12 June 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.
Working together to support Devon's communities
Devon certainly knows how to pull together. Throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic local public sector organisations and partners have worked quickly to ensure the county’s residents, communities and businesses are well informed, supported, and protected.
Devon County Council Leader, Cllr John Hart, said:
“The number of cases of COVID-19 in Devon remains one of the lowest in the country, and that’s thanks to the actions of all our residents who, in the vast majority, have respected the lockdown restrictions throughout the pandemic.
“This has clearly been a very tough time for lots of people, particularly the most vulnerable who have been shielding at home, and for our local businesses who have suffered tremendously.
“I would like to thank everyone for being so responsible and sensible so far and urge you all to keep it up so that we can now move forwards together safely.
“From local authorities and health services to businesses and community organisations, we’ve all worked well together to help manage the situation and support each other and our residents in exceptional circumstances.
“As we move slowly into this next phase, with restrictions starting to ease further and plans being made for how Devon will recover from the lockdown, we must continue to collaborate and build on the effort everyone has made so far to keep ourselves and others safe and well.”
Here are some of the things we have done as a Local Resilience Forum during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown (view larger image here):
Support for local community groups
When the lockdown started at the end of March, we quickly made money available to help voluntary and community groups to support the most vulnerable people in their communities, and to tackle social and economic impacts of the outbreak.
In the weeks since then, we've given over £300,000 to nearly 400 organisations across Devon, working with communities affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).
The money is helping communities be more resilient. It's improving access to services and information. It's strengthening community networks, and it's increasing general wellbeing.
East Devon, Torridge, Teignbridge and North Devon District Councils have all put money in and have helped give small grants to schemes in their communities.
A map of projects successfully funded by the Prompt Action Fund can be found on the Devon County Council website.
We have been following up with some community projects that have been helped by our COVID-19 Prompt Action Fund:
Schooling and welfare
Devon has mobilised very quickly to meet the Government’s request to open schools to a wider range of children and the number of children we have attending school is double the national average.
- 92% of Devon schools are now open and providing a wider offer to pupils in early years, reception, year 1 or year 6.
- Approximately 44% of pupils who have access to the wider offer are attending.
- Overall attendance in primary schools is 22% of the total pupil population (regardless of the school is open or making a wider offer) compared to a national average of 11%.
The number of vulnerable children attending has also risen dramatically going up from 1,200 before half term to 2,820 on 8 June and more children are returning every day. Similarly, the number of children of key workers attending school across the county has also grown significantly from approximately 2,500 children before half term to 5,555 on the 8 of June. Some schools have, however, seen bigger numbers return and report over three times the number of pupils attending.
The offer available in each school will be different, as it is based on their risk assessment and the needs of the community they serve. For example, if there are a lot of parents who are key workers, it is harder for a school to open to additional year groups.
Cllr James McInnes said:
"I am pleased to report however that overall the return to school has gone very well and staff and pupils have been pleased to see each other. In fact, the return has been such a success that Devon schools now face a capacity issue."
"As you know, following Department for Education guidance, class sizes in schools have been halved to a maximum of 15 pupils and are known as bubbles. A key part of the safe return to school is that these bubbles should be kept apart, using separate outside space and if possible, toilet facilities. This is achieved either by allocating designated areas or staggering break and lunch times. Neither pupils nor staff should move from one bubble to another."
In planning their wider offer and as part of their risk assessment, schools and early years settings determined the maximum number of pupils they could have in each bubble (based on room size) and the maximum number of bubbles they could have in their school/setting.
With the return of pupils as described above, some schools may soon be a position where they are no longer able to offer places to all the children who want them. This is mainly because schools will have reached the limits of the physical space available but in some cases they will have reached their staffing capacity. Schools still need to provide resources and support for home learning for those children not able to return to school and protect staff who may be shielding.
The Government has provided a priority listing which places vulnerable children and those of key workers at the top. This means some schools could reach their capacity with vulnerable and key worker children alone and no longer be able to make an offer to wider year groups.
As a local authority, we appreciate that this will be frustrating for families but have every confidence that our schools are doing all they can to try and meet parental need, government guidelines and public health requirements. We are continuing to work with schools to help find solutions but we cannot ask schools to take additional children where the safety measures cannot be met. Our priority has to be in keeping schools as safe as possible.
Extra mental health support for pupils and teachers
The Government announced that new online resources designed by health and education experts will be provided to schools and colleges to boost mental health support for staff and pupils, encouraging them to talk more confidently about the anxieties and concerns they feel as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Secretary of State for Education has written to trustees and governors of maintained schools and academy trusts. The Department for Education has also published frequently asked questions to support governors, trustees, governance professionals, clerks and chairs, in both the maintained and academy sectors, and to address the specific issues pertinent to governing and trust boards and local governing bodies (LGBs) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The Secretary of State for Education said that the Department for Education (DfE) continues to follow the best scientific advice and that this cautious, phased return of education and childcare settings is the most sensible course of action to take. While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer, the DfE is working with the sector on the next steps to allow schools that have the capacity to bring back more children in smaller class sizes to do so before the summer holidays. We will provide further details in the coming days. The statement in full can be found here.
Supporting and protecting our children in care
As previously mentioned Eleanor Brazil has been appointed as the Commissioner to oversee the improvement in Children's Services, please see the Terms of Reference for Eleanor’s role. The Improvement Partnership will meet for the first time on 22 June; an overview report from this meeting will go to Children's Scrutiny and Corporate Parenting Member Group.
