15 May 2020
DCC staff guidance for dealing with coronavirus (COVID-19)
Public: coronavirus (COVID-19) advice for Devon on our website
Please pass this onto district, borough, parish and town councillors as appropriate. The bulletin can be shared as a link by clicking the 'View it as a Web page' link at the top.
 Think Twice before visiting South West countryside or beaches urge Local Resilience Forum leaders
With the slight relaxation of lockdown, the South West is warning would-be tourists, second home owners and visitors to the region to ‘think twice’ about coming to the region.
Despite new guidance, a wealth of organisations from health and tourism, local councils, the police and other members of the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) are keen to reinforce the message to ‘come back later’ to the South West and avoid overwhelming the local hospitals and health service.
Local councils may be opening up some recycling centres, but many of the region’s car parks, toilets and tourist hot spots remain closed. Many residents have taken to social media to express their concern about visitors bringing the virus, crowds gathering at popular tourist locations and beaches and the lack of facilities open for them if they choose to try and travel here.
Our Council leader, Councillor John Hart, says:
“We know it’s been a challenging time for everyone, but we’d still urge restraint. Think twice about the impact on your neighbours in rural and coastal communities, think twice about the risks, and only travel for your recreation if you know it’s safe to do so, you can park sensibly and maintain social distancing.”
Read all about it here in our press release issued on behalf of the Devon and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum.
Our Leader's response to the lockdown changes
Following on from the Prime Minister’s plans for the next phase of tackling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, aiming to reopen society a little and kick-start the economy, the changes to the lockdown are limited, it has not been lifted and we still have a long way to go. While this next phase feels significant, it is certainly not a return to normality.
While we saw a change in the language from the Government to ‘Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives’ the advice remains that we should all stay at home as much as possible and work from home if we can.
Leader, Councillor John Hart, has welcomed the Prime Minister’s statement as providing some hope but said he wanted to see the details of how re-starting the economy could be achieved safely. He said:
"We will have to be particularly careful in the South West that we don’t see a spike in infections. Thanks to the common sense and cooperation of the vast majority of our citizens, we have remained the lowest region in the country for infections throughout this pandemic. That must continue as we begin to see the economy start to rev up again – safely – whilst our residents can have some idea of how we can begin to move slowly out of lockdown."
The outbreak has changed the way we all live and work and the Government’s roadmap to recovery means there will be more adjustments to our lives over the coming months.
We are in a hybrid situation right now where it is vital that we continue to respond to the outbreak and protect lives but, in line with Government guidance, we also begin to think more broadly about the recovery phase and what this might mean for us in Devon.
Part of this is understanding any implications for areas of our work such as how we reflect statutory guidance on reallocating road space, the timing of re-opening schools and early years settings, and the use of public transport.
£1m available to help struggling Devon residents
Help is available for Devon residents struggling with their finances as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
We've allocated one million pounds in grant funding to support people who need short-term emergency assistance to afford basic living essentials.
It’s been split across Devon’s eight district councils, with each one responsible for considering applications and administering grants in their locality.
Keeping people safe
Welfare and schooling
The Prime Minister said on Sunday 11 May “At the earliest by June 1 – after half term – we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6. Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays.”
This week and next, schools will review the detailed guidance Government has said it will provide and make plans to implement the guidance in a COVID SECURE manner. Schools will continue to offer places for vulnerable children and those of key workers.
The timeliness of Education, Health and Care Plans is now at 63%. For the first time in recent years this is above the most recent national average of 60.9%.
For your reference, here are links to key Department for Education (DfE) guidance:
Information for parents:
Dawn Stabb, Head of Education and Learning, will write an open letter to parents, which will be available on the DCC website. We will provide information for parents on the DCC website about what provision is available across the county over the May half term as soon as possible.
The web pages are updated frequently and is the best source of up-to-date information about education and schools.
Supporting and protecting our children in care
Cllr James McInnes said:
"This week Cabinet agreed a significant investment in Children's Social Care to support the Improvement Plan in response to the Ofsted judgement. Politicians quite rightly challenged how and why the service was found inadequate; but all of their challenges were couched within a context of real support, and recognition and understanding of the complexity of the work and its challenges. Politicians recognised the many strengths identified in the Ofsted report and the huge progress that has been made in Devon.
"The Department for Education temporarily stood down its usual conventions in response to an inadequate judgement, these will be re-instated over the coming weeks."
Adult care and health updates
Cllr Andrew Leadbetter said:
"Widespread access to testing is a key part of the national approach to slowly start on a pathway out of lockdown. Testing for care home staff has been widely recognised to be challenging, but locally we’ve made progress including the acute hospitals extending their offer to support the care sector. The new national care portal has just become available, and we are refreshing our provider communications to reflect that.
