Dear ----
RE: Implications of the Coronavirus Act for disabled people
Thank you for getting in touch on this crucial matter.
This is an unprecedented crisis; what began as a public health emergency has escalated into an social and economic crisis with broad implications for our community. There was a clear need for the Coronavirus Act in order to facilitate extraordinary measures to help the UK recruit the additional NHS workers we need; place vital social distancing measures on a legal footing; and ensure food supplies are maintained.
However, I was deeply concerned by the provisions which enable local authorities to prioritise the services they offer and delay the assessment of eligibility for NHS continuing care. The justification for these measures were to ensure that the most urgent and serious care needs are met, but in reality, this means local authorities may ration care, and could choose to stop meeting people’s needs in full.
Clearly, for disabled people this is of profound concern. Along with my Labour colleagues, we tabled amendments designed to address this and ensure local authorities continued to meet their responsibilities under the Care Act where it was feasible for them to do so, as well as to ensure local authorities continued to meet the care needs of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
I agree wholeheartedly with you that rather than rationing the needs of disabled people, we should have provided the social care service with whatever it took to maintain appropriate care for disabled people and vulnerable adults in the difficult weeks and months ahead. The commitment to the NHS was needed for social care too.
While I regret that our attempts to strengthen the safeguards for the most vulnerable did not lead to a change of approach from the Government, I want you to be reassured that locally I will do everything I can to ensure that Sheffield City Council maintains its commitment to the disabled and vulnerable adults throughout this crisis. I am clear that where care is needed, it should be met. I understand these are difficult times and you will be concerned about whether the nature of care may change. Therefore, please do alert me to any changes as soon as possible, and I will do everything I can to help.
More broadly, I have been fighting to ensure our social care system can respond to this crisis. That means proper emergency funding to enable our local authority to provide the care they need, but it also means support for the social care workforce. This includes proper protective equipment for all care staff to ensure that they stay safe and, crucially, that they do not act as vectors of the virus to the most vulnerable. It also means Statutory Sick Pay must be increased to a level people can live on, so that care workers do not have to face the impossible choice between looking after their health or facing hardship. Nobody should face that choice, and I will continue to press the Chancellor to act.
In these testing times, I want to reassure you that I will always look out for, and advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or issues you want to raise.
Best wishes,
Louise
Louise Haigh MP
Member of Parliament for Sheffield, Heeley
I wish Louise Haigh had stood for one of the positions, she isn't even my MP and yet she replied in detail to my urgent question on the impact of the emergency laws
btw, my M.P hasn't even replied yet.
in which they freeze the ballot on the published day (April 2nd) then hold with JC holding on until calmer, more appropriate times...then give a fortnight re-opening for anyone unable to vote in the last/current 3 weeks of the ballot. Then anoint Starmer...giving him a 'clean skin' start that's untainted by any collaboration with Johnson's handling of the CoronaShitshow and a free rein to exploit the situation for party political gain.
- the last letters I've had from MPs have just been form letters they sent out in mass.
