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Dear colleague,
Please find details of a vacancy at Surrey County Council, followed by my Chief Executive Mark Lloyd’s daily bulletin below.
Public affairs manager - Surrey County Council
Colleagues at Surrey County Council are recruiting a public affairs manager. You will be responsible for leading public affairs activity across the council including forward planning and stakeholder mapping. You will act as a strategic advisor to the leadership of the council on all public affairs matters and co-ordinate public affairs planning and strategy.
Kind regards,
David
David Holdstock
Director of Communications
Local Government Association
@Davidhold |
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From the LGA's Chief Executive
Dear Colleague,
The latest Office for National Statistics figures on coronavirus deaths, including those in care homes, have been published today. Encouragingly, these show the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last seven weeks. Deaths involving COVID-19 as a percentage of all deaths in care homes decreased to 32.5 per cent in the week to 22 May, compared with 37.2 per cent in the previous week.
It is of course positive to see the week-on-week decline in the number of care home deaths attributable to COVID-19 continue. However, worryingly the total number of excess deaths in care homes remains above the five-year average, with our elderly and most vulnerable residents still at risk. I know that you and your teams are doing everything you can to protect residents in care homes, as well as those who are receiving care in their own homes. In our media response, we stated that local plans to protect care homes, alongside greater information sharing with councils as part of the test and trace programme, will be key to our national effort to finally defeat this disease.
You will also have seen that Public Health England (PHE) today published their review into how different factors have affected COVID-19 risk and outcomes. The findings confirmed that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities, and in some cases, increased them. PHE found the largest disparity is by age. The risk of dying among those diagnosed with COVID-19 was higher in males than females; higher in those living in the more deprived areas than those living in the least deprived; and higher in those in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups than in White ethnic groups. These inequalities largely replicate existing inequalities in mortality rates in previous years, except for BAME groups, as mortality was previously higher in White ethnic groups.
It is important to add that this takes into account age, sex, deprivation, region and ethnicity, but not pre-existing health conditions, which are strongly associated with the risk of death from the virus. Sadly, when compared to previous years, PHE also found a particularly high increase in all cause deaths among those working in social care and care homes, which I know will be worrying for many of our colleagues working in our frontline services and caring for our most vulnerable residents. These findings leave some unanswered questions about why some are more affected than others, in particular those from BAME backgrounds, and we must now deal with the question of how to reduce these disparities. Speaking in the House of Commons today, The Health Secretary announced that Minister for Equalities Kemi Badenoch will take charge of a review looking at what more can be done to address this.
Today we were joined by 758 councillors and colleagues from across local and central government on our webinar on COVID-19 and ethnicity. Those in attendance heard from Professor Kevin Fenton, who led the PHE review. Professor Fenton spoke about the review outcomes and the important role of local government in mitigating the disproportionate risks posed by the pandemic to our BAME communities. It is clear from the level of engagement and challenging discussion that this is just the beginning of the conversation. We will look to engage more on this agenda in the coming months and ensure our members are supported to take action wherever possible to limit the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on some communities.
If you have any issues facing your services or wider community please do continue to email us on coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk. This really does help inform our engagement on your behalf. Please also continue to liaise with your Principal Adviser so we can use the intelligence you give us in our discussions with government and in determining how we best support councils.
Please also keep an eye on @LGAComms and @LGANews where we continue to share information and resources as well as our communications activity on your behalf.
This evening’s Number 10 Press Conference
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 Professor John Newton, National Coordinator of NHS Test and Trace.
The Secretary of State emphasised that people should get tested if they are suffering from any of the coronavirus symptoms, highlighting that there is enough capacity to cope with 200,000 tests a day. The slides he showed demonstrated that hospital admissions and those individuals on mechanical ventilators are down. On the daily number of deaths, it was shown that there is a downward trend, but Mr Hancock noted there is “some way to go”. In care homes, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 according to today’s ONS figures has fallen.
Mr Hancock highlighted the report from Public Health England which has shown how the virus has disproportionately targeted different groups of people. He said that the report had found that age is the biggest risk factor. Gender, living in a city and being BAME are also significant risk factors. He added that more work needs to be done to find out why certain groups of people are disproportionately affected by the disease. Mr Hancock confirmed the Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch MP, will be taking this work forward.
