I would like to start by offering a big thank you to all of you who responded to my 2022 survey. I am delighted that we received 2544 responses – a healthy total – including 2293 responses from direct suppliers. I would like to thank all the Retailers for encouraging their suppliers to complete the survey; their efforts play a really important role in making the survey a success.

I am sure that many of you saw the press coverage of the survey results and I want to use this newsletter to discuss some of the results in more detail.

The most significant finding is that the inflationary pressure being felt by the sector has weakened the relationship between Retailers and suppliers. For the first time we have seen a year-on-year dip in compliance with a fall in the number of suppliers not facing any Code-related issues from 56% in 2021 to 47% in 2022.

At the heart of this issue is how the sector is responding to rising prices and requests for cost price increases (CPIs). Pre-empting the significance of this issue, I introduced new questions on the scale of CPIs and how Retailers were handling these requests.

80% of suppliers participating in the survey confirmed they had asked for at least one CPI in the past 12 months and a quarter (26%) said they had experienced either a refusal by a Retailer to consider such a request or an unreasonable delay from the Retailer in concluding the request. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the most experienced issue recorded by the GCA survey in five years.

However, CPIs aren’t the only issue concerning suppliers. 18% of suppliers highlighted that they have incurred significant costs because of inaccurate forecasting (an increase of 2%), and that Retailers didn’t have adequate processes and procedures in place to enable invoice discrepancies to be resolved promptly (an increase of 4%). These are issues I have spoken to Retailers about before and which I will be discussing with them again in the coming weeks.

We also saw increased concerns around de-listing with around one in seven (16%) of suppliers telling us they had experienced de-listing without reasonable notice (compared to 12% in 2021). There was also a 3-point rise in those experiencing Retailers not meeting their duties in relation to de-listing (from 6% to 9%).

Our information pack includes a detailed breakdown of the issues raised by suppliers in the 2022 survey.

Against the background of this difficult environment we have seen mixed results in Retailer performance. Five Retailers improved or maintained their previous score, but the other eight Retailers have seen falls. Aldi has returned to the top of the compliance leader board with a 98% score (2021: 3rd 97%), whilst M&S saw the biggest improvement in their score, increasing by 5% from 92% to 97%, lifting them to third in the rankings.

However, other Retailers struggled. Sainsbury’s slipped from first to fifth place with 94% (decreasing by 4%). Home Bargains’ score dropped by 7% (to 87%) but they remained in tenth whilst Morrisons saw an 8% decrease to 86% which saw them drop three places to twelfth. Finally, Lidl suffered the largest fall and is now ranked bottom of the league, dropping 11 points to 84%.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be speaking with the Code Compliance Officers (CCOs) and senior leaders at the Retailers about the issues raised in the survey and working with them to improve how they are treating their suppliers.

If you are a supplier and reported a Code issue in the survey that is still ongoing, I urge you to contact the Retailer’s CCO. All CCOs have made a commitment to treating supplier issues confidentially. You can also contact me. I also treat all supplier information confidentially, or you can contact me anonymously at www.tellthegca.co.uk.

The next steps are for YouGov to carry out a series of deep dive interviews with suppliers on behalf of the GCA, to provide greater depth of understanding about the issues that suppliers are facing. The results will be shared at the GCA’s annual conference in late September. Details of the annual conference will be published on the GCA website soon.

Please introduce yourself to readers of News from the Adjudicator, including telling them something about yourself as a person. Why did you want to become a Code Compliance Officer and what experience do you bring to the role?

Having joined ALDI in 2013, I have worked in many different roles across the business and within various departments including Store Operations, Project Management and Finance. In January 2022, I was appointed as National Compliance Officer for ALDI, where I work as the Director responsible for Risk, Compliance and Data Protection across the UK and Irish business. Part of my responsibilities include the important role of Code Compliance Officer (CCO).

How do you work with suppliers and how should they contact you if they have an issue to raise?

The most efficient and effective way to clarify or resolve Code-related issues is for suppliers to engage with their buying teams directly. ALDI’s buying teams will always try to resolve any issues where they can, in line with Code provisions and in the spirit of the mutually beneficial partnerships that ALDI values.

