Minutes:
The Chairman invited Mark Norris to introduce the update.
Mark highlighted 3 key areas that the Government expected councils to work on:
· Supporting the NHS in preparing for the expected increase in Covid-19 victims needing hospital treatment. This would involve freeing up 30,000 beds in English hospitals to accommodate Covid-19 patients.
· Supporting the 1.5 million most at risk people identified by Government who needed to self-isolate for 12 weeks. Councils should now have received guidance from MHCLG on this. Delivery of medicines would be taken care of by the NHS and community pharmacies. Out of the 1.5 million, there were likely to be 300,000 who would not be able to rely on friends, family or online deliveries to get food. These people would get parcels delivered to their doors under a national contract with a food wholesaler. 132 hubs had been set up to hold food and deliver to those who would run short of food before doorstep deliveries could be made. Physical space would be needed to store this food. Supermarkets were not in a position to ramp up the number of home deliveries at this stage. In the longer-term DEFRA was exploring greater use of ‘click and collect’, possibly through an App buddying people up with a volunteer to collect on their behalf. Homeless people would also need to be helped with accommodation and support services.
· Supporting local businesses and the local economy.
Paul Ogden updated on the public health situation:
· 100,000 people now tested, 9,529 tested positive – likely to pass 10,000 today (26/3/20). 459 deaths so far – likely to pass 500 today.
· London had 4 times more cases than any other region.
· Likely to be many more cases as people were not being routinely tested in the community.
· Mortality rate was not accurately known and depended on population characteristics of individual countries but likely to be between 1-2 per cent in UK.
· 81 per cent of those infected so far had mild symptoms. 14 per cent had more serious symptoms and 5 per cent became critically ill.
· 70 per cent of cases were men, and smokers were significantly more vulnerable.
· Now in ‘suppression’ phase of Government’s 4 phase strategy – lockdown aimed at flattening the curve of cases and taking strain off NHS. The success of this would not be seen for 2-3 weeks.
· The peak of the epidemic was predicted to be mid-June and the outbreak could last 18 months in total. This may require ‘adaptive suppression’ – i.e. periodically lifting and then re-imposing lockdown restrictions.
Alyson Morley updated on volunteering and stated that there were 2 specific groups of volunteers:
· The national appeal for ‘help your NHS’ volunteers to register with the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme had now got over 400,000 people signed up. It should have been made clear when launching the appeal that it was for health and social care. LGA was now working with officials to try and establish a system to connect some of these volunteers to the local hubs and LRFs that needed them and to highlight that the scheme was also for adult social care.
· Appeal for qualified NHS and adult social care staff who had left the sector to return to the profession temporarily. The Coronavirus Bill provided for these people to take limited periods of unpaid leave from their current jobs to undertake health and social care roles voluntarily and to be reimbursed by Government. The LGA was working with the DHSC to set up a process of certifying and checking these people to make sure they were fit and proper to do the job being asked of them.
· LGA officers also working with DHSC, providers and the voluntary and community sector to develop guidance which distinguished between care and support tasks that could be done with minimal training and those that could only be done by fully-trained adult social care professionals.
In the discussion that ensued, the following questions and comments were raised:
· Although money was starting to come into councils from Government this wouldn’t be enough. Could councils apply for more funding? The Chairman said that there was a commitment from the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State that funding would be made available. He said that councils should spend what they needed and Government would sort out the funding later. He suggested contacting MHCLG if councils were in this position.
· More testing was needed and fast. The Chairman said that testing was being ramped up every day.
· Was training for people to use equipment, such as ventilators, being provided? Alyson Morley said that this would normally be down to councils but with such large numbers needing refresher training, help may need to be brought in, for example through organisations such as ‘Skills for Care’.
· What could the LGA do to retain volunteers and their good will once the crisis was over? Alyson said that this would be a challenge for councils and their VCS partners. Sustaining the initial wave of enthusiasm over what may be a long period would be difficult. Important that there was a swift response to give volunteers meaningful tasks or they would drift away.
· Slough had almost run out of PPE. The Chairman said that Clinical Commissioning Groups and Local Resilience Forums should be identifying where hotspots are and getting PPE in.
· In Bristol it was reported that residential and nursing homes were not taking in new clients due to threat of infection which could cause serious problems. The Chairman said that the Government was aware of this.
· What were the legal/HR implications for workers taking advantage of the ‘furlough’ scheme whereby Government covers 80 per cent of salary? The Chairman said that the LGA had pressed for more detail on this and also on what support was available for the self-employed.
· Government needed to be issuing clearer information. The Chairman said that the Government recognised difficulties in communication in such a fast-changing environment and were trying to improve.
· Apart from the 1.5 million people identified by Government, there was another group of people who were also very vulnerable and who were in danger of slipping through the net. How could they be helped? Alyson said that this was where very local neighbourhood and mutual aid groups were vital. However, there were concerns that a small minority of people may exploit the situation by targeting isolated and lonely people. Alyson said that officers would work with DHSC and the community and voluntary sector to ensure that the balance between safeguarding and supporting the vulnerable was maintained.
· The biggest stumbling block for local mutual aid groups was considered to be logistical issues with money, as many elderly people used cash and cheques. Could the LGA press the Government to get supermarkets to be more flexible? Alyson said that there was no simple answer to this and that there were also concerns around possible financial exploitation of vulnerable people. It was suggested that money could be funnelled through established organisations such as Age UK? Mark agreed to refer this issue on to the LGA’s corona virus enquiry address and respond as soon as possible.
· What could the LGA do to ensure that councillors got accurate and trustworthy information that they could then cascade to residents and community groups? The Chairman said that the LGA’s Chairman’s and Chief Executive’s briefings were extremely useful. Could something similar be produced for public consumption for councillors to cascade? Mark said that there could be an issue with staff capacity in producing an entirely new briefing but adapting the Chairman’s briefing could be looked at. He agreed to take it back to fellow officers.
· Now was the time when politicians should see what a vital role ASC plays – could the LGA take advantage of this and collate some of the good practice that was happening to help argue the case for funding in the future? The Chairman agreed that ASC was still not getting the national plaudits that the NHS was currently receiving.
Laura Caton, Senior Adviser, said that mental health and suicide prevention were going to be key issues moving forward as people continued to self-isolate and have limited social contact. There was an urgent need to determine what role councils could play.
Matthew Hibberd, Senior Adviser reported that he had just received communication about developing Government thinking around whether there needed to be a temporary national fee rate for care providers to ensure they had the resources they needed in the current crisis. Matthew said that there were a range of risks associated with this and there were different options for providing assurance to providers. He said that the emerging preference from LGA/ADASS officers was to keep local determination but to have an uplift to account for the new and additional pressures providers were facing. Lead members agreed with this option in principle but asked to see the paper before making a final decision. Matthew said he would circulate this but would need a decision by the weekend.
Decision
Members of the Community Wellbeing Board noted the update.
Actions
· Alyson Morley to report issue of cash and inability of some residents to make card payments for food on the LGA Covid-19 log.
· Mark Norris/Alyson Morley to investigate practicality of producing an information bulletin for members to circulate to local community groups.
· Matthew Hibberd to circulate paper on care providers fee rate to Lead Members and Lead Members to make comments by the weekend.