Agenda item

The Chairman invited Lusi Manukyan, Senior Adviser – Improvement & Policy, to introduce the update.

Lusi summarised the improvement activity led by other LGA Boards and the Care & Health Improvement Programme since it was last reported to IIB in July 2020. The details were laid out in the report.

Lusi said that, starting with today’s meeting, one of the LGA’s Principal Policy Advisers would be invited to attend future Board meetings to talk about the improvement work under their remit. She, therefore, introduced Mark Norris to talk about work around Outbreak Management and Building Safety.

Mark said that officers across the LGA’s improvement and policy directorates had been working jointly to support councils through the pandemic. Conversations had also taken place with the Department of Health about supporting local covid outbreak management through SLI. There were 2 strands to the LGA’s work:

·       Sharing best practice – webinars had been run on a range of topics such as enforcement, mass testing and vaccination. In addition, the LGA maintains an online knowledge hub and has produced a range of case studies.

·       Direct support to councils – 2 action learning sets with local authorities had been produced which had received positive feedback. These included top tips from Chief Executives and Leaders about their experiences. Officers were currently devising support packages for councils which had to change tiers.

Mark then briefed members on the work the LGA was doing to support councils on building safety and, in particular, the implications of the Building Safety Bill which was about to begin its legislative journey through Parliament.

Mark said that the LGA hosted the Joint Inspection Team (JIT) to support councils to use their enforcement powers. 18 buildings had so far been inspected and the LGA was currently discussing the future of the JIT with MHCLG with a view to the possible expansion of both its size and remit. This would include addressing the approx. 2,500 buildings covered with potentially dangerous non-ACM cladding. Mark said that the Government fund set up to remediate these buildings was already significantly over-bid and so more enforcement action would undoubtedly be needed.

The Chairman thanked Mark for attending the meeting to give his update.

Decision:

·       Improvement & Innovation Board noted the update.