The Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Rt Hon , has written to health & social care and
education Ministers urging swift action to remove temporary
powers to modify duties in relation to the social care and
education, health and care (EHC) needs of disabled people.
The profoundly adverse effects of the pandemic on disabled
people, including tragically disproportionate deaths, have been
clearly shown by the Committee and bodies including the Office
for National Statistics and Public Health England. Last
September, the Women and Equalities Committee called for the
Government’s clear statement of intent to repeal emergency powers
to modify local authorities’ Care Act duties and Children and
Families Act duties in relation to children and young people with
special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), should the
pandemic be more clearly under control by this spring. The
Government response in January lacked a clear statement to this
effect.
In the light of a successful vaccine programme and an improving
prognosis for the pandemic, and as the end of the second
six-monthly Coronavirus Act review period approaches, the Chair
calls on Ministers to either provide the data and professional
advice on which the continuation of these powers is justified, or
remove them from statute immediately.
Caroline Nokes said:
“The Care Act easements and the Government’s power to modify
duties in relation to children and young people with special
educational needs and disabilities have had, or could have,
profound effects on the daily lives of disabled people, who we
already know have suffered disproportionately in this pandemic.
Powers such as these must be subject to rigorous scrutiny. That’s
why, ahead of the next six-monthly debate and vote in the House
of Commons on the Coronavirus Act’s temporary provisions, I’m
calling for either full disclosure of the data and professional
advice to justify their continuation or for Regulations to be
brought forward to remove them now.”
Notes to editors
Correspondence to Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for Children and Families relating to
the Temporary Coronavirus Act provisions affecting disabled
people
Correspondence to the Minister
for Care relating to the Temporary Coronavirus Act provisions
affecting disabled people
Powers to modify Care Act duties re social care and Children and
Families Act duties re assessments and provision for children and
young people with SEND – along with a wide range of other
temporary provisions in the Coronavirus Act – will remain in
place for at least two years from March 2020, unless suspended or
repealed by Ministers. The temporary provisions are also subject
to a debate and vote on their continuation in the House of
Commons every six months.
The Committee’s Report, Unequal impact? Coronavirus,
disability and access to services: interim Report on temporary
provisions in the Coronavirus Act, was published in
September 2020, ahead of the first six-monthly review of the
Coronavirus Act’s temporary provisions on 30 September 2020.
The Committee published the Government’s response to its Report,
Unequal impact? Coronavirus,
disability and access to services: interim Report on temporary
provisions in the Coronavirus Act: Government Response to the
Committee’s First Report, in January 2021
The Act requires the second six-monthly review debate to be held
within seven sitting House of Commons days of 30 March 2021.
For data on deaths of disabled people from Covid-19, see ONS,
‘Updated
estimates of coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by disability
status, England: 24 January to 20 November 2020’, accessed 17
March 2021
See also, Public Health England, Deaths
of people identified as having learning disabilities with
COVID-19 in England in the spring of 2020, November 2020
