Additional support for shielded group within local authority

The request was successful.

Dear Falkirk Council,

I'm requesting a freedom of information request relating to the numbers of those who were asked to shield by the Scottish Government in your council area.

How many of those shielding were you as a council providing extra food support too? I would like to know what extra support was provided by the local authority to top up on national support and at what cost. For example, extra food parcels were provided and procured in Glasgow City council area.

If your local authority topped up the government boxes then what with?

Thanks in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Holly McCormack BA (hons)

FOI, Falkirk Council

Good afternoon,

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

We acknowledge receipt of your information request dated 30 October 2020. The Reference Number for this is 102548.

In terms of the relevant legislation, we have 20 working days to deal with your request from the date that we received it. Where possible, we will respond sooner. However, as you might expect, Covid-19 is currently impacting on our ability to respond to requests. This may be because staff are working from home and are therefore unable to carry out full searches for information or because staff are working on delivering essential front-line services. The Scottish Information Commissioner (who oversees compliance with FOI legislation in Scotland) has the ability to recognise any unavoidable reasons for delay in considering any appeals for non-compliance with statutory timescales.

Please therefore bear with us at this difficult time. If you are able to narrow the scope of your request, that would be very helpful and may mean we can respond to you more quickly. Alternatively, please consider withdrawing your request and resubmitting it once normal service has resumed.

If you would like to know how we treat your personal information, you can read more on the Council’s privacy webpage - https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/privacy/.

On behalf of Falkirk Council
Lynn
Information Team

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housing.customerserviceteam, Falkirk Council

3 Attachments

Dear Ms McCormack

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Additional support for shielded group in local authority area

 

We refer to your e-mail dated 30 October 2020.  This has been dealt with
as an information request under the above Act.

 

You have asked how many people shielding were provided with additional
food support in our Council area.  For the period of time that people were
shielding (until 31 July 2020), we proactively contacted all people that
the NHS advised us were on our shielding list, to discuss any assistance
that could be provided through our voluntary partners.  The types of
assistance with food could be difficulties in affordability, or
difficulties in accessing this due to shielding.  However, not all those
shielding were experiencing difficulties due to having other support in
place, so we only provided support to those who required it.

 

Additionally, we supported a large number of people who were not
identified as needing to shield but were experiencing difficulties
obtaining food.  This could be due to them taking extra care as they were
considered vulnerable or due to financial difficulties.

 

In order to ensure our response was equitable, we followed the same
process whether someone was shielding or not, with the exception of
ordering the food boxes from the Scottish Government.  If someone was able
to pay for food, we would refer them to an organisation who would shop on
their behalf. If they were unable to pay for food, we would refer them to
a Community Food provider.  This approach ensured everyone got support
tailored to their needs and provided best value for money, ensuring that
support was going to those who needed it most.

 

We did not provide top up food directly to anyone.  We supported the
provision of food via community food providers as follows:

 

•           Falkirk Council purchased and distributed ambient and frozen
food weekly via Temporary Emergency Food Centres

•           CVS Falkirk coordinated a local purchasing scheme via the
‘social grocer’ which allowed Community Food Providers to order fresh
produce to top up the provisions from the Temporary Emergency Food Centres

•           Community Food Providers received £500 each to purchase
specialist items for people with specific dietary requirements

 

Between 1^st July and 30^th September 2020, £382,000 was spent on food to
support people across the Falkirk Council area.  Please note this is
direct spend on food only, and doesn’t include other associated costs,
such as volunteer expenses or direct payments in lieu of free school meals
during school holidays

 

Up until 31 July 2020 (when shielding was paused), 1560 referrals were
made to our voluntary partner agencies for assistance with food.  Please
note this figure is not exclusive to those shielding, and will include
some referrals made through the Support for People line by people affected
by Covid-19 in other ways.

 

Please refer to the enclosed leaflet which explains your right to complain
about the handling of your case and/or the decision made.

 

If you would like to know how we treat your personal information, you can
read more on the Council’s privacy webpage -
[1]https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/privacy/.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Housing Customer Service Team on behalf of Sally Buchanan

SENIOR FAIRER FALKIRK CO-ORDINATOR

 

 

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