Agenda item

Report by Chief Executive Officers – Alistair Cunningham and Terence Herbert.

Report by Chief Executive Officers – Alistair Cunningham and Terence Herbert.

A statement and three questions were received from Margaret Willmot, re the Wiltshire Council response to Covid-19

The Leader thanked Ms Willmot for her comments and confirmed that responses had been prepared on the issues raised and a copy had been sent to Ms Willmot and also published on the Council’s website.

The Leader then introduced the report.

Chief Executive Officers – Alistair Cunningham and Terence Herbert introduced the report.

That Wiltshire Council had been playing an integral role in leading the local response to COVID-19, working with partners across the footprint of Wiltshire, to ensure that those most vulnerable in the community were supported, local businesses received the government funding allocated to the county and critical council services could continue to deliver essential services during what was an unprecedented and rapidly changing incident.

This report set out the public health data in respect to COVID-19 at a county level and provided a summary of the Council’s response to date, the impact on services and an overview of the Council’s current financial position.

Overall, Wiltshire Council had overseen a significant and timely response to the emerging threat of the pandemic in Wiltshire. This had involved the suspension of a number of services, the redeployment of staff to support the most vulnerable, extensive support to businesses and suppliers, strong partnership working with health and care and other agencies, a significant communications effort and close working with local communities and voluntary groups. Schools and early years settings had also been supported to rapidly adjust to new government guidance.

Associate Directors were given the opportunity to briefly outline how their services had contributed to the Wiltshire Council response.

The Leader thanked Emma Legg, Lucy Townsend, Helean Hughes, Tracy Daszkiewicz, Sam Fox, Parvis Khansari, Jo Pitt and Ian Gibbons

The Leader, Terence Herbert and Alistair Cunningham paid tribute to the

staff commitment across all departments of Wiltshire Council, with some staff

Working 24/7.

Cabinet members, group Leaders and other members in attendance paid their own tributes to Wiltshire Council staff.

Graham Wright – Chairman, Overview and Scrutiny Committee advised that:

In recognition of the need for officers and Executive members to focus on the covid-19 response, Overview and Scrutiny had temporarily shifted to a streamlined structure, with all scrutiny engagement on Executive decisions being undertaken by OS Management Committee and its newly established Wiltshire Covid-19 Response Task Group. Meetings of the other three select committees had been cancelled until September. OS Management Committee would meet next on 3^rd June to ratify this arrangement, which would be in place until the August recess when the situation would be reviewed again.

The Covid-19 Response Task Group had already met on two occasions and It was envisaged that it would meet prior to every Cabinet meeting for the foreseeable future to review items that fall under its terms of reference. Although the intention was to focus on covid-19, our terms of reference do allow the task group to consider any other matters coming to Cabinet. Overview and Scrutiny would consider doing so if the matter was of particular significance. In other cases it may just request a briefing for the relevant select committee chairman.

To be as constructive as possible, members of the task group wish to focus on the future; meaning the recovery from, and legacy of, covid-19. This included looking at how the council would adapt itself to its new operational and financial context. The task group would be efficient and proportionate in its approach to allow the incident response to remain the priority.

Regarding the Covid-19 report in today’s agenda, the Task Group considered this last week on the 12^th of May. We were grateful to be joined by the Leader, Deputy Leader, two Chief Executive Officers and a number of directors who answered all of our questions and had also provided further information following the meeting. We found the report very comprehensive and our questions covered every area of the response it set out, including:

·       How the council would support residential care homes when occupancy levels fall

·       How vulnerable people were being identified

·       How children entitled to Free School Meals were being provided for

·       The role of the Local Resilience Forum and the council’s governance around emergency decision-making

·       What modelling was being done to prepare for the financial challenges we now face.

Finally, the task group would also be meeting before Cabinet in July to consider the latest report on the covid-19 response and will be back to report its comments then.

Resolved:

1.    Notes the update with respect to the response to COVID-19 and recognise the impact that it has had across Wiltshire on its residents, communities and businesses, the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE), public sector partners and the Council itself.

2.    Notes the Section 151 officer’s summary of the impact of COVID -19 on the council’s 2020 / 2021 budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

3.    Notes the changes to local authority powers and duties introduced by the Coronavirus Act 2020 and supporting guidance.

4.    Notes the decisions taken by officers under delegated authority in Appendix 1

5.    Thanks local communities, the voluntary sector, businesses, strategic partners and education settings for their support during these unprecedented circumstances.

6.    Acknowledges the significant and exceptional effort of staff working throughout the COVID-19 response.

7.    Notes that a further report will be presented in June, which will include additional information on the Council’s response and recovery plans.

Reason for the decision

That these are unprecedented times for local government and this report provided Cabinet with an overview of the work both undertaken and ongoing by Wiltshire Council in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, together with the associated challenges and risks. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic would have immediate and undoubtedly long lasting significant financial implications for Wiltshire’s economy, communities and residents as well as the Council itself.