Agenda item - Council Response to Covid-19

Agenda item

Council Response to Covid-19

On 11 June 2020, the Committee held an informal meeting to discuss the development of its future work programme. 

 

At that meeting it agreed to invite the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive to give an update from their perspective on how Covid-19 is impacting the Council and its communities, in order to inform the future work programme of the Committee.  The Committee indicated the following matters as topics for discussion:

 

-       the Chief Executive’s and Leader’s current priorities in their respective roles on Covid-19 and what they needed to do operationally and politically to achieve those;

 

-       the early thinking on the council’s own recovery plan;

 

-       the impact on projects and what the council was committed to delivering financially;

 

-       what are the effects of Covid-19 on the Council and its partners, focusing on financial impacts and service delivery (including the impact on the working environment);

 

-       what the council has changed to adapt to the impact of Covid-19;

 

-       the impact Covid-19 is having on West Suffolk communities, and in particular the social impacts in areas such as homelessness, social care, mental health and domestic abuse;

 

-       what the council has learnt from Covid-19;

 

-       reviewing local communities responses and their preparedness for responding to emergencies and major incidents;

 

-       reviewing how the Council is supporting/encouraging localism through the use of local resources and shops;

 

-       where the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could add value by exploring issues in detail.

Minutes:

[Councillor Simon Brown joined the meeting at 5.07pm]

 

In June 2020, the Committee met informally to talk about its future work programme, and the general feeling was that the impact of Covid-19 would feature strongly.  As a Committee, it recognised that it needed to gain further insight from the Leader and Chief Executive about the Council’s response, and how the crisis was impacting on the Council, businesses and our communities so that it could understand where it could add value by looking in depth at specific areas.  It was therefore agreed to invite the Leader and the Chief Executive to its next scheduled meeting to discuss the Council and community response to the Covid-19 crisis.

 

The Chair opened the meeting by welcoming Councillor John Griffiths, Leader of the Council, Ian Gallin, Chief Executive, Jill Korwin, Director and Alex Wilson, Director to the meeting.

 

The Leader and the Chief Executive thanked the Committee for being given the opportunity to address the Committee on their perspective on how Covid-19 was impacting the Council and its communities and in doing so, covered the 10 core topics identified by the Committee, as set out on the Agenda.

 

The Leader explained that in many ways the Council was still dealing with an emergency.  The Council was starting to think about recovery and was working through the budget and the Governments wider support in dealing with direct covid-19 costs. The Committee was reassured that the Council would be able to balance the budget for 2020-2021 from its own reserves.  The families and communities work had been extremely successful through-out the pandemic including its partners and local communities and had proved to be the right model for the Council in delivering initiatives such as safer places, home but not alone and homelessness provision in responding to getting people off the streets. 

 

Discussions took place on the extra costs incurred by the Council to meet the statutory requirements set by Government in tackling the pandemic.  The overall impact from covid-19 on the Council’s budget for 2020-2021 was £10.2m.  The Council had so far spent £2.2m from its general fund reserve directly on Covid-19 and incurred a reduction in its income, currently £8m.  However, to date the Government had only provided £1.8m in funding support.  On 2 July 2020 the Government had set out how they might cover some of the direct costs.  In the meantime, the Suffolk Public Sector Leaders and national local authorities were lobbying the Government to fairly fund councils and to recognise the role they had and would continue to have during the pandemic.  The Committee emphasised their support to this important lobbying activity.

 

In response to a question raised on how prepared was the council if there was a local outbreak, members were informed that a Local Outbreak Engagement Board had been established across the County which was formed of all the leaders in Suffolk, the CCG (East and West) and the CCG covering Waveney near the Norfolk/Suffolk border, Suffolk County Council and the Director of Public Health.  It was an engagement and co-ordination board, which had some powers if a local lockdown was required.  The second meeting of the Board was scheduled for 10 July, which was a training session so that all leaders, chief executives and various bodies all understood the processes and procedures.  

 

In response to the home but not alone initiative, members were informed the Government would be ending some of the key components, such as food parcels.  However, the Council would be keeping the phone number operational to maintain the legacy of the service. 

 

Members of the Committee discussed the impact that the crisis had on operational arrangements within the Council.  It was noted that a significant proportion of staff were now working from home and members were reassured to hear that work had been undertaken to support staff wellbeing.  The Chief Executive agreed to provide further information to members on the work undertaken and recent workshops held with staff.  In addition, it was noted that the pandemic would have some impact on current and future planned programmes and initiatives being undertaken by the Council, but the full extend of this would need further assessment.

 

Arising from the detailed discussion a number of areas were highlighted, which it was felt the Council would need to consider as it moved into learning from the pandemic, as follows:

 

-      There had been an outstanding response by the Families and Communities team, its partners and the local community to the pandemic, demonstrating the value of the investment the Council had made in the Families and Communities Strategy.  It was acknowledged that there was a need to ensure the benefits of initiatives such as the “Home but Not Alone” service were not lost but were built upon and remodelled to continue supporting people in a new way.

 

-      The way the Council had worked closely with Town and Parish councils though the pandemic.  There was the potential to examine those areas where the response from the community, including Parish and Town Councils, had been strongest and learn why this was the case.

 

-      How local members and community leaders had worked differently during the pandemic, and what this might mean for the future.

 

-      The impact that the pandemic had on the health and wellbeing of residents across West Suffolk, and what steps could be taken to support residents in future.

 

-      How had other partners, housing associations, town/parish councils found working with the Council during the pandemic over the short term and how did they see this continuing over the medium to long-term as part of the recovery process.

 

-      The resilience of council staff stepping out of their comfort zones and being deployed to other parts of the Council to provide much needed help and support; reviewing lessons learnt; building on flexibility and managing the welfare of staff.

 

-      Ensuring the Council retained the legacy and the momentum which had come out of the pandemic by working even closer together with partners, agencies, volunteers etc.

 

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Committee was seeking to identify areas where it might wish to undertake further review to support the Council and its Communities.  However, the Chair recognised in summarising the debate, the breadth of the issues covered meant that further reflection would be required before determining the specific future Committee work.  What had been prominent in the discussion was the outstanding work carried out throughout West Suffolk during these unprecedented times.

 

On behalf of the Committee, the Chair thanked the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive for a comprehensive update on the impact that Covid-19 has had on the Council.

 

The Committee noted the briefing provided by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive on the Council’s response to Covid-19 and thanked them for their attendance and time. 

 

In this section