|
Dear Colleague,
Millions more children have returned to the classroom this week for the first time since December as coronavirus restrictions in England begin to ease. Welcoming back all children to school in a COVID-19 secure way has rightly been a national priority, but the debate continues about how best to make up for lost learning. Nearly a third of parents think it will take at least a school year for their child to recover learning lost during the pandemic, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reveals. Around two in three parents are concerned that their child has missed out on learning as a result of school closures over the past year, the IFS found.
A separate study led by researchers at the Universities of Essex, Surrey and Birmingham found a “significant rise in emotional and behavioural difficulties” among primary school pupils after the spring and summer school closures in 2020. They suggest any potential negative impacts of the latest school closures are likely to continue after the Easter holidays and into next term.
I am sure you saw or heard the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, across the media at the weekend outlining a range of options, including a five-term academic year, a shorter summer holiday and longer school days to help pupils catch up on learning lost during the pandemic. Please do share any issues you are experiencing locally around the full opening of schools with our Children’s Improvement Advisers by emailing CIATeam@local.gov.uk. We continue to engage with government on education recovery work being led by Sir Kevan Collins. Sir Alan Wood, former President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, has been appointed as part of Sir Kevan’s team and will join our Children and Young People Board meeting on March 16 to discuss the issue with councillors.
Alongside the wider reopening of schools, rules around meeting another household have been loosened to allow people to leave home to meet one other person outdoors under the first phase of the Government’s road map out of lockdown. Visits to care homes also resumed yesterday. Visitors are required to be tested beforehand, as well as wearing personal protective equipment, and are advised to keep physical contact to a minimum. Despite the strictly controlled conditions, it has been heart-warming to see stories of couples, families and loved ones reunited for the first time in many months.
At a Downing Street press briefing yesterday, the Prime Minister vowed to remain cautious in loosening coronavirus restrictions. The next test of the roadmap will come from March 29, where it is proposed that outdoor gatherings of either 6 people or 2 households could be allowed and outdoor sports facilities may reopen.
International Women’s Day on Monday celebrated women's achievements, raised awareness of bias and stood up for equality. I hope you saw some of our social media activity and videos throughout the day, with contributions from councillors and leading figures during the pandemic, including Dr Jeanelle De Gruchy, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health, who discussed the impact that COVID-19 has had on women.
COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths
The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to fall across the UK. Yesterday, the 4,712 confirmed coronavirus cases represented the first time since September 28 that daily cases have been below 5,000. A total of 2,914 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending February 26 mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is a drop of 29 per cent on the previous week and is the lowest total figure since the week ending December 25.
Analysis by the Press Association of NHS England data shows hospital admissions in England of patients with COVID-19 aged 85 and over have fallen 90 per cent since the peak of the second wave. Hospital admissions of patients aged 65 to 84 have also fallen sharply since the second-wave peak, dropping 91 per cent from 1,678 on January 12 to 159 on March 5. The overall number of admissions in hospitals in England stood at 487 on March 5, the lowest figure for five months – since 472 on October 5.
NHS England (NHSE) has announced that Nightingale hospitals - set up to cope with a surge in COVID-19 cases and admissions - are to close from April. The sites in London and Sunderland will stay open for vaccinations.
Vaccinations
People aged between 56 and 59 are being invited to book COVID-19 vaccinations this week, NHS England said. Hundreds of thousands of letters for the age group began landing on doorsteps on Saturday. It comes after eight in 10 people aged 65-69 took up the offer of a jab, with more than 18 million people across England – more than a third of the adult population – having already received a vaccine.
Vaccine hesitancy
Younger adults, black or black British adults, renters, lower earners and those living in the most deprived areas are more likely to be hesitant about COVID-19 vaccinations, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. Ninety-four per cent of those surveyed by the ONS were positive about the vaccine, up from 78 per cent in December when the data was first collected.
A reminder of our webinar on Thursday (10.30am-12pm) which will explore how councils and public sector partners can increase uptake of the vaccine by working to understand and tackle vaccine hesitancy and counter misinformation. We'll hear from Waltham Forest Council on its use of research and insight and Birmingham City Council on its Community Champions programme. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will also present its new vaccine disinformation toolkit.
Vaccine uptake
In a bid to boost vaccine uptake, the NHS will be sending text messages to almost 400,000 people aged 55 and over and 40,000 unpaid carers, with a weblink so they can reserve an appointment at one of more than 300 vaccination centres or pharmacies across England. Reminders will then be sent every two to three weeks to encourage people to get their vaccine if they have not taken up the offer.
If the move proves successful, younger people can expect to receive texts ahead of official NHS letters landing on doormats.
We have published a briefing to summarise what additional support councils need in fulfilling their role in driving vaccine uptake in disproportionately impacted groups and some key barriers to vaccine uptake that have been identified by councils.
Unpaid carers
The Government has published its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the vaccination of unpaid carers as part of priority group 6 as set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. This has been co-produced with national partners, including the LGA, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Carers UK. Councils have a crucial role in identifying eligible unpaid carers who are known to them and local carers organisations and enabling them to take-up the national vaccination offer through the NHS. Many councils are well underway with this process, with many unpaid carers already vaccinated.
The next step is to reach unpaid carers who are not known to their local health and care system so they can self-refer through the National Booking System. We know councils will wish to play their part in raising awareness of this important opportunity throughout their local area. To support you in reaching as many unpaid carers as possible, the Department for Health and Social Care has developed a communications toolkit which includes FAQs, social media copy, suggested narratives, and shareable resources which can be tailored for local messaging.
We are expecting increasing attention to be put on council returns to NHS Digital with contact information about unpaid carers known to them. You may want to check your teams have what they need to meet the deadline of close of play on Friday 12 March. You are being asked to provide this information through your Short and Long Term (SALT) data collection leads.
Local Outbreak Management Plans
A refreshed Local Outbreak Management Plan will be crucial as we progress along the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown. As I have mentioned before, it is also likely that the Government will seek reassurance about the local plans and measures in place to deal with new outbreaks or high infection rates. A reminder of our webinar tomorrow, (3pm-4pm) for council leaders, chief executives, directors of public health and other interested members and officers to hear how the Contain framework is being strengthened to focus on COVID-19 variants and how local plans are taking these into account.
We will welcome Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, Contain director, NHS Test & Trace and chief executive of Oldham Council, to provide an update and will also be joined by Dr Jeanelle De Gruchy, Association of Directors of Public Health President and director of public health for Tameside Council. An invitation has been sent out directly to chief executives and leaders with the Zoom joining details. If you have not received this and would like to, please contact us at outbreakmanagement@local.gov.uk.
Workplace testing
All businesses in England are now able to sign up to receive free rapid coronavirus tests under the Government’s workplace testing programme. Since Saturday, businesses of all sizes, including those with fewer than 50 employees, have been able to register online to order lateral flow tests for their workers, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said. Businesses have until March 31 to register for the scheme, which will remain free until the end of June.
Self-isolation support
We are aware that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has shared its final framework for non-financial support for people who are self-isolating. We expect a readiness survey to be issued shortly, with full roll out expected by the end of March. Its development has been informed by ongoing work locally and by councils in a working group as part of the existing Stakeholder Engagement Forum which previously focused on shielding.
The Government has confirmed that it will be providing £12.9 million funding per month to help councils meet the costs involved in assessing people’s practical support needs and helping them access support. It has said it will provide details shortly on the distribution of this funding, which will be reviewed in May. This aims to help meet the overhead costs involved in setting up and running local systems for contacting those identified as having potential support needs, assessing those needs, helping people access local support and reporting on key outcome measures. Where councils decide on an exceptional basis to provide direct support, the Government has said they will need to meet the costs involved from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund or from other sources. The framework is designed to be a ‘live document’ which will form part of the wider revised Contain Framework to be issued shortly, with government keen to share the learning from councils to inform this. A national communications strategy is also in development.
We continue to push for guidance and frameworks on financial and non-financial support to be joined up, with the funding allocations for both to be confirmed as soon as possible. We also continue to stress the need for continued engagement with councils on plans for the medium to long term, alongside further work with businesses. Please do continue to engage with your Principal Adviser and your Department for Health and Social Care and MHCLG regional leads with your views or on any practice you wish to share more widely.
Care provider pressures
More than half of the 72 social care providers surveyed by learning disability charity Hft said they have had to close down some parts of their organisation or hand back contracts. Around a third of providers said they have made redundancies, and one in 10 revealed they have had to offer care to fewer individuals. The charity has added its voice to calls for the Government to bring forward a long-term funding solution for adult social care to safeguard the future of the sector.
Women’s health and wellbeing
The Government has launched a 12-week call for evidence to better understand women’s experiences of the health and care system. Experiences shared will form the basis of a new Women’s Health Strategy. The future Strategy will aim to improve the health and wellbeing of women across England and place women’s voices at the centre of their care by better understanding their experiences.
School testing
Most secondary schools and colleges in England have seen nearly all their students opt in for on-site coronavirus tests, a survey has suggested. A snap poll of 700 headteachers, by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), found 54 per cent reported a take-up of between 90 per cent and 100 per cent for rapid COVID-19 tests. Nearly three in four (73 per cent) had more than 90 per cent of pupils wear face masks in class.
Childcare providers
The Coram Family and Childcare’s annual childcare survey has found that childcare providers are struggling to remain sustainable during the coronavirus crisis, with 39 per cent of local authorities in England seeing providers in their area raise their prices over the last year. The charity’s poll also found 32 per cent of councils reporting that some providers have reduced the number of free early education entitlement places they offer. It is essential that there are enough childcare places to support families to ensure the country can recover from COVID-19, both economically and socially. In our media response, we urged the Government to closely monitor the situation and provide additional funding where providers are at risk of failure as a result of the pandemic.
Criminal justice reform
The Government has introduced its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to Parliament today as part of efforts to overhaul the justice system. It will place a legal duty on councils, police, criminal justice bodies, health and fire services to tackle serious violence and share intelligence. It also plans to increase the maximum penalty for criminal damage of a memorial from three months to 10 years, give police more powers to tackle non-violent protests which cause significant disruption, and crack down on unauthorised encampments.
The legislation will also expand position of trust laws to make it illegal for sports coaches and religious leaders to engage in sexual activity with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care. This follows calls from campaigners amid concerns offenders in such roles could exploit the influence they have on young people, leaving them vulnerable to abuse.
Serious violent crime funding
The Home Office will provide £130 million in funding to tackle serious violent crime in the coming year. The package includes £30 million to support the police to take targeted action in parts of England and Wales most affected by serious violence and up to £23 million for new early intervention programmes aimed at young people. A further £10 million will expand domestic abuse perpetrator programmes previously announced in the Budget.
Reopening of hospitality
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has set out government measures to support hospitality businesses to reopen safely from April 12, as part of the second stage of the roadmap out of lockdown. This includes the extension of pavement licenses for 12 months to make it easier and cheaper for pubs, restaurants and cafes to continue to make al fresco dining a reality with outside seating, tables and street stalls to serve food and drinks. Pubs will also continue to be able to have marquees up without planning permission for up to two months. We are supportive of continued flexibility but continue to engage with the Government and councils, to contribute to the development of workable and helpful guidance, as well as to help shape any longer term changes the government wishes to explore.
High streets
The High Streets Task Force alliance has published its February 2021 insight report to understand the scale of the pandemic’s impact on town centres and high streets. It includes significant detail on high street footfall and business impacts. We continue to update our case study toolkit on how councils are reopening town centres. Our latest addition shows how Colchester Borough Council has encouraged motorists to park in more peripheral car parks and to actively complete the remainder of their journey by walking or cycling, with benefits of reduced congestion, pollution and healthier travel.
Congestion
The amount of time UK drivers spent in traffic unsurprisingly plummeted last year as a result of local and national restrictions, homeworking and school closures. Drivers spent an average of 37 hours in queues in 2020 compared with 115 hours during the previous 12 months, new figures from transport analysts Inrix show. London maintained its ranking as the UK’s worst city for traffic, although the average of 69 hours lost represents a 53 per cent cut compared with 2019.
Green spaces
A study by academics at the University of Glasgow has found that those from a more socially disadvantaged background were a third less likely to visit green spaces before the national lockdown, and two-thirds less likely once restrictions were enforced. The analysis, based on a YouGov poll of 2,252 UK adults from April 30-May 1 2020, also found adults over 65 were also less likely to visit green spaces once lockdown was imposed, compared to younger adults, potentially because of the call for over-70s to shield in the early days of the pandemic.
Given the benefits that access to these spaces can have, particularly for those in disadvantaged communities, these findings emphasise the importance of green spaces in the national COVID-19 recovery. As we highlighted in a recent case study report, the loss of external income due to the closure of revenue generating facilities in parks and the loss of in-kind volunteer contributions have left parks services in a vulnerable state.
Delivering net zero
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Energy Studies has published its report following its inquiry into energy policies that will enable the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions while fuelling the economy. We submitted written evidence to the inquiry. The report supports giving local and regional organisations a key role in delivering net zero while acknowledging that each region has very different natural resources, skills, expertise and businesses. Net zero can only be achieved if decarbonisation happens in every place, community and household. In our media response, we said that councils must have the necessary resources and be suitably supported by government to make that happen.
Air quality
Twenty-eight councils have been awarded a share of more than £5 million in government funding to deliver innovative projects to improve air quality. The funding, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Air Quality Grant, will help them develop and implement measures to benefit schools, businesses and communities and reduce the impact of dirty air on people’s health.
Green recovery
The second round of the Green Recovery Challenge fund has opened and will award up to £40 million in grants to environmental charities and their partners across England to retain and create jobs while restoring nature and tackling climate change.
Heating complaints
The Housing Ombudsman has published a report on complaints about heating and hot water – including 'heat networks’ and gas servicing. It makes 40 recommendations for improved practice and is one of the Ombudsman’s spotlight reports focussed on issues identified through the complaints they have investigated and resolved.
The Ombudsman has also started publishing all decisions on cases investigated. This is a step towards greater transparency and follows publication of performance data reports on individual landlords launched at the end of last year.
EWS1 survey guidance
New guidance has been issued by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in a bid to reduce the number of External Wall System 1 (EWS1) surveys being requested by banks and building societies on blocks of flats. Thousands of flat owners have been unable to sell or remortgage because they cannot get the checks done, which were introduced to assess the potential financial impact of dangerous cladding on high-rise blocks. The new guidance, Valuation of properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding, aims to clarify types of properties which will, and will not, need additional inspections to speed up mortgage approvals.
APPG on Devolution
Today the Devolution All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which the LGA has helped to support, launched its new report looking into the role of national government in making a success of devolution in England. The report calls on Government to level-up devolution and rethink a culture of centralisation that is leaving local areas behind. It was good to see it get covered by the BBC today. This afternoon our Chairman Cllr James Jamieson attended the report’s launch event, alongside MPs, Peers, council leaders, councillors and officers. The timely report comes ahead of the Government’s much anticipated Devolution White Paper, with the APPG helping to support the LGA’s lobbying to ensure that local government has the powers and resources it needs to strengthen our communities for the future. If you have any questions about the report or the work of the APPG do get in touch with amy.fleming@local.gov.uk.
Chief executives’ pay claim 2021
The Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (ALACE) has submitted a pay claim in respect of local authority chief executives that seeks parity with any headline increase that might be agreed for the main bulk of local government staff covered by the ‘Green Book’ NJC.
HMRC off-payroll working
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are holding online interactive workshops to discuss the key elements of this April’s changes to the Off-Payroll Working (OPW) rules for public authorities. It will answer questions that councils may have about the changes. The sessions will be held on Tuesday 16 March at 11.30am and Wednesday 17 March at 2pm, with attendees being asked to sign up online.
Local elections
This week a new statutory instrument came into force which amended relevant parts of the Coronavirus (Wearing a face covering) regulations and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) 2020. This mandates the wearing of face coverings at polling, count and postal vote opening venues at the local elections. The amendment confirms that this cannot be used to prevent an entitled voter from voting. The amendment also allows for campaigning activities to take place for election purposes.
The Cabinet Office has also published a joint statement from the UK Government, Scottish Government and Welsh Government which outlines the measures in place to ensure every elector can safely have their say in the local elections on May 6.
We continue to raise key issues with government around funding the extra costs of these elections and the need for clearer specific public health guidance around elections.
Ministerial webinar
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published the transcript and recording of the latest ministerial webinar held last Friday. It covered a range of announcements included in the Budget and further details on the Community Renewal Fund and Levelling Up fund and a general Q&A with ministers and officials.
I hope this Tuesday update has been useful. As always, do continue to liaise with your Principal Adviser if there is anything further we can do to support your councils.
|
Best wishes,
Mark Lloyd
Chief Executive
Local Government Association
@MarkLloydLGA
|
|
 |
|