A journalist highlighted that the pandemic has exposed the crisis in social care and asked what the timeframe is for reforming the sector. In response, Mr Hancock said that the Government needs to make reforms that “have been pushed to the side for far too long”. He added that the Government has been working on plans even during the coronavirus outbreak and highlighted his commitment to putting social care on a “sustainable footing”. He confirmed that the Government will aim to make reforms “in this Parliament”.
Public transport
The legislation which gives local authorities the powers to use CCTV cameras to enforce parking or loading restrictions in mandatory cycle lanes was laid on Friday and will come into force on 22 June. In advance of the powers coming into force, the Department for Transport (DfT) has published an advice note for local authorities which provides some guidance on things to remember when enforcing against parking in mandatory cycle lanes. They also plan to update Section 8 of the Statutory Guidance on the GOV.uk website to coincide with the powers going live.
These new powers are something we were expecting to be introduced soon, following the campaigning of the LGA and councils for stronger enforcement of parking contraventions. This will also help councils with your efforts to promote cycling, which we know has experienced a significant recent boost.
Recovery plan for the culture and tourism sectors
The LGA wrote to Secretary of State for The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Oliver Dowden on Monday to highlight some of the medium to long-term challenges facing the culture and tourism industry, including a lack of public confidence in returning to cultural events; the challenges of social distancing, particularly in relation to performing arts and theatre venues; the lead-in time for reopening; and the cultural sector’s reliance on volunteers. We have asked Government to work with the LGA to support the industry and establish a place-based approach to recovery.
Live sport
Elite sports are resuming this month, with horse racing restarting yesterday, Premier and Championship football expected later this month and Test Cricket planned for July. Although the details are still to be finalised, it now appears that most, if not all games will take place at their usual venues, rather than neutral grounds as had previously been discussed. Councils with relevant sports venues will no doubt already be discussing this with clubs, operators and local partners. We’ve developed a short guidance note summarising councils’ responsibilities, while the Sports Grounds Safety Authority has developed detailed guidance for operational leads.
Park management
The LGA has collaborated on a new guide to help councils and other park managers in England safely reopen urban and country parks, gardens and wider green spaces.
Produced with key input from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Trust, APSE, the Midlands Parks Forum and parks practitioners, the guide brings together the latest advice available to help managers of green spaces safely reopen them to the public as lockdown eases. It includes the most recent guidance on managing site infrastructure, social distancing and visitor numbers, to help park managers ensure that their teams, volunteers and visitors are safe and that government standards and customer expectations are met.
Visitor destinations
The Ordnance Survey has been working with Natural England to allow the public to find out ‘What to do and where to go’ as the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions start to ease. The site shows a summary of Government advice for different activities, by county (across the UK), supplemented with practical advice from landowners/activity providers.
At the moment they are focusing on key messages (stay away, or we are generally open) and/or a summary of the practicalities involved in getting outside (car parks open/closed, no access to popular beauty spots, toilets open/closed, social distancing practices in place etc.), with a link back to their own website for further information.
Councils are being invited to include their own local destinations on the website to assist with managing the number of visitors to sites that may not be fully open and helping to disperse manageable visitor numbers across all our destinations. Please email Fatema Lookmanjee at Fatema.Lookmanjee@naturalengland.org.uk if your council would be interested in contributing.
Early years
Updated guidance for early years and childcare providers has been published, providing more information on infection prevention and control, before and after school clubs and a new section on safeguarding and welfare, including provisions for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) and a clarification on paediatric first aid certificates. There is also information on the Competition and Markets Authority taskforce which is looking into the issue of some providers charging parents for unavailable childcare.
Learning disabilities
Today the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published data on deaths of people with a learning disability, some of whom may be autistic, receiving care from providers. While there are a number of limitations in this data, it does show a significant increase in deaths of people with a learning disability as a result of COVID-19. This includes the worrying statistic that there has been a 134 per cent increase in the number of death notifications for this group of people this year and that the impact is being felt at a younger age range than in the wider population. The CQC suggests that, as we already know that people with a learning disability are at an increased risk of respiratory illnesses, access to testing could be key to reducing infection and saving lives.
CQC is undertaking a targeted piece of work to review death notifications to ensure the data provided is both accurate and accessible. We continue to work with Public Health England (PHE) to analyse the very latest data including its impact on various groups of people. Understanding more about the spread and effect of COVID-19 will be absolutely crucial to tackling the outbreak.
Adult social care
Further to last Thursday’s update, please note that a stakeholder webinar on COVID-19 with Dr Nikki Kanani, Medical Director of Primary Care for NHS England and NHS Improvement, and our LGA colleague Simon Williams, Director of Social Care Improvement, will be held on Friday 5 June at 15:00 for one hour.