If for any reason suppliers feel unable to talk directly with their buying contacts, my role as ALDI’s Code Compliance Officer (CCO) will continue to provide an independent channel for suppliers to seek Code guidance or explanation. In the unlikely event that a resolution is required, it can be helpful for me as CCO to broker direct discussions between the supplier and the relevant buying teams. In these rare instances, supplier details will always be treated in the strictest confidence unless the supplier provides me with explicit consent to discuss the matter with anyone else at ALDI.

I can be contacted via email at CCO@aldi.co.uk or via telephone on 01827 710859.

When you look back at how your company works with suppliers what are you most proud of?

At ALDI we are committed to doing the right thing and we place great value in being a supportive and sustainable partner; it is this approach to how we work with our suppliers that I am most proud of. This has been evidenced in our consistently high performance in the GCA survey, with ALDI having been top for ‘Overall Assessment of Compliance with the Code’ in eight out of the nine years that the survey has been running, which is certainly an achievement to be proud of!

Where has the Groceries Supply Code of Practice had its greatest impact? What contribution do you believe the Groceries Code Adjudicator has made? How do you work with the GCA?

The Code and the GCA, have been fundamental in levelling the playing field in what suppliers can expect from their relationships with retailers. The Code has provided a clear framework in which regulated retailers can be confident that they are working fairly and appropriately with their suppliers. When looking at the GCA survey results over the past eight years, the impact that the Code has had is evident in the year-on-year improvements made. My regular progress meetings with the GCA allows us to work collaboratively and understand the GCA priorities for us to focus on, as well as learn of any best practice that we can implement to make further improvements to our way of working with suppliers.

Where would you like to see further improvements in the relationship with suppliers?

Last year ALDI was the fastest growing bricks and mortar retailer (according to Kantar data) and the business continues to invest in its expansion and partnerships. I would like to see the mutually beneficial relationships between ALDI and our trusted suppliers grow even stronger in the future.

Looking ahead, I hope that suppliers continue to resolve Code-related concerns or issues by speaking with their Buying teams directly – as this indicates that ALDI is getting things right! However, as ALDI CCO, I continue to provide an independent channel for suppliers to seek further Code guidance and welcome suppliers to contact me directly when required.

Lizzie Collins has produced a new video introducing herself and describing how Aldi work with suppliers. This is now available on the GCA YouTube channel, alongside additional videos from the CCOs of other the designated retailers.

If you would like to get in touch with Mark and his team to tell Mark about your experiences, please email Enquiries@GroceriesCode.gov.uk or call 020 7215 6537. You can also report issues 24/7, 365 days a year, via the completely confidential platform www.telltheGCA.co.uk

Plans to drive innovation and harness pioneering technology in farming will be set out today as part of the Government’s Food Strategy which will back our farmers by helping to increase domestic production, spread jobs and grow the economy.

Currently, the UK only produces 15% of tomatoes supplied domestically, but new generation technology, such as sustainable and efficient glasshouses, has opened up new opportunities for British producers which will help to reduce reliance on overseas production.

The plans outlined today – including incentives for industry and investment in research – will support farmers to harness this innovation to boost home-grown fruit and vegetable production, and in turn create new job opportunities across the country.

In light of the consequences of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine for the global economy, which has caused knock on impacts for food supplies as well as spikes in prices, the Strategy will also set out the importance of maintaining and boosting our food security, including plans to strengthen the resilience of our supply chains and boost domestic production to help protect against future economic shocks and crises.

It commits to broadly maintaining the current level of food that we produce domestically and boosting production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities – such as horticulture and seafood.

£270 million will be invested across farming innovation funding programmes until 2029, to unlock technologies to drive sustainable farming techniques which will help increase productivity and profitability and the sector’s long-term resilience.

As well as stepping up work with industry to identify ways to help more people into jobs all along the food supply chain, the strategy also sets out plans to create a new professional body for the farming and growing industry to step up professional training and develop clear career pathways, equipping people and businesses with the skills needed to run sustainable and profitable businesses.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said

Our Food Strategy sets out a blueprint for how we will back farmers, boost British industry and help protect people against the impacts of future economic shocks by safeguarding our food security.

Harnessing new technologies and innovation, we will grow and eat more of our own food – unlocking jobs across the country and growing the economy, which in turn will ultimately help to reduce pressure on prices.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said:

The food industry is bigger than the automotive and aerospace industries combined, offering employment opportunities, apprenticeships and investment in research and development.

