The LGA’s response to COVID-19: update

Purpose of report

For information.

Summary

This report provides members with a brief update on the range and scale of actions taken by the LGA in response to COVID-19 to date.

Recommendations That the LGA Board notes the work undertaken by the LGA in response to COVID-19.

Contact officer:	Mark Lloyd

Position:	Chief Executive

Phone no:	0207 664 3000

Email:	mark.lloyd@local.gov.uk

The LGA’s response to COVID-19: update

Background

At its meeting on 22 April the LGA Board received an update from the Chief Executive on a new programme of activity based on issues affecting councils most when responding to COVID-19:

Financial costs and income losses for councils

Public health

Adult social care, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and testing

Community hubs, shielding, vulnerable people and convening the voluntary sector

Livelihoods

Children’s services

Deaths management

Council governance and decision making

Councils’ and contractors workforce

Councils’ supply chain, logistics, digital

As well as these vital policy matters, we are also focused on activities designed to support and enable our work on the above:

COVID-19 issues identification/ management/ response

Corporate services and business continuity

Briefings

Refocusing our improvement support offer

Regional insights and intelligence gathering

This paper seeks to give the Board an overview of the scale and range of activity undertaken across the LGA in response to COVID-19.

Issues

The LGA began to gear up its work in response and preparation for Coronavirus in January. In March a programme of work was established with the following aims:

Provide support to councils to meet the challenges of COVID-19 while maintaining business as usual to the extent that this is possible and/or appropriate;

Provide support to councils to plan for the medium term in light of the impacts of COVID-19;

Lead and coordinate councils’ liaison with Government and represent the interests of the sector;

Support councils to support the country; and

Enable the LGA to maintain and develop its delivery of the above in the context of COVID-19.

As part of this programme of work, the LGA has:

Established workstreams bringing colleagues from across the organisation to work together on themes such as Community Hubs, Logistics and Livelihoods;

Redirected officers from some ‘business as usual’ operations, ensuring sufficient capacity is in place to support priority workstreams with new and challenging workloads. As at 1 May, over 40 officers were in temporary placements supporting the response;

Created an Adult Social Care hub, jointly managed by the LGA and ADASS, to co-ordinate the response across adult social care and health partners, particularly with regards to hospital discharge, Care Act easements and the additional £1.3 billion funding;

Established a Coronavirus Enquiries system (coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk) in order to;

Capture and process the large number of enquiries and issues being received by the LGA and ensuring a timely response; and

Using the information collected in this way to enable analysis of the main issues being raised and informing the development of Frequently Asked Questions.

As at 6 May, more than 1,500 enquiries had been received from over 280 councils; the largest proportion of currently active cases relate to adult social care (18 per cent) and councils’ workforce (16 per cent);

Developed a dedicated web hub, which has achieved over 183,100 total page views, and 113,100 visits since its launch in February 2020. This extensive information resource for councils includes:

136 Frequently asked questions on 19 different themes, enabling councils to access the latest information for themselves;

Examples of good practice by councils on 10 different themes;

The Remote Council Meetings hub;

LG Inform reports on COVID-19 cases (England overview and map of English authorities over time): the reports have been downloaded over 30,000 times, making them the most popular LG Inform reports ever;

Guidance to councillors on the COVID-19 outbreak;

Seven COVID-19 related publications achieving over 15,000 downloads.

Refocused support and developed new ways of delivering support to councils and communities:

Webinars on social care and workforce issues;

Online leadership development tools are now available on an open access platform (including a new module on holding council meetings online);

The Planning Advisory Service is holding ‘fireside chats’ – filmed discussions with councillor peers on planning good practice; and

A new coaching offer for chief executives and senior officers launched with SOLACE.

Engaged extensively with councils across all regions and provided support via Principal Advisers and regional teams:

Contacted all councils with information and provided direct support or advice to over 260 councils;

Contributed to over 300 meetings with chief executives and regional groups since the middle of March;

Held regular discussions with Regional Member peers;

Provided mentoring support to councillors who have requested this;

Held two regional webinars on various themes, each attended by over 70 councillors, with more planned in the weeks ahead.

Negotiated new Memoranda of Understanding with MHCLG (with a value of £19.2 million) and Department of Health and Social Care (£7.5 million);

With NHSX launched the Social Care Digital Innovation Accelerator programme that generated interest from 52 councils and 185 partners;

In addition to their regular and ongoing contacts with Chief Executives, Leaders and regional organisations, Principal Advisers and the LGA’s regional teams are also engaging with Local Resilience Fora and Strategic Coordinating Groups;

Introduced a new online First bulletin, sent weekly to 21,219 councillors;

Introduced a daily bulletin from the Chairman and Chief Executive: initially 7 days a week from mid-March, now 5 with the ability for weekend bulletins when required. We have received positive feedback that our bulletins are highly valued by senior councillors and officers. The Chief Executive’s bulletin published on 31 March 2020 achieved the highest click-through rate during our campaign at 91 per cent, and the bulletin was read over 11,540 times;

Introduced a daily bulletin for adult social care ensuring the sector is informed, in particular relating to the interface between care and health services;

Having moved to work entirely from home, the LGA has also changed the way it works:

All member meetings are now being conducted via Zoom;

The Employee Forum is now being held as a webinar – achieving record levels of staff engagement;

A paper on the LGA’s work on core business continuity is included as a separate item on the agenda.

Implications for Wales

This report summarises actions taken in relation to the LGA’s work with and support to English councils. The LGA will continue to liaise with the WLGA as both organisations review and develop their response to COVID-19.

Financial Implications

The actions outlined above have been delivered within existing resources.

Next steps

Members of the LGA Board note the scale and range of activity undertaken in relation to the organisation’s response to COVID-19 to date.