CommsNet

For LGA member council communication teams

Dear Colleague,

Please find today’s COVID-19 communications update, followed by our Chief Executive, Mark Lloyd’s daily bulletin.

Kind regards,

David Holdstock Director of Communications Local Government Association @Davidhold

Digital memorials

I would like to thank everyone who sent through their examples of digital memorials after my call out last week. We will be including all of those examples on our communications hub. One of the examples we will be showcasing comes from Basildon Council, who have created a digital memorial page using Microsoft Dynamics 365. Do please continue to send your digital memorials to directorofcommunications@local.gov.uk, as I know council colleagues will find them incredibly helpful

Behavioural Insights Team COVID-19 webinar

The Behavioural Insights Team has created a webinar, taking you through their research and close working with the UK Government on the behavioural science response to the pandemic. It also gives some helpful hints and tips when creating your own communications. Watch the webinar.

Updates to Covid-19 communications hub

Recent updates to our communications hub include:

Bereavement communications

• Southwark Council communications protocol for the death of a colleague
• CIPR guidance on communicating the death of a colleague, councillor or volunteer

Business support

• Braintree District Council use a closed Facebook group to communicate with businesses
• Basildon Council Zoom business meeting

Internal communications

• East Lindsay District Council employee recognition scheme

Mental health and wellbeing communications

• Tandridge District Council wellbeing newsletter and webpage
• New Maldon District Council – Stay at Home, Grow Your Own

Resident communications

• Behavioural Insights Team webinar – effective communications during COVID-19
• South Kesteven District Council summarise their response so far
• Charnwood Borough Council - Celebrate VE day at home
• Tandridge District Council supporting vulnerable residents

Understanding the role of local government

• Medway Council weekly infographic of activity

From the LGA's Chief Executive

Dear Colleague, 

In recent weeks, councils have led their local communities in this time of crisis. We have created new services to support vulnerable people, ensured schools are kept open for the children of key workers, got over 90 per cent of rough sleepers off the streets and into safe accommodation and ensured 98 per cent of kerbside waste and recycling collections have continued as usual. We have effectively led our communities during the emergency response, and we now need to be empowered to support our communities as we tackle the social and economic task ahead.

You will have seen the media coverage of the Government’s increased focus on the next phase of its response to the pandemic, and the speculation about what that may look like. With the Prime Minister expected to announce the country’s next steps on Sunday, we will be stepping up our efforts this week to reiterate the leading role councils can, and should, play in planning the incremental easing of stay at home measures, and the support our residents, businesses and communities will need to prosper.

Of course, any measures to support people’s incremental return to places of work and education will have an impact on our places and the wider council services we provide. We know councils are exploring how you will manage transition to the ‘new normal’ while minimising the spread of infection as we await a vaccine.

This could include working out how best to manage your high streets, town centres, shopping centres, public toilets, car parks, green spaces and parks, roads and public transport. We know from our experiences re-opening parks and household waste and recycling centres that we need wider support to make changes that balance providing our services with ensuring people can keep safe and well. This can often include support from the police to enforce social distancing or manage traffic, and clear official guidance for the public.

As the Government draws up this new advice for businesses and residents that will inevitably be required for any new measures, we are making sure they understand the implications for councils and what support we need from central government. As every area is different, we will be clear that this should be a council-led response – as we know what works best for our villages, towns and cities.

We also continue to push for the powers, funding and flexibilities councils need to support your communities now and into the future. It was therefore positive to hear the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, stressed that the Government would ensure councils are fully compensated for the COVID-19 duties they are asked to undertake during his Select Committee appearance this afternoon. He also praised the work of councils in dealing with the crisis on the ground. You can read more about this session below, alongside other updates from the past couple of days.

If you have any insights you can share with us to help inform our work on your behalf please email coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk

The Number 10 Press Conferences

This evening’s Number 10 Press Conference was led by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock. He was joined by Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan van Tam and Professor John Newton, Co-ordinator of the National Testing Effort.

On the Government’s test, track and trace system, the Health Secretary said that the first trial will begin on the Isle of Wight tomorrow. We have since received confirmation that rollout of NHS COVID-19 mobile phone app will begin with the island’s NHS and council staff tomorrow at 4pm, with all island residents getting access from Thursday. Mr Hancock said testing on the island will allow scientists to carry out the trial in a controlled setting. On how the tracing system will work in practice, Mr Hancock said that if a resident on the Isle of Wight were to become unwell with COVID-19 symptoms, the individual would be required to inform the NHS via the mobile application. The Bluetooth enabled application will then alert households of a new case based on their proximity and there will be a test ordering function. Mr Hancock also said the application will take “full consideration” of privacy concerns, with proximity information logged securely on people’s mobile phones. He stressed that the pilot does not mean an end to social distancing. We expect the national roll-out to take place mid-May.

