Agenda item

To consider the report of the Managing Director.

Consideration was given to the report of the Managing Director.

 

At the invitation of the Chair, the Managing Director explained that the report had been considered and endorsed by the Executive on 24^th June, 2020. However, since June matters had progressed and this report provided an update on the Council’s strategic response to the Covid-19 emergency and outlined the next steps and transition to the recovery phase, as the whole country was now seeing a welcome pause in the pandemic.

 

It was noted that on 23^rd March, 2020 a national health emergency had been declared and the Council had activated its emergency response prior to 23^rd March, 2020 which had resulted in the delivery of critical services only with non-essential services and normal council business ceasing. 

 

Whilst the emergency still remained there had been a pause in the pandemic with a significant decrease in the number of new cases and deaths being reported across Wales and the Gwent region.  The Council was now at a stage along with other Councils across Wales where it was moving into a recovery phase.

 

The Managing Director continued to highlight the key elements of the response over the last few months and these were:

 

-      Emergency planning structure had been operational since mid-March via a multi-agency approach to the pandemic and this continued.

 

-      All non-critical services had ceased with a particular focus on Adult Social Services, supporting some of the most vulnerable in the community, refuse collection and recycling and public protection, with Councils taking on significant new enforcement responsibilities under the Coronavirus legislation.

 

-      School closures had resulted in the creation of School Hubs to support key workers by providing childcare for their children and for vulnerable workers.

 

-      The Council had continued to support families eligible for Free School Meals with over 2,000 families being supported through this service.

 

-      The creation of locality multi agency response teams who had worked alongside volunteers to support those residents who had to shield due to health reasons.  In addition, the Council had identified over 1,300 vulnerable residents who had been offered support during lockdown.

 

-      Business sectors across Wales had been badly affected with many companies closing their operations and furloughing their employees. Unprecedented support had also been provided to local businesses, enabling them to access Government financial support schemes, with the aim of protecting the local economy from the worse impact of the pandemic. Up to the 5th June, the Council had supported over 1,300 businesses and had facilitated the payment of 1,212 grants totalling £13.56m. In addition, to this a number of businesses had also been supported through the process to apply for funding through the Economic Resilience Fund (administered by Business Wales).

 

-      The workforce had quickly adapted to the new working arrangements and staff wherever possible were now working from home.

 

The impact of Covid-19 on Blaenau Gwent had been huge with 60 deaths reported to date due to the virus.  In addition, the pandemic had had an unprecedented impact on the economy with many workers finding themselves without employment or being furloughed.  This had resulted in a sharp increase in benefit claims.

 

The report referred to the transition to the next phase but whilst there had been a pause in the pandemic it was clear that all would have to continue living with the pandemic moving into recovery phase and this would need to be supported by measures such a social distancing, community testing and contact tracing to enable a return work, school and other activities.

 

Officers had taken time to reflect on the response including lessons learnt and had identified a number of positives and good practice that would be retained moving forward.

 

The recovery work would be undertaken partnership with the Public Service Board, Cardiff City Region and G10 and the Council was part of the Recovery Co-ordination Group (RCG) which had been established to lead the recovery work in Gwent. The nature of this emergency had meant that both response and recovery would need to be run parallel and this would place a further demand on resources.

 

The Council would continue to respond to the emergency but was now re-starting some services in line with the relaxation of lockdown i.e. schools had restarted in June and planning was well advanced for pupils to return in September. It would not be the case of delivering services as previously, it had been recognised that things had changed significantly and it would not be simply a return to normal service delivery this would  have to change to take into account of the national framework which would for the foreseeable future involved mandatory social distancing alongside a clear direction to work from home, where possible; the phased ‘restart’ of a wide range of public services and of the economy; and continued proactive work to prevent the further spread of the virus whilst also planning for potential future ‘peaks.’

 

The recommendations in the report contained details of the next steps which had been endorsed by the Executive Committee on 24^th June, 2020.

 

There had been a recognition that things had changed significantly but it was not simply a case of returning to normal service delivery. Social distancing in Wales remained foreseeable future and the way we worked, lived and learned would be very different in the future. The work to refresh the Corporate Priorities had been completed and there was a separate report on the agenda for consideration.  Blaenau Gwent Public Service Board had met earlier in the week to reflect the impact of the pandemic on community and had considered how the Public Service Board priorities and work programme needed to be adjusted to support recovery.

 

It was emphasised that officers and elected Members had and would continue to be part of the work that was happening across the region to support the recovery process.

 

Finally, the Managing Director requested that her appreciation be recorded to all staff and community volunteers across Blaenau Gwent who had worked incredibly hard over the past few months to respond to this emergency in the best way possible, their commitment was hugely impressive and all should be proud of the support they had and continue to provide for the community.

 

Councillors P. Baldwin and M. Cross joined the meeting at this juncture.

 

Future Working Arrangements - the Leader of the Labour Group echoed the final comments made by the Managing Director with regard to staff and community volunteers and said that all had done a fantastic job supporting the community throughout the pandemic.  He continued by referring to Paragraph 7.3 of the report and said that he hoped that with regard to the approach going forward that the trade unions would be consulted particularly in relation to working from home as this was not ideal for all staff.

 

The Managing Director confirmed that officers had worked with the trade unions closely throughout the course of the pandemic and they had been part of the emergency response team from the outset.  Officers would continue to work with the trade unions throughout the recovery phase and this would include any new working arrangements going forward.