The strategy we are setting out today will increase the focus on skills in the food sector, and the roles and career pathways available. In particular, we will seek to boost our horticulture industry and ensure the expertise needed to develop the sector here in the UK.

The Strategy follows the independent review of the food system by Henry Dimbleby last year, which set out an analysis of the challenges facing the food system.

The Government Food Strategy responds to these findings and recommendations, accepting the majority of recommendations, with policy initiatives to boost health, sustainability, accessibility of diet to secure food supply, while also recognising the shared global challenges of the war in Ukraine and the impact of the pandemic on the global economy

The strategy also includes plans to:

• Consult on an ambition for 50% of public sector expenditure on food procurement to be on food either produced locally or to higher standards

• Incentivise the sector to use surplus heat and CO2 from industrial processes, and renewable sources of energy to increase domestic horticultural production

• Review the planning permission process to support new developments of glasshouses

• Launch an independent review to tackle labour shortages in the food supply chain, to look at the roles of automation, domestic labour and migration to ensure UK businesses can access the labour they require

• Consult on how to improve on and expand animal welfare labelling, to help consumers identify when products meet or exceed our high UK animal welfare standards

• Extend the Seasonal Workers visa route to poultry, following a successful pilot last year

• Publish a framework for land use in England next year

• Consult on food waste reporting for larger businesses over a certain size

• Publish a statement setting out requirements for those wishing to access the UK market to objectively demonstrate they deliver an equivalent level of health protection to our high domestic standards

• Explore how to make the most of innovative feed additives that can reduce methane emissions from livestock, to support sustainable farming

• Launch a new partnership between the public and private sector to provide consumers with more information about the food they eat while incentivising industry to produce healthier, more ethical and sustainable goods

• Patients to have greater access to GP records through the NHS App and power over how data is used including simplified opt out processes.
• Researchers will be able to access data in secure ways through Secure Data Environments to drive innovation and deliver cutting edge patient care.
• Using data to drive greater efficiency will support the NHS as they work to clear the Covid backlog.
• £25 million for rapid digitisation of social care to meet commitment for at least 80% of social care providers to have digitised care records in place by March 2024.

Millions of patients will benefit from faster, more innovative treatment and diagnosis following publication of a new data strategy for health and social care.

Our new data in health strategy – Data Saves Lives: Reshaping Health and Social Care with Data, published today (Monday 13), focuses on seven principles to harness the data driven power and innovation seen during the pandemic to drive transformation in health and care, creating a secure and privacy preserving system which delivers for both patients and professionals.

The strategy sets out ambitious reforms for the health and care sector, transforming the way data is used to drive breakthroughs and efficiencies, helping to tackle the Covid backlog and create a system fit for the future.

Launching the strategy at London Tech Week’s HealthTech Summit, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is expected to say:

We are embarking on a radical programme of reform that will make sure the NHS is set up to meet the challenges of 2048 – not 1948, when it was first established.

Earlier this year I set out a range of stretching targets for digital transformation in health and care, and we’re making great progress […]

This landmark document will look at how we can build on this momentum and apply the lessons challenges ahead of us, including tackling the Covid backlog and making the reforms that are vital to the future of health and care.

It shows how we will use the power of data to bring benefits to all parts of health and social care.

The principles set out in the data strategy are:

• Improving trust in the health and care systems use of data
• Giving health and care professionals the information they need to provide the best care
• Improving data for adult social care
• Supporting local decision makers with data
• Empowering researchers with the data they need to develop life changing treatments and diagnostics
• Working with partners to develop innovations that improve health and care
• Developing the right technical infrastructure

To give patients greater confidence than ever that their personal information is safe, Secure Data Environments will be made the default for NHS and adult social care organisations to provide access to de-identified data for research. This means data linked to an individual will never leave a secure server, and can only be used for agreed research purposes.

Following a £200 million investment, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) – a form of Secure Data Environments – will be established to better enable researchers to securely access linked NHS data while maintaining the highest levels of privacy and security.

This will enable the NHS to deliver cutting-edge life-saving treatments and diagnosis to patients faster through clinical trials and facilitate more diverse and inclusive research to tackle entrenched health inequalities, which will in turn allow the NHS to work through the Covid backlog at a faster pace.

