, this was 15.8% of the people classed as shielding. This figure has now dropped to 589.

On the June 4, the Welsh Government announced that “shielding” was to be extended until August 16.

PCC are now talking to PAVO (Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations) to recruit volunteers to continue the service.