b. Providing in-home support for disabled people and their whānau undertaking RATs where required. c. Providing free access to P2/N95 masks for disabled people and their whānau. d. Providing details on vaccination centres, including low-sensory vaccination clinic and at-home vaccination options. 3. Government agencies with disability support responsibilities (particularly the Ministry of Health, ACC and DHBs across the country): a. Create a network for emergency, 24-hour, 7-days a week, caregiver support when carers are not available. This is an essential backstop for disabled people and their whānau when the usual avenues are not necessarily working. b. Make care and support available to disabled people and their whānau who are opting for selfisolation as a protection against COVID-19. The specific care and support must be determined in partnership with disabled people and their whānau. c. Explore support packages for all disabled people and their whānau to provide respite care, with a focus on flexibility in use and location, that works even where COVID-19 restrictions are in place. Accessing this support needs to be as simple as possible, with minimal bureaucratic hoops. 4. Increasing supports to disabled people and their whānau in education settings, especially as disabled children and young people return to in-person learning. This includes: a. Exploring whether teacher aide supports (funding, available hours) are sufficient. b. Ensuring disabled students in schools and tertiary education have access to the technology required to continue distance learning if they choose to self-isolate to protect from the risks of COVID-19. c. Supporting consistent communication of key education messages across Aotearoa, and reducing the possibility of varied interpretation and misinterpretation of crucial education policies between schools. Preparing for the continued responses to COVID-19 5. Government agencies with COVID-19 responsibilities must ensure the rights of disabled people and their whānau are protected throughout all stages of the pandemic response. This requires: a. A commitment to planning for disability support service disruptions and providing workable alternatives and mitigations. b. An assurance that a disability lens be applied across all work. This needs to be at the wholeof-government level as well as within specific sectors (such as Health, Social Development, Education). As Cabinet has already directed government agencies to include consideration of the impacts of policy proposals on disabled people in all Cabinet papers where relevant, this recommendation relates to improving the quality of this advice and ensuring that that the perspectives of disabled people and their whānau have been incorporated into advice. c. Participatory approaches to ensure disabled people and their whānau are part of COVID-19 decision-making both in central government and in regional or local decision-making. 42 Inquiry into the Support of Disabled People and Whānau During Omicron