Speaking at the HealthTech summit, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is expected to say:

We will make sure researchers and innovators are able to access data safely and efficiently.

In this country we have some of the world’s best research institutes and universities, a powerhouse life sciences sector, and a thriving HealthTech industry.

When this ingenuity meets the insight of health and care data, the opportunities are incredible.

The data strategy also contains key commitments to give patients greater access to and control over their data including by simplifying the opt out processes for data sharing and improving access to GP records in the NHS App by giving patients access to their latest health information by November 2022. Further improvements, including being able to more easily request historic information including diagnosis, blood test results and immunisations will be made available by December 2023.

The public will also be consulted on a new “data pact” which will set out how the healthcare system will use patient data, and what the public has the right to expect.

Use of the NHS App has boomed throughout the pandemic. 28 million users already have ability to access their data and services and statistics show in April alone, the NHS App enabled 1.7 million patients to order repeat prescriptions, 150,000 primary care appointments were managed and five million people viewed their GP record, saving vital clinician time.

With an ambition for the NHS App to be a one stop shop for health needs, the strategy commits to a target of 75% of the adult population to be registered to use the NHS App by March 2024.

Speaking at the HealthTech summit, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is also expected to say:

We will improve trust in data, which is the currency that data-driven technologies need to function.

We will work with the public, including people working in health and care, to develop a new pact on data, which will set out how we will use health and care data, and what the public has the right to expect.

This will include the ability to opt out of sharing data. Because although we know that most people want their data to be used for good, we will make the opt-out system simpler and more transparent.

Better use of data is central to the government’s mission to integrate health and social care. Following a £150 million funding commitment to drive rapid digitisation in the adult social care sector, the strategy outlines how integrated care records will enable smoother transitions between NHS services and social care, including quicker discharge from hospital freeing up valuable space.

Currently only 45% of social care providers use a digital social care record, and 23% of care home staff can not access the internet consistently at work. The data strategy reinforces the ambition for at least 80% of social care providers to have a digitised care record in place by March 2024.

To support this, £25 million will be made available in 2022/23 to scale up the investment and implementation of digital social care technology across England with integrated care systems including adopting Digital Social Care Records (DSCR) to ensure data is captured at the point of care and can be shared between care settings.

Technologies like remote monitoring tools are already being used successfully to provide more targeted care. The government’s digital home care projects have used remote monitoring to support over 740,000 people with care at home, including care homes residents, improving their health outcomes and reducing the burden on the NHS, supporting clinicians as they focus on tackling the covid.

Speaking at the HealthTech summit, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is also expected to say:

We must be open and honest about the fact that social care lags behind the NHS when it comes to digital transformation.

Our social care system is home to some of our most vulnerable in our society, and so the opportunities on offer are even greater. This Strategy shows our determination to close the digital divide that exists between the NHS and social care.

The data strategy will be followed by the publication of the digital health and care plan shortly which brings together government’s aspirations for digital transformation for health and social care with an ambitious delivery plan.

Additional quotes:

Simon Madden, Joint Head of NHS Transformation Digital Policy Unit said:

This Data Strategy commits to resetting the relationship with the public on the use of health and care data.

Building and maintaining public trust is a core ambition underpinned by the recognition that health data is patient data above all else.

NHS Digital CEO Simon Bolton said:

The Data Saves Lives Strategy is a significant milestone in enabling us to deliver the digital transformation of the NHS, where data and technology support a health and care service fit for the future.

Better access to data will be vital for the NHS recovery and patient trust and confidence must be central to this. We are committed to giving patients more control and increasing transparency over how data is used to improve health and care services.

Our Trusted Research Environment is already supporting lifesaving clinical research and innovation and we are working to deliver a new and improved National TRE service with improved accessibility and the highest standards of privacy and security.

Professor Ben Goldacre, author of the recent Goldacre Review and Director of the Bennett Institute at the University of Oxford, said:

NHS data has phenomenal untapped power. This is a momentous document, because it reaches beyond aphorisms and gets into crucial technical detail.

The move to use Trusted Research Environments, in particular, is historic. TREs earn public trust by provably protecting patients’ privacy, and by sharing detailed transparent audits of all data usage. They also drive efficiency, because all users working with the same datasets can use common tools for data curation and analysis.