Update on Darryl Freeman, Head of Children's Social Work
Cllr James McInnes said:
"Darryl continues to be sick and is signed off work until the end of June. I know you will all join me in wishing him well.
"Jenny-Ellen Scotland has acted up to cover the first period of Darryl's absence. Rachel Gillott (former Locality Director - South) has now taken over as the deputy for Darryl whilst he is off. And Jenny-Ellen has returned to her substantive role as Locality Director - Exeter."
Infants injured in lockdown
There have been two serious incidents during lockdown, concerning injuries to infants. Neither was fatal and both infants are now in foster care.
Serious incidents are notified to Ofsted and the Devon Children and Families Partnership (DCFP) conducts a Rapid Review, usually within 15 days, but the timescales have been relaxed during lockdown. Rapid Reviews are not published but they are shared with the Children’s Services Overview Group (which does not meet in public). The Rapid Review in respect of the first infant is completed. The second will be completed within the next two weeks.
Cllr James McInnes said:
"Learning from the first incident is moving into implementation but, in relation to the second, while the DCFP is satisfied that we understand what things went wrong, we are not satisfied that we understand why they went wrong. Hence we have commissioned a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR), to unpack this further. I will notify Members of publication arrangements in due course."
Study to monitor prevalence of COVID-19 in schools
Public Health England is running the study that will assess and monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 among pre-school, primary and secondary school pupils and teachers. Initially, they’ll collect data from up to 100 schools from across England, and target around 200 staff and children at each school.
Some schools will be offered antibody tests to be taken by medical professionals who are trained to collect blood samples from patients.
Participation by schools is on a voluntary basis, and all parents and guardians will be asked to provide consent for their children or dependents to be involved in the voluntary study.
Information about the study and the testing procedures is available online.
Adult care and health updates
Cllr Andrew Leadbetter said:
“The number of people that have died in care homes across the country and across Devon due to COVID-19 has been tragic. Tragic for the individual, their families and also the health and care workforce doing the best it can in extremely challenging circumstances.
A new report out last week analysing care home deaths highlight that the Devon County Council local authority areas experienced significantly fewer care home fatalities than would be expected given the number of infections in the wider community.
“The report suggests the factors that may have played a part include: the extent to which PPE was or was not available; the rate at which operators isolated their homes and residents, and; the sheer misfortune of having one person with COVID come into the home at a time when the impact of the virus was not well-understood and awareness nationally was low.”
Infection Control Fund update
The local £10.5M allocation of the Infection Control Fund is now making its way into care homes across Devon with over 100 care homes already in receipt of the funding having met the national requirements to provide data through the nationally mandated and extended Capacity Tracker.
The Market Management Team and the Procurement Team have been working hard to support care homes through the process and to ensure that all care homes are aware and doing the things they need to do to receive the funding, this has included hosting a webinar and teleconferences.
Care homes will be receiving 75% of the funding directly and over the next weeks we will be formulating a specific plan on how we invest the remaining 25% in care markets to further support infection control.
Devon Wheels 2 Work to help people return to work and education safely
Community Interest Company Devon Wheels 2 Work is preparing for increased demand and is ready to support those most in need of cost effective and flexible transport for work and education journeys.
Temporary street cafe licences introduced
Northern Devon Enterprise Centre aims to boost economic recovery
We've been developing a Northern Devon Enterprise Centre near Barnstaple, to open next year. It'll provide high quality office and collaboration space and support for entrepreneurs, from start-ups to more established small and medium sized businesses looking to expand.
It will be a boost to the local economy and to jobs in Torridge and North Devon. This is what it'll look like.
We've started a process to find an expert operator to run the centre and deliver the business support
Libraries phased reopening from 6 July
Library buildings have been closed since the end of March, but staff have been working hard and have continued to deliver a lot of library services online.
Alex Kittow, Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited, which run Devon libraries on our and Torbay Council's behalf, has set out how they'll do the phased reopening, starting with contactless 'Choose and Collect' services in most libraries.
They'll have reduced opening hours initially, and of course, social distancing.
Work underway on new road layouts to support walking and cycling
Work started at the weekend on some temporary measures to make it easier for people to cycle or walk while social distancing.
The improvements began in Exeter, to support access to the RD&E Hospital. They include creating a 4km 'quiet route', removing through traffic except for buses and cyclists, from Newcourt/Pynes Hill to the city centre.
It's one of the measures in a series of schemes supported with initial funding of £338,000 from the Government's Emergency Active Travel Fund.
Additional temporary measures will be introduced over coming weeks in Exeter, Barnstaple, Bideford and Newton Abbot. And we'll be submitting a bid to Government for a potential £1.3 million later this summer for more permanent schemes.
Further road layout changes to support walking and cycling in Exeter
A temporary one-way system has been introduced on Magdalen Road in Exeter as part of measures to boost walking and cycling and support social distancing
June is LGBT+ Pride Month. Lines are still open
This month is LGBT+ Pride Month - a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ people across the world, campaign for equal opportunities, and highlight the issues facing the LGBTQ+ community. Switchboard, the LGBT+helpline (0300 330 0630) is asking local authorities to raise awareness that their helpline is still open, and that they're continuing to support those in need during this time.
 Celebrating Windrush Day in Devon
On Monday 22 June 2020, we are celebrating the lives and contributions of the Windrush generations in Devon.
Devon Development Education, along with DCC, has put together an afternoon filled with life stories, learning and love for the Windrush generations, with the aim to celebrate their impact on communities all across Devon. Find out more.
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
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