 

Return to Physical Council and Committee Meetings – a Member said he felt very awkward when residents were expressing the view that there was an expectation for children to return to school particularly as from the new academic year in September, but Members were still unable to return to the Council offices to conduct business.  He asked when he could expect Scrutiny Committees and Council being held within a Council building.

 

The Managing Director advised that the Council was continuing to operate to Welsh Government guidance in Wales which indicated that if staff could work from home they should continue to do so.  Wales still had to adhere to the 2 metre social distancing rule which presented a challenge in terms of the number of people that could be accommodated safely into a room.  The position would be reviewed during the autumn in the context of the guidance at that time.  Alternative venues were currently being investigated that would allow larger group of Members to meet and contingency arrangements were also being looked at should the restrictions continue to apply into the autumn.

 

The Managing Director stated that the Council was not unusual in how it was operating i.e. similar to other authorities who were also continuing to work from home where possible and were using technology to undertake democratic meetings.  She concluded by reiterating that this position including any contingency arrangements would be reviewed during the autumn.

 

The Leader of the Council said that he understood the frustrations of the Member and said that this was shared across the piece but acknowledged when the Council was able to return to some degree of normality it would be in the form of a blended approach in terms of the operation of council business especially in terms of the bigger picture for meetings such as G10, WLGA and City Deal.

 

He advised that he had visited the Council Chamber to see for himself the impact of the 2 metre social distancing and whilst the Executive Committee could be held in that venue he was adamant until a Scrutiny Committee could be held in the same venue, the Executive would continue to meet in the same way as all the other Committees.  However, if social distancing reverted to a lesser distance than 2 metres this would be helpful but certainly in September there would be a need to look at some permanency in how the Council moved forward.

 

The Leader of the Council continued by echoing the comments made by the Leader of the Labour Group regarding the work undertaken by the staff and the voluntary sector and said that the way in which staff had responded to this pandemic had been absolutely incredible across the board.  Officers had stepped up to the mark and this had really been a one Council approach and this was something the Managing Director would need to capture and this needed to continue during normal times.

 

The Leader continued by stating that whilst all officers had stepped up to the mark in particular he commended officers in the Resources Department who had been requested to turn around information and financial data for Welsh Government extremely quickly sometimes within days to ensure the monies were received from Welsh Government to help via the Hardship Fund and the loss of income.  All owed a massive debt of gratitude to them.  Also the speed and efficiency in how all this had happened over the last 4 months, local government should be looked on with a new degree of respect across the 22 authorities because without local government stepping up to the plate the way it had with all due respect to all the other agencies including Welsh Government involved, he did not think we would have got where we were as quickly and efficiently as we had been able to.

 

Provision of Free School Meals (FSM) - a Member enquired whether the system of direct payments for families eligible for free school meals would continue in September or whether it would revert back to the previous system.  If so, he asked whether there was a possibility that this could be looked in order that the current two tier system could be removed.

 

The Managing Director said that Council support for families eligible for free school meals had been really important throughout this period, however, it was the current intention that direct payments would cease at the end of August as the Government had indicated that there would a return to school in September.  At present the intention was that direct payments would cease and Council would revert to back to providing free school meals which was a statutory requirement in schools as from September.

 

The Managing Director noted the points made regarding a different approach to this in the future and mindful of the Council’s statutory obligation she would discuss with the officers and Executive Member.

 

Another Member expressed her concern that schools had been advising parents for the first half of the term that children would not be provided with hot meals as from September only packed lunches and also that there would be no breakfast clubs available. 

 

The Managing Director noted the point regarding hot meal provision and advised that the Council was currently in the planning phase in terms of what this would look like for the autumn term but had yet to make a decision.  There were a number of options being considered but a firm decision would be made in the next few weeks.

 

The Corporate Director of Education (Interim) reported that there were planning group arrangements in place for both the primary and secondary sector and these groups involved both head-teachers and the Council’s catering team.  Work was being undertaken towards providing breakfast clubs and originally a ‘grab and go’ approach for lunch time was being considered.  However, in order to meet statutory requirements and food guidelines, the approach that was now being looked at was a hot meal provision from 1^st September, 2020.  Whilst the detailed arrangements for this provision needed to be finalised this was the Council’s intention going forward.

 

Re-opening of Schools – a Member pointed out that a considerable number of senior staff in schools would be working throughout the course of the summer school holidays to some extent in preparation for and to be in a position to re-open schools in September and said these school staff should be congratulated for this. 

 

It was unanimously,

 

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and the following be approved and supported:

 

-      the approach to moving to the next phase of the pandemic and recovery;

 

-      the refresh of the Corporate Priorities to ensure a clear focus on what the Council wanted to deliver over next 18 months;

 

-      the proposal to use the disruption of the pandemic to reflect on how the organisation worked and with our communities, partners, workforce and trade unions, informing a position on the ‘new normal’ to support delivery of the refreshed priorities;

 

-      the development of a wider place-based discussion with partners on the community impact of the pandemic and how the BG Public Service Board could respond and support recovery through its collective priorities and work programme;

 

-      the development of an Economic Recovery Plan through engagement with the BG Enterprise Board and Regional Forums – identifying and responding to the impact on local businesses in order to support economic recovery; and

 

-      Blaenau Gwent continue to ensure that it was an active participant in regional forums – such as G10 and Cardiff Capital City Region – to support recovery and development of the Borough.