The small number of secure platforms described in this document will finally unlock the vast potential in all patient data for research and for improving NHS care. Done right, they will address the privacy concerns of the past and drive faster, more reliable, more secure and more efficient use of data, from more teams than ever before.

Sir John Bell said:

We have shown in Covid that we have some of the best data in the world but that it needs integration across all aspects of care to provide real benefits for patients and for the NHS.

This Data strategy ‘Data Saves Lives’ provides the framework that will allow our data assets to be productively used, enhancing all aspects of care. It genuinely will save many thousand of lives every year.

Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology, University of Oxford and co-lead of the RECOVERY trial said:

Having information on the right patients, at the right time, and available to the right people is essential for any high quality health and social care system. As a doctor, I see this need every time I meet a patient in one of my clinics. And as a researcher, I know just how important this is in our quest to understand the causes and consequences of ill health and how to improve them – whether that be through studying disparities in health and health care or, in my own area, running clinical trials to find out which treatments deliver true benefits for patients.

As we look ahead, the lessons from trials such as RECOVERY are going to be just as important for other major causes of ill-health – including severe influenza, heart disease, common cancer, depression, and dementia. Careful use of health data, not just from hospitals but also from across the primary and social care system, is going to be crucial for the important task of planning and conducting clinical trials that drive improvements for those major burdens for patients, their families, and the NHS. The Data Saves Lives report is an important step in that direction.

The peaceful waters of Lake Geneva are far removed from the scenes of chaos and horror broadcast from Ukraine over the past months.

Yet, as we begin this, the World Trade Organization’s 12th Ministerial Conference, the war in Ukraine should be uppermost in our minds.

Russia’s invasion is a threat to our democracy and the rules-based order – the foundation of our free, fair and open trading system. Britain will always uphold the values of her people and her allies, she will protect Ukraine’s democratic right to exist.

Britain believes that free, fair and open trade can prevent yet more lives being destroyed through developing a more sustainable, efficient and resilient food supply chain for the future.

To get on and do this, I am glad that the British-led Joint Statement on Open and Predictable Trade in Agriculture and Food Products has been endorsed by over 50 WTO members.

We must work together to learn the lessons of the pandemic, back business to continue to innovate and agree a substantive trade and health package so we are prepared for the future.

More broadly, Britain believes that the WTO has a crucial role to support the free and fair trade that will support developed economies to renew and developing countries to grow.

Beyond this Ministerial, we must unite to find a path to reforming the WTO and ensuring a fairer, more stable trading system.

The rules-based system relies on everyone playing by the rules. The WTO needs to root out those who do not.

This goes beyond economics. Britain will put the pressing need to protect the environment at the heart of this work. We believe that green trade has a powerful role to play in countering climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, whilst securing and generating economic growth.

Your Excellencies, we – together – face significant challenges but I am confident that the spirit to deal with them is strong.

It is through a multilateral rules-based system of free trade fit for the 21st century that we will address these obstacles and overcome them. This is why – together – we must redouble our efforts, put our divisions aside and harness the power of free, open and fair trade to tackle our modern-day challenges.

• Research also finds that young people, disabled people and the LGBTQ community at higher risk of chronic loneliness
• Ministers across a range of Government departments to launch a renewed effort to tackle loneliness as part of national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

New research published today by the Government has identified direct links between chronic loneliness and mental health distress.

The findings, which coincide with the start of Loneliness Awareness Week, analysed mental health wellbeing and the impacts of loneliness over a sustained period, with results showing that chronic loneliness played a significant role in the onset and continuation of mental health distress.

The analysis also shows that mental health distress can play a significant role in the onset and continuation of chronic loneliness. Chronic loneliness is defined as people reporting they ‘often’ or ‘always’ feel lonely.

It suggests that targeted early intervention may play a more significant role in combating the effects of loneliness on mental health in the short term.

The Minister for Civil Society and Youth will now bring together ministers from a range of government departments to drive forward a renewed effort to tackle loneliness. The group will develop a delivery plan which will draw on this new evidence and set out new government action on loneliness early next year.

It will build on the 2018 Tackling Loneliness Strategy and the Government’s work to tackle loneliness during the pandemic through its £750 million charity funding package.

