Local Government: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to local authorities to help them encourage covid-19 vaccine take-up within their communities.


Answered by
Luke Hall Portrait
Luke Hall
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

Local authorities and Directors of Public Health have an important role in the vaccine programme including working with the NHS to maximise uptake. MHCLG are supporting this in a number of ways: for example we are funding the £25 million Community Champions scheme in 60 local authorities, to encourage vaccine uptake and in reaching out to those communities who might be disproportionately impacted or hesitant about engaging, tackling disinformation, and supporting vulnerable people to meet appointments.

The learning from these 60 will be shared across all local authorities. We have also hosted roundtables with faith leaders to understand barriers to access for faith groups. Recognising the importance and priority status of the care sector for this programme, we have worked closely with local authorities and the national programme on a protocol for social care to ensure responsibilities for maximising uptake are well understood across the system. Ensuring access and take up across all of our communities is critical to the success of the vaccination programme and we will continue to support local authorities and Directors of Public Health in their important role.

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