Thousands of contact-tracers have been recruited so far and the necessary training is underway, he added. The requirement for 18,000 contact-tracers remains the initial goal but could be modified if new data justifies it. 

Sunday’s Press Conference was led by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove. He said that, later this week, the Prime Minister will explain how we can get the economy moving, get children back to school, travel to work more safely and make life in the workplace safer. He spoke about helping children with their education during the pandemic, mentioning the £100 million allocated to supporting remote learning for school children who need it, schools continuing to receive Pupil Premium funding and how some disadvantaged children will be provided with laptops.

Saturday’s Press Conference was led by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick. He spoke about the Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill and announced new funding and measures to tackle domestic abuse and ensure rough sleepers get the support they need during the pandemic and beyond. You can read more about these announcements under the relevant headers below.

Parliamentary Committees

This afternoon, the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick gave evidence to the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee inquiry into the work of his Ministry and the local government response to COVID-19. This follows the evidence from our Chairman, Cllr Jamieson, and I last week. In his evidence, Mr Jenrick discussed council finances, adult social care, testing, PPE and homelessness. The Secretary of State praised the work of councils in dealing with the crisis on the ground and importantly he stressed that the Government would ensure councils are fully compensated for the COVID-19 duties they are asked to undertake. Mr Jenrick suggested that the financial information received so far from councils was demonstrating that the Government had provided sufficient funding to address the costs incurred by councils in dealing with the crisis.

However, it is clear from the data seen by the LGA that loss of income accounts for over two thirds of the total financial challenge facing councils and that the overall funding shortfall is multiple times higher than the £3.2 billion grant, once all factors are taken into account. 

The Secretary of State also encouraged councils to continue to provide data to help his department make decisions. From our point of view, it is important to ensure MHCLG officials have the best data available for their discussions with HM Treasury as further funding will require their agreement. We would like to encourage you to share the evidence with us as well, especially once the second MHCLG survey round starts with its mid-May response deadline.

A number of other Select Committees continue their work analysing the impact of the outbreak on various public services, including the Treasury Committee on the financial implications, and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee considering the impact on food supply. We will be submitting written evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee inquiry on delivering health and care services beyond the pandemic and the Public Accounts Committee as part of their inquiry on local authority commercial investments before both Houses rise for the VE Day recess on Wednesday.

Test, track and trace

Late on Friday evening, Public Health England (PHE) and the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) wrote to all local authority Directors of Public Health. This provides information on the design work for the public health contact tracing operating model. Work is underway to have the service operational in May, with a Design Working Group leading how this may operate. This is made up of colleagues from PHE, ADPH, the Faculty of Public Health, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and the LGA. This group links into the wider testing and contact tracing programme led by the Department of Health and Social Care and includes the testing programme and NHS COVID-19 app. The approach will bring together the assets of the local, regional and national elements of the public health system within a nationwide operating model.

The letter asks for registers of interest for people to take on new roles as a ‘contact tracing team lead’. These roles will link the regional and national levels by providing professional expert points of contact to the health professional contact tracing workforce and being part of the work to identify the response to local contact tracing priorities. PHE would fund the employers of people undertaking these deployed roles, with further details provided this week. Colleagues are encouraged to discuss this opportunity with their chief executive and register interest at http://go.nhsp.uk/contact-tracer.

Adult social care

A letter was sent out on Friday by NHS England and Improvement requesting primary care and community health services continue to help support care homes and their residents. The letter outlines a model which they should follow to do so.

Please encourage your adult social care colleagues to sign up to the Knowledge Hub Site which was developed as part of our joint LGA/ADASS adult social care hub. The site looks to bring together all the key COVID-19 guidance and information relating to health and care from central government, ADASS, LGA and key sector organisations, as well as notable practice examples.

Health outcomes

You may have seen the media coverage of anecdotal suggestions that some people may be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Public Health England have launched a new review to establish more robust data on the factors impacting the number of cases and health outcomes for different groups within the population. It will analyse how different factors – including ethnicity, gender and obesity – can impact on people’s health outcomes from COVID-19. The review will also look at vulnerable groups such as people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping to understand how the virus affects them and their health outcomes. PHE’s press release references that they are planning to engage a wide range of external experts and independent advisors as they undertake this work, including from local government. The LGA is already participating. PHE plan to publish their findings later this month.

Personal protective equipment

The LGA’s PPE FAQs have been updated this morning and we will continue to ensure they are updated as and when we are aware of more information.

We continue to call for the Government’s online PPE ordering system to be fully rolled out as soon as possible, so that councils and care providers can directly request that critical protective equipment gets to those who desperately need it.