The panel will be joined by Matthew Winn, Director of Community Health for NHS England and NHS Improvement, and David Pearson, Independent Chair of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System. The purpose of this webinar is to engage with colleagues about their experience of partnership working and opportunities for improvement. If you are interested in attending, please email nhs.stakeholderengagement@nhs.net by Wednesday 3 June. Joining details will be sent to those who confirm their attendance.
Dementia
The IDEAL project at the University of Exeter has produced a leaflet for carers of people living with dementia, as well as for people living with dementia. This contains five key messages about how people with dementia can stay well during the coronavirus epidemic.
End-of-life care
The Palliative Care Institute Liverpool is inviting responses from relatives, friends or professionals who have experienced a death during the COVID-19 crisis. The information provided will help inform service delivery for people in the final stages of their life in the future, during periods of heightened pressure on health and social care services.
Funding for charities
Charities can now apply for funding from the Government and National Lottery’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund. This funding will support charities working with vulnerable people. Funding will be prioritised for organisations supporting people and communities who experience disproportionate challenge and difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 crisis; and organisations providing services and support for vulnerable people, for which there will be increased demand as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Government’s Food Charities Grant Fund is available to support front-line not-for-profit organisations or charities that provide food to those who need it. The grant aims to provide immediate support for a limited period of time to help to feed those most vulnerable due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. The deadline for applications is 6 July 2020. If you have any questions, please get in touch with foodgrant@defra.gov.uk.
Adult education
Ofsted has launched a review of further education learners’ experience of online learning during the pandemic. The review aims to provide insights into the further education sector’s experiences of online education and to identify areas of strength and potential for improvement. This will support post-16 providers re-visiting their online education strategies, particularly from September 2020 onwards. As part of the review, Ofsted is working with the Department for Education (DfE), the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Association of Employer and Learning Providers (AELP) and HOLEX. The latter organisation is the professional membership body for local authority adult community learning, and the review’s engagement of them demonstrates the key role councils have played during the past few months.
As part of the national recovery effort, it is vital that people have the opportunities to increase their skills and retrain and local government is best placed to lead on this. We continue to call for careers advice, post-16 and skills budgets and powers to devolved to local areas, in line with our Work Local proposals.
Workforce
Our latest employment relations advisory bulletin - our monthly round up of employment law issues – is now available. In this edition, we summarise the changes made to our COVID-19 website resources, including on the return to work guidance, education updates and the recently announced changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. There are details of the COVID-19 Workforce Survey Research Report and on how to ensure your authority participates in the survey. There is also information on the Test and Trace employer guidance and related Statutory Sick Pay changes; the NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme; leave to remain for non-EEA family members of social care workers; related HSE, EHRC, ICO and Acas guidance; the impact on right to work checks, the Access to Work scheme, the trade union reporting duty and apprenticeships, and Government guidance on annual leave and pay.
Registration services
Under updated government guidance birth registrations are now permitted, but individual local authorities will need to consider Public Health guidance when deciding whether it is safe to open their premises for face-to-face appointments. This applies to registration services in England only. Marriages and civil partnership ceremonies are still not permitted except is special circumstances.
Social Work Together campaign
More than 90 councils signed up to our Social Work Together campaign and have been given access to a free online search tool, which they can use to connect with social workers ready to return to work in their areas. We developed this free tool in collaboration with Social Work England and Central Government, in order to help you recruit social workers whilst avoiding the costs of agency fees. More information on the campaign and how to access the tool is available on the LGA website.
Local Resilience Forums
I know you have been working closely with your Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) to coordinate the COVID-19 response at pace, and plan for the coming months. To help share practice between LRFs, Nottingham Trent University has worked with the C19 National Foresight Group to create a bespoke app. The C19 Foresight LRF Similarity App enables LRFs to find similar forums in England and Wales, based on simple or multiple parameters. For example, you could filter the search by age, ethnicity, urban make up or economic activity. This would bring up other LRFs with similar profiles and challenges, with details of how you could contact them to share practice or discuss ideas. More information on the app is available from C19foresight@ntu.ac.uk
As always, I hope you find this summary of the day's developments helpful. If there are additional topics you would find it helpful for us to cover, please let us know by emailing coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk.
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Best wishes,
Mark Lloyd
Chief Executive
Local Government Association
@MarkLloydLGA
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