|
Welcome to the NAG and SOPO newsletter for 17 July 2020. Feel free to circulate to your colleagues.
This newsletter is now delivered through our corporate service that handles all our various e-bulletins.
Manage or create a subscription.
Previous bulletins can now be found here.
Personal protective equipment
The guidance for social care and health providers on how to order emergency personal protective equipment was updated this week to confirm that visors can now be ordered via the portal.
Information on how to safely purchase medical devises for social care was provided recently by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Just to note that PPE is used when intended to be worn (or held) to protect the wearer. The market surveillance authority for PPE is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Medical devices are intended to protect the patient, and medical staff, and the market surveillance authority for medical devices is the MHRA. There will be many instances where a product is dual purpose and acts both as PPE and a medical device.
Schools
Summer Food Fund
The guidance for schools and councils on providing vouchers to support pupils eligible for free school meals over the summer holiday period has been updated. This now includes further information on providing food parcels and free meals in further education.
DfE Home to School Local Authority Working Group – Request for Information
Colleagues at the DfE are looking to set up a local authority working group to inform the development of the commercial strategy on home to school transport ahead of a full opening from September. We understand that councils/transport authorities will likely have already started some thinking in this space, and they are keen to incorporate existing knowledge and understand what best they can do to provide support to local authorities in delivering additional capacity. Please contact DfE-CovidEnquiries.COMMERCIAL@education.gov.uk if you have any information you’re happy to share with the group or in fact would like to become a member of the small working group.
Culture, hospitality, tourism and leisure
Government has published a written Ministerial Statement to support the culture and tourism sectors by preventing the loss of theatres, concert halls and live music performance venues. The statement sets out the approach local planning authorities should take to decision making for those venues that have been made temporarily vacant by COVID-19 business disruption. It also confirms that the Government will remove permitted development rights for the demolition of theatres, concert halls and live music performance venues.
Fiscal devolution key to nationwide COVID-19 economic recovery
Councils want to work with the Government on how local communities can have the freedoms and flexibilities to play a lead role in the nation’s economic recovery and better connect local leaders to decisions made about how money is spent and raised for the benefit of their communities.
Councils across the country continue to lead local communities through the COVID-19 crisis, which has underlined the transformative role they can play in supporting their communities and economies if they are given the freedom to deliver.
A new report by think-tank Localis, commissioned and published by the LGA finds that - across the western world - local government has been able to react with greater power and autonomy than in the UK.
Opening up
Childcare
The Department for Education has shared updated guidance on protective measures for providers of community activities, holiday or after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school settings offering provision to children during the COVID-19 outbreak. This guidance is intended to help providers of out-of-school and holiday childcare providers to open in their own premises, education premises, such as schools or colleges and community-facing premises including village halls, community centres and places of worship.
Waste disposal
As more people are expected to wear face coverings, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has issued new guidance on how people, businesses and organisations should dispose of waste during the pandemic. This includes guidance on removing and disposing of face coverings and personal protective equipment, disposing of additional cleaning waste and litter picking.
Non-COVID stories
NACF Construction Framework: Trust in local government to deliver
The National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF) plays a unique role in driving construction procurement best practice across local government. As a collective they exchange knowledge, share best practice, lessons learned, innovation and resources between themselves and local government networks.
The NACF team work together, contributing towards the Industrial Strategy and the Grenfell Industry Response Group, as well as supporting the further development of PAS91 (Construction Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) and the National Procurement Strategy.
As a collective they exchange knowledge, share best practice, lessons learned, innovation and resources between themselves and local government networks – read more about their offer.
Flooding
Government announced new measures and funding aimed at improving England’s resilience to flooding. This is as part of the Government's long-term plan to tackle the risks of flooding and coastal erosion and is good news for councils and our vital work preparing and responding to heavy rainfalls. The new plans include:
- Investment of £5.2 billion in capital funding to create around 2,000 new flood and coastal defences between 2021 and 2027.
- Up to £170 million to accelerate work on shovel-ready flood defence schemes that will begin construction in 2020 or 2021.
- Proposed changes to the joint government and insurance industry Flood Re scheme, ensuring homeowners in high-risk flood areas can still access affordable insurance, which would apply across the UK, to support households and businesses affected by flooding.
Webinars / e-learning
Greening procurement webinar
The Greening Procurement webinar, jointly run by the Business Services Association and the LGA, was an online workshop to explore the climate emergency and how local government and businesses can work together on meeting local carbon reduction goals. During the session, the following was covered:
- The climate emergency and the work of local authorities in helping to prevent climate change and mitigating its effects
- The ways in which councils have worked to reduce carbon emissions in the communities they represent
- The role of the private sector and Voluntary and Community Sector stakeholders in working with councils to these ends
- Best practice in incorporating sustainability as a factor in the public procurement process, including through the Social Value Act.
Greening procurement webinar presentations
BSA and LGA Greening Procurement webinar blog
CIPFA Unravelling the Mysteries of Open Book Contract Management for Procurement & Legal Practitioners - 22 July
Social Value Portal: Time to Act: Delivering Social Value after COVID-19 – 22 July
WIG Outsourcing Playbook version 2.0 Webinar - 30 July
|