"The final element of our financial support across our independent provider markets is now in place. Those people who receive their social care support in the form of a Direct Payment and therefore make their own care arrangements have had their Direct Payments increased so that they are able to pay their personal assistants £10 per hour and in line with other care markets.
"We are now able to offer access to a two-day supply of PPE to unpaid carers to help protect people defined as ‘extremely vulnerable’ with relevant advice available from Devon Carers.
"Care homes are now being supported by Continuing Health Care (CHC) Nurses as part of Infection Prevention Control (IPC), with nurses training care home staff to ensure IPC skills are maintained throughout the sector."
Look out for your next weekly email update direct from Cllr Andrew Leadbetter.
NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter – webinar available
More than 300 colleagues across Devon and Cornwall Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) joined the webinar to learn more about NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter, on Wednesday 13 May. It was an opportunity to describe what the next few weeks will look like for the development of the site, how recruitment will take place and how patients will be cared for there. Watch the recording of the webinar.
Vulnerable residents urged to still stay at home
We're urging vulnerable residents to remain at home despite changes to the lockdown restrictions. Around 34,000 people in Devon have been identified as having an underlying health condition that puts them at very high risk of severe illness if they catch coronavirus. There is no change to the guidance, and the rigorous ‘shielding’ measures introduced to help keep those who are considered extremely clinically vulnerable safe are still in place.
Councillor Roger Croad said:
“Regardless of the small changes to the lockdown restrictions announced, the advice to the most vulnerable in our communities remains the same – stay at home. For extra support, like getting essential food and medicine delivered, social contact or additional care, there’s a strong network available to help, from the Government, the local council and the community."
Appeal to recycling centre visitors not to queue on the roads
While recycling centres have re-opened just for essential trips, only cars are currently allowed on site and social distancing means the number of vehicles safely allowed within the sites is roughly a third to a half the usual capacity.
Councillor Andrea Davis said that the phased re-opening for essential use only has gone ‘relatively well so far’:
"We are experiencing some problems with traffic queuing back onto the public highway causing a safety issue, which we’re having to address.
“We are open for essential trips only, and we intend to stay open in a managed and safe way. If we feel that the situation is becoming unsafe, we will as a last resort close a site temporarily in order to disperse traffic off the highway.
“It’s not at all an ideal solution and we’d rather it not get that far. But if we deem it necessary for the safety of other road users, we’ll do it.”
Temporary measures for walkers and cyclists
We are actively pursuing a series of temporary measures to support social distancing for walkers and cyclists as part of the Government’s £250 million emergency active travel fund.
Although we're still awaiting details of the funding, we are looking at the pressure points and how we can help people practice social distancing, particularly in urban centres where narrow footways could restrict pedestrian movement. Any additional funding will be used to promote active travel and help ensure that people can walk or cycle in a safe way as Government restrictions on movement are eased.
We will be talking to local councils and businesses to help us better understand how we can support any local aspirations for improvements.
Highway maintenance budgets agreed but programme could be impacted by lockdown
We set out our highway maintenance budget for the current financial year but coronavirus lockdown and its after-effects are likely to impact on the delivery of some schemes.
Learn Devon continues supporting vulnerable learners during lockdown
Learn Devon tutors are going the extra mile to ensure that more vulnerable learners receive the support they need during the current coronavirus pandemic.
Councillor Rufus Gilbert said:
"Online learning is offering a lifeline during these challenging times and it’s wonderful to see the tutors generously giving up their time to do that little bit extra to help their learners.”
Learn Devon recently launched over 100 free tutor-led online courses to help those most affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and to address its economic and social impact and the effect on wellbeing and mental health of people across Devon. You can browse courses on the Learn Devon website
Tour of Britain postponed until September 2021
The organisers of the Tour of Britain have announced that this year’s race has been postponed until September 2021 due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Councillor Stuart Hughes said:
“The crowds are always what have made Devon stages of the Tour of Britain so special. Hundreds of thousands of people always turn out along the route, and if social distancing means that isn’t possible then it makes sense that the race is postponed until next year. We will look forward to welcoming The Tour back in 2021, as well as all visitors, to make it the biggest and best ever edition of the race.”
 We continue to #clapforourcarers and show our support to all the truly amazing social care workers and key workers 👏 Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far. Keep clapping and show your support to the heroes working for communities in Devon. Thanks goes to @geiko_mimi for capturing this beautiful double rainbow in Exeter 🌈 #WeAreDevon 💚
By pulling together across the Council, with our partners and our communities, we are doing everything we can to help us all through this incredibly difficult time. Thank you to you and your community and stay safe and well.
Please note that all of our sites and offices are closed to the public, except for necessary prearranged visits
|