Vulnerable people and shielding

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government have confirmed that councils will be receiving further datasets to inform their work supporting the shielded group:

• The National Shielding Helpline have been contacting clinically extremely vulnerable people identified in the NHS patient data who are yet to confirm whether they are in need of support. Councils will now be receiving data on the outcome of calls that were unsuccessful or inconclusive every day via the GOV.UK transfer so they can identify those people who may require further follow up locally.
• To help councils to identify where individuals have received, or are due to receive, a food parcel and may need extra support, such as bringing it in, data will now be made available to local authorities on made or attempted deliveries and planned deliveries through the GOV.UK transfer data accounts. This will be done in two stages, with the first data set on deliveries made or attempted provided on 1 May. The second data set, on planned deliveries, will move to the GOV. UK account later this week.

An updated version of the data sharing guidance has been issued and further questions or comments can be sent to shielding@communities.gov.uk.

Domestic abuse

At Saturday’s Number 10 Press Conference, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, announced £76 million in extra funding to support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, vulnerable children and their families, and victims of modern slavery. He also announced that domestic abuse survivors will automatically qualify for priority need under the council duty to relieve homelessness. Our media response promoted the tireless work councils are undertaking to protect and help those who are most vulnerable during this pandemic. A joined-up approach, alongside the police and health, is vital so we are pleased the Secretary of State has been able to secure vital extra funding for support services.

A reminder that the LGA has produced a resource for councils on tackling domestic abuse during the pandemic. This includes a brief overview of domestic abuse, how councils can provide help and support to victims, and tackle perpetrators’ abusive behaviour.

Homelessness

You may have seen the news that Dame Louise Casey will lead a new taskforce to advice the Government on the next steps of the emergency response to support vulnerable rough sleepers during the pandemic. Getting homeless people and rough sleepers off the streets during this outbreak has been a monumental effort by councils, with the Government’s press release recognising that 90 per cent of rough sleepers have now been offered safe accommodation. As we said in our media response, local government stands ready to work with Dame Louise and this new taskforce on a national plan to move these people into safe housing after emergency measures are lifted. This must ensure they also have access to wider support they might need for substance dependency and help with benefits, skills and getting work.

Business grants

As I mentioned in my bulletin on Friday, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has confirmed a new top-up grant scheme targeted at those businesses that do not qualify for the existing Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). Up to £617 million will be available. Guidance, as well as the exact amount to be allocated to each council, will be published this week.

BEIS’s latest update on the amount distributed by authorities under the SBGF and the RHLGF will be published later today.

From today, HMRC will begin contacting people who may be eligible for the Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. Those who are eligible will be able to claim a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their average trading profits up to a maximum of £7,500 (equivalent to three months' profits), paid in a single instalment.

The Government is hosting a series of free webinars to help businesses understand the support that is available. These currently cover trading internationally, information to support small businesses, and the changes to reporting, regulation and tax.

Children and education

Concerns are growing about vulnerable children, with referrals to children’s social care down by more than half in many areas. To encourage communities, neighbours and members of the public to be alert to child protection issues and feel confident to raise their concerns, the NSPCC has launched a new public campaign (link takes you to a YouTube video) to raise awareness of the support available. Anyone who is worried about a child or young person can talk to the NSPCC helpline team who offer free support and guidance (telephone 0808 800 5000, email help@nspcc.org.uk or the reporting page on the NSPCC’s website. Supporting organisations can also download the NSPCC helpline, sharable assets to share via your own social media channels (password: helpline).

The Council for Disabled Children has produced a series of FAQs on SEND support during the pandemic that will be updated on a weekly basis. While it is primarily aimed at children, parents, families and carers, it may also be of interest to councils.

You may have seen the announcement of plans to redeploy some Ofsted staff and allocate some contracted inspectors to support government departments, their agencies, local authorities and the education and care sectors (including schools, further education colleges, nurseries and children's homes) as routine inspections have been temporarily paused as a consequence of the outbreak. School Standards Minister, Nick Gibb MP confirmed that the Education Secretary has assigned an additional function to HM Chief Inspector for this purpose, under section 118(4) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The funding arrangements for this redeployment have been confirmed, pending Parliamentary approval.

In higher education, the Government has announced new measures to stabilise admissions and fund research.

The need for continued support for infant feeding has come into sharp focus during the crisis. Unicef UK and First Steps Nutrition Trust have partnered together with the National Infant Feeding Network (NIFN), to produce this child rights-focused guidance for local authorities on Infant Feeding to ensure babies and families continue to be protected.

Council finances

We have received questions about when councils might receive the section 31 compensation grants for COVID-19 related business rates reliefs. We have heard from Government that payments related to April and May relief costs will be made in mid-May. Local authorities will receive the payment report in advance of that as usual, confirming payments based on supplementary data provided to the Department, which was published on 22 April.

It is worth noting that the section 31 grant payments to be made in respect of April, May and June will – where relevant – reflect the three-month deferral of the central share payments (worth £2.6 billion in total). Instead of being received now, the portion of section 31 grant related to the deferred central share instalments will be added proportionately to monthly grant payments in the second half of the year to help local authorities manage the increased amounts due to government after October.

