The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submits a report summarising the Council’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic locally within the city, the way in which services have responded, impacts and implications for the Council’s employees, and how the Council has supported residents to date during the crisis.
The Committee is recommended to:
a) consider the Council’s local response to the Coronavirus pandemic and comment as appropriate, including those areas seen as good practice and any aspects where lessons can be learnt, or things can be improved going forward; and
b) note the ongoing work relating to ‘recovery’ and the intention to provide further updates to scrutiny as this work progresses.
Minutes:
The City Mayor introduced the report providing an overview of the City Council’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic. The City Mayor noted that these were unprecedented times and even if the situation had been anticipated, it wouldn’t have been something that the Council could have been fully prepared for.
The City Mayor commented that he had been impressed by the response from Officers both individually and as teams during such times and did not believe that Officers had got very much wrong. Officers had been very intelligent, sympathetic, careful and quick with their response to the pandemic.
The Director of Delivery Communications and Political Governance outlined the report and invited Officers to give insight into their key areas.
The Director of Social Care and Education explained aspects relevant to his section of work. It was noted that some information included in the report had changed since the publication of the report.
The Director of Housing explained the Council’s response in terms of housing and homelessness as set out in the report.
The Director of Public Health outlined aspects regarding the public health response which had been heavily involved in the response to this pandemic as well as keeping existing services running.
The Director of Delivery Communications and Political Governance presented details relating to Neighbourhood Services on behalf of the Director of Neighbourhood Services. Emphasis was made on key areas of Neighbourhood Services that had worked hard in maintaining and providing its services to the most vulnerable.
The Head of Human Resources (HR) gave an outline of key workforce issues faced during the response.
The Director of Finance outlined details of the Shielding Programme, Food Support provisions and Business Support being made available.
The Head of the City Mayors Team explained how volunteers from the voluntary and community sector (VCS) had been engaged in the response to the pandemic.
In relation to Communications, this had been a critical part of the response and the Communications Team had worked very hard to keep everyone informed and were seen as a trusted source for information and guidance.
It was noted that the Recovery phase would be the subject of future discussions, although some recovery work was underway.
Members of the Commission were then invited to raise questions which included the following responses:
· There had been some delay in obtaining death certificates from the coroner’s officer during the pandemic. This was related to issues within health practices and the appropriate health practitioners certifying death before being able to proceed with the normal registration processes.
There was some discussion around Leicestershire County Care and concerns were raised about their proposals to change the terms and conditions of staff that were previously TUPE from Leicester City Council. The Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission moved that the Overview Select Committee should unreservedly condemn the actions of Leicestershire County Care to try and cut the terms and conditions of hard-working staff during the Covid-19 Crisis. The Chair of the Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission seconded the motion.
The City Mayor thanked the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission for putting forward the motion and indicated his support. Upon being put to the vote the motion was carried unanimously.
Concerns were expressed around herd immunity and it was suggested that the Council were in a strong position to plan their own route to prevent the virus spreading further. The use of face masks was discussed and it was suggested that the current priority was to ensure that the front-line services were well supplied with the personal protective equipment they required and the most effective way to stop the spread was still to consider hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and social distancing. It was important that these messages were promoted across the City.
It was noted that as of this week, testing was now open to anyone over the age of 5 and a testing centre had been set up at the Birstall Park and Ride site. The Council also had a portal where it could deal with referrals of staff for testing. It was noted that the option to request a home testing kit was available, mobile testing units were also going around the city and the county, staying for a number of days at certain locations.
In relation to business support the Director of Finance noted that funding had been made available from Central Government, administered locally and 84% of all eligible applicants had received funding support.
With regard to the status of schools and their reopening the City Mayor indicated that he had issued a statement about the expectations on schools in the city and he had emphasised that not all schools were expected to reopen on 1 June 2020. Schools should only reopen when school leaders and governors were convinced that reopening would be safe for the children, their families and safe for the staff that worked in the schools. A considerable amount of engagement had already taken place with schools and robust risk assessments were in place to enable them to take measures to mitigate those risks before they sought to re-open schools.
Concerns were raised about the increased level of unemployment in the City as an effect of the pandemic and the City Mayor confirmed that the economy of the city was high on the list of priorities.
Committee members congratulated Officers on all the efforts that they had put in during the unprecedented times and especially thanked all front-line and volunteer staff helping communities and the city during the pandemic.
The Chair endorsed the Committee’s comments and commended the Council’s approach on contacting the most vulnerable members of society to check on their well-being.
Agreed:
1) That the Strategic Director Social Care and Education be asked to advise Leicestershire County Care that this Committee condemns the actions of that company in trying to cut the terms and conditions of hard-working staff during the Covid-19 Crisis;
2) That Officers be requested to update the individual Scrutiny Commissions on plans for recovery; and
3) That the contents of the report be noted.
Supporting documents: