Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS volunteer covid-19 supported the mental health and wellbeing people who were shielding during the covid-19 outbreak.

National Health Service volunteer responders carry out simple, one-off tasks to support people in England who need help with accessing essentials and to help prevent loneliness.

‘Check-in and Chat’ tasks provide telephone support to individuals during self-isolation because talking to someone has been shown to help people stay healthy. Check-in and Chat Plus gives regular telephone support over several weeks providing peer support and companionship to people who have previously been advised to shield.

From 1 April to 29 November, there have been 304,193 completed Check in and Chat tasks, plus 43,272 Check in and Chat Plus tasks. In the week ending 29 November, 8,244 Check in and Chat tasks were completed, as well as 2,190 Check in and Chat Plus tasks.

Up to 15 November, NHS volunteer responders completed a total of 1,089,923 tasks in support of shielding and self-isolating groups.