As a reminder, the central share payments to Government will be now be due in July onwards, with 9 per cent of the annual total now due in July, 8 per cent in each of August and September and then 12.5 per cent in each month until March 2021. Payments from billing authorities to major precepting authorities are not affected by this deferral.

Following informal consultation with a number of local authorities and the LGA, the Government has agreed a revised timetable (to be updated online here shortly) for local government finance data collections in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Many deadlines have been extended, including some which have been aligned to new the accounting deadlines. For example, revenue and capital outturn returns are now due by the end of August, provisional business rates collection outturn returns (NNDR3) by 31 July and final NNDR3s by 30 November. Decisions on some annual collections will be made closer to the time.

Workforce

We continue to seek clarity on local authorities’ use of the Government’s Job Retention Scheme as we are hearing that councils contacting the HMRC helpline are receiving conflicting information on a number of issues. We are raising these concerns with MHCLG and HMRC on a regular basis. We have again updated the LGA’s guidance in the light of further changes to the Government guidance.

To reduce the demands for data and insight on the implications of the COVID-19 crisis on councils’ workforce, the LGA has teamed up with regional employers organisations and the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) to collect and coordinate key data. This fortnightly collection of workforce data will be shared with local resilience forums, Government departments and councils to assist in recovery planning, workforce testing and risk profiling. We know this is an additional demand on HR teams at this time, but this data is crucial to help us evidence our negotiations with Government for support and resources. The survey will be sent to council HR leads in the next few days. 

Cyber security

Last month, cyber security company Sophos reported its XG Firewall product had been subject to a cyber-attack. The company said that customised malware was used to gain access to vulnerable devices. Sophos have released a fix for devices that should be applied as soon as possible. All councils who use their services should take note of the further advice on remediation, whether they have received the fix or not. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) encourages all councils to ensure all devices have been patched and would recommend that you also note the advice around passwords, look to reset passwords related to the firewall and associated VPN services and that any certificates issued for these devices are revoked and re-issued. Your IT teams should refer to the NCSC guidance for determining password policy, for two-factor authentication (2FA) and for using VPNs.

Supplier offers

Since the start of the outbreak, Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has received thousands of offers from UK suppliers. They have launched a searchable online catalogue. The catalogue contains thousands of offers, ranging from cleaning services and food to videoconferencing and transport. This catalogue does not contain offers of PPE. 

Each listed supplier has already been checked by the CCS team, to confirm the goods and services they have offered. They’ve also been categorised by what service is on offer, the region it’s available in and whether it’s offered free-of-charge, at a reduced rate, or at full price.

CCS hope the catalogue can assist in fulfilling urgent requirements but still recommend, where possible, that you use a CCS commercial agreement to make sure you benefit from assurance that your council’s procurement is compliant, that suppliers have been evaluated and that you receive standardised contract terms.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

You will recall that, following discussions with the LGA about councils’ capacity during this time, the Local Government and Social Care (LGO) Ombudsman has taken unprecedented action to suspend all casework activity that demands information from, or action by, councils and care providers. It is monitoring the situation and will re-engage with councils, care providers and complainants when it becomes appropriate, and Government guidance allows.

They plan to start testing ideas with councils and the public to assess how they can best gradually re-start their work in a pragmatic and sensitive way that reflects the realities on the ground. To support councils’ measures to listen and respond to the most urgent and serious public concerns at this time, the LGO has produced guidance on good administrative practice during COVID-19.

Supporting councils

We have agreed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to sector-led support with MHCLG. You will know that the majority of the LGA’s operation is now focused on supporting local government and communities to address COVID-19 and its consequences, both now and into the next phase. The MoU recognises this significant change from previous years. Our website summarises our refocused support offer. Please continue to let us know how your support needs change so our work with and for you remains constantly relevant.

VE Day

Colleagues will know that this is a shorter ‘working week’ (although I expect we will all pack more than seven day’s work into the next few days) as Friday is a bank holiday to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day. While the celebrations will look very different to how we may have planned, it was great to see media coverage of councils’ plans to support their residents to mark the occasion ‘virtually’ and from their own homes. We look forward to promoting your local innovative efforts in our media activity later this week, and on our social media channels (@LGAComms and @LGAculturesport).

I hope you this note was helpful – please do get in touch if there is anything we can be helping with this week.

P.S. Tomorrow is National Teachers’ Day. We know that teachers, school leaders and other educators have been integral to supporting our country during this national emergency. We thank them every day, but will be doing so even more tomorrow for their amazing response to help children learn at home and to keep schools open for vulnerable children and children of key workers. Those of us involved in home-schooling over the last six weeks really have come to appreciate the teaching profession even more than before!