Minister for Civil Society and Youth Nigel Huddleston said:

Loneliness can affect all of us and the research published today highlights that young and disabled people, alongside those with long-term health conditions, are disproportionately affected by loneliness.

As we start Loneliness Awareness Week I encourage everyone to reach out to someone they think may be feeling alone or isolated.

The Government prioritised tackling loneliness through the pandemic and we will now redouble our efforts to protect those most at risk.

Since the strategy for tackling loneliness was launched in 2018, the Government has continued to play a world-leading role, including appointing the first ever Minister for Loneliness. It has joined forces with a range of charitable partners to invest over £50 million pounds to help tackle the issue, with funding helping thousands of people to connect through the things that matter to them.

The independent research from the National Centre for Social Research was compiled from data encompassing over 35,000 people aged 16 and over from 2013/14 to 2019/20. As part of the study, researchers looked at what types of people were vulnerable to loneliness, whether risk factors for loneliness had changed, the relationship between mental wellbeing and loneliness, and what factors alleviated loneliness in the short term.

The new findings show that, in addition to the link between loneliness and mental health distress, specific groups of people are more vulnerable to the effects of loneliness:

• Young people between 16-34 were found to be particularly at risk, with research showing they were at five times greater risk of chronic loneliness than those aged 65 or older. Drivers of loneliness in young people were identified as negative social experiences, such as bullying from peers and siblings and arguments with parents.
• People with a disability or long standing health condition were 2.9 times more likely to experience chronic loneliness, and were less likely to move out of loneliness than those without a disability.
• Those in the LGBTQ community were also disproportionately affected, with people who identified as gay or lesbian 1.4 times more likely to be lonely, and people who identified as bisexual 2.5 times more likely to be lonely.
• Those in the lowest income quintile were 50 per cent more likely to experience chronic loneliness when compared with the wealthiest quintile.

Minister for Mental Health Gillian Keegan said:

Loneliness is a growing issue – and this research emphasises the continued need to ensure those feeling lonely can access the resources they need.

We’re accelerating the rollout of mental health support teams in schools and expanding community services for adults and young people to make sure everyone can access support, as well as providing helpful advice and resources on the Every Mind Matters website.

We’ve also recently opened a call for evidence to gather views from the public to inform a new 10-year mental health plan which will focus on ensuring the nation is in positive mental wellbeing.

Dr Sokratis Dinos, Director of Health at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), said:

This research highlights the significant relationship between loneliness and mental health. People experiencing chronic loneliness were shown in our study to be nearly four times more likely than people without chronic loneliness to be in mental distress.

Poor mental health can lead to difficulties connecting with others, social withdrawal and loneliness, while loneliness can equally contribute to poor mental health. Our research highlights the benefit of targeted support for people at different life stages, and community based activities for people with shared interests to improve outcomes.

During the pandemic, the Government made tackling loneliness a priority by allocating loneliness as a specific target category in the Government’s £750 million charity funding package. The Government continues to encourage people to ‘lift someone out of loneliness’ as part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign, emphasising the benefits of social connection this Loneliness Awareness Week.

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. The research findings can be found here and here.
2. The research commissioned by DCMS and produced by National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is based on the Community Life Survey data from 2013/14 – 2019/20 and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society)
3. The cross-Whitehall Ministerial group will include Ministers from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Transport, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Health and Social Care, Home Office, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Cabinet Office, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Department for Education.
4. The Ministerial working group will also include the co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Tackling Loneliness and Connected Communities to draw on additional expertise in this area.
5. Government funding to tackle loneliness includes the £4 million Local Connections Fund which, in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, awarded almost 1,700 microgrants to charities and community groups throughout England.
6. ​​Three tangible actions for anyone feeling lonely and three actions for people wanting to help. If you are lonely you can:
   • Keep in touch with friends, family and neighbours
   • Ask for help if you need shopping, medicine or are feeling lonely
   • Set a routine with online activities, regular tasks or by volunteering
7. If you are worried about someone who is lonely:
   • Phone a friend or family member you think may be lonely
   • Smile, wave or chat from a safe distance with a neighbour
   • Help out through volunteering by picking up food, medicine or by offering regular conversation to someone living alone