Agenda item

The Leader presented the report that set out the strategic recovery aims that will enable the Council’s

services to recover and operate whilst continuing to support the Council’s strategic aims set in the

Corporate Plan 2017/22.

 

The report confirmed the Covid-19 health emergency has posed significant and unprecedented challenges

to the way the Council delivers its services and the impact on the way of life. 

 

The Leader confirmed that:

 

·      The Council’s focus has been to preserve life, minimise the spread of the virus and support its communities and the vulnerable that have been impacted by this disease.

·      During this difficult time, the Council has ensured that frontline services continue to be delivered to communities across Newport.  At the very outset Cabinet said it would focus on: 

 

o    Continuation of waste collection from households;

o    Over 700 food parcels distributed from the Council’s Neighbourhood Hubs;

o    Schools supporting children of key workers and vulnerable children.

o    10 Flying Start settings looking after 94 children and supporting 81 key workers;

o    Continued care and support provided by the Council’s Children and Adult Social Services and ensuring front line staff had access to PPE;

o    Administered £30 million of business grants to 2,250 eligible businesses within Newport;

o    With our partners providing safe and secure accommodation for the homeless in Newport; 

o    Council staff working from home through the IT support provided by the Shared Resource Service.

o    Operating virtual contact centre; answering over 31,000 calls and over 2,400 emails.

 

The Leader and Cabinet extended their thanks to all members of staff, volunteers, partners and communities that have continued to deliver services and support vulnerable people throughout this difficult and challenging time.  Working from home with excellent IT support has been a success and a virtual contact centre was established which has worked extremely well.  This has been an unprecedented period and the citizens of Newport have been outstanding.  Heads of Service and the senior leadership team have provided exceptional performance and service which is very much welcomed and appreciated.

The Leader reported that overthe last few weeks, statistics from Public Health Wales have shown encouraging signs of Covid-19 cases slowing but that future peaks could still occur, therefore the City has to remain vigilant and adhere to the guidance provided by the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales.

There has been some easing of restrictions and the re-establishment of the Council’s services such as the Household Waste Recycling Facility, establishment of a Track and Trace Centre and preparation for the safe reopening of schools.

The Leader confirmed that further Council services are recovering into a ‘new normal’ way of working and there is a renewed focus to ensure that this good work is not undone; the Council is supporting Newport’s economy to rebuild and focus on those communities that have been impacted the most by Covid-19.  To support the Council to do this, four Strategic Recovery Aims have been proposed that will provide a focus for members, staff, partners, and communities to understand what the priorities are for this next year. 

The Leader invited Cabinet colleagues to make comments/observations on the Council’s response to the crisis:

Cabinet Members commended staff for the way in which they have stepped up to the challenges brought about by Covid-19, particularly frontline staff who have continued to provide services in the public realm. 

Cabinet noted that the Council was technically advanced to be able to deal with the crisis in terms of video conferencing, enabling staff to work from home and the Council’s Hubs have been pivotal in providing help and support to the most vulnerable communities of Newport. 

Thanks were expressed to the Council’s housing team who have worked relentlessly to ensure the homeless were taken care of.  Also the finance team for the work done on providing grants and rates relief to businesses as well as council tax relief to residents.

Cabinet was pleased to confirm there had been no demarcation of jobs with staff helping out in different service areas – all of whom have stepped up to the plate to ensure delivery of services. 

Thanks were expressed to all partners and charities across the city and also thanks to the residents who provided charitable actions/donations throughout.

Cabinet expressed thanks to the Leader of the Council for her guidance and leadership during this.

The Leader thanked all members of the Council across all political groups who have worked closely together to ensure there has been a one-Newport response; thanks also to the Council’s partners on the one-Newport partnership board.

The Leader thanked the Acting Chief Executive for her efforts and applauded her strong leadership which has been at the forefront of the Council’s response.

The Acting Chief Executive gave thanks to colleagues in the senior team for their hard work but also huge thanks to the wider staff team across all service areas.  She also thanked the Leader, Cabinet and all elected members for their support over the past few months in being able to make some important decisions in tackling the impact of this crisis.

 

The Leader emphasised the good work done by everyone to keep Newport safe and thanked all residents of Newport for their efforts in following Welsh Government/Council guidelines.

 

The Leader reported that the Strategic Recovery Aims do not replace the Council’s existing Corporate Plan (2017-22) and Well-Being Objectives, but are intended to support them, and when services and partners are ready, the Plan will continue to be delivered.

·      The four Strategic Recovery Aims have been developed with the Council’s Wellbeing Objectives (Corporate Plan 2017-22) at the core of structuring focus for this year:

 

1.      Understand and respond to the additional challenges that Covid-19 has presented, including loss of employment, impact on businesses and on the progress, achievement and wellbeing of both mainstream and vulnerable learners.

 

2.      Understand and respond to the impact of Covid-19 on the city’s economic and environmental goals to enable Newport to thrive again.

 

 

3.      Promote and protect the health and wellbeing of our people, safeguarding our most vulnerable, and building strong, resilient communities. And,

 

4.      Provide people with the resources and support that they need to move out of the crisis, considering in particular the impact that Covid-19 has had on our minority and marginalised communities.

The Leader confirmed the four Strategic Aims will be focusing on building on the positive work that has been undertaken across the Council but also acknowledging the further work required by the Council and its partners to address the areas that have been impacted the most in this crisis. 

For example, the long term sustainability of the social care sector, emerging unemployment, the inequality and poverty that Covid-19 has highlighted across our community and which has impacted the most on the (BAME) communities across Newport.

 

To get to the ‘new normal’ way of working the Council is looking at:

 

o    Phased re-opening of the Council’s libraries;

o    Supporting future re-opening of cultural and leisure facilities in Newport;

o    Safe return of businesses including retail and construction to boost the City’s economy;  the Leader was pleased to report she had visited Debenhams on the re-opening of their store in Friars Walk and had seen at first hand the work being undertaken to re-open the store, as well as other retail businesses in Newport;

o    Supporting people including the young that have lost their jobs to retrain, enter further education and support back into work;

o    Supporting schools on their phased return.

 

The Leader confirmed that in order to support the delivery of the Strategic Aims, the Council is undertaking a Community Impact Assessment that will assess and address the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis across Newport’s communities and will help inform future direction of the Council’s priorities and actions.

The Strategic Aims set out the broad principles for recovery and will be implemented at a number of operational levels by more detailed service delivery actions and measures. Service areas will review and revise their service plans for 2020/21 to support the delivery of the Strategic Aims and will be monitored/reported throughout the year. 

 

 

The following actions will be taken to ensure delivery of the Strategic Aims, Council Services and Governance (The Leader confirmed that an infographic has been made available to illustrate these actions):

 

·      The Council’s Communications’ Team will be supporting the promotion of the Strategic Recovery Aims to all stakeholders and Communities in Newport.

 

·      The need to safely restore Council services, whilst maintaining a safe working environment for staff, councillors and service users.  A programme of work is underway to address this.

 

·      Restoring the governance and democratic process to ensure that there is accountability and transparency in the decisions made. 

 

·      The revision of the Local Government Meetings Regulations will enable the Council to undertake Council meetings remotely and work is underway to look at ways of reintroducing other Council meetings for the future. 

 

The Leader confirmed a report is being prepared for July Cabinet setting out how the Council can get back to full council meetings, etc.  Training for all members will be arranged for them to participate fully in these meetings.

 

The Leader invited Cabinet Member comments on the Strategic Aims:

Councillor Giles confirmed the opening of schools is the next major stage for education services with work ongoing to prepare children for return to school in September.  Wellbeing will remain a major priority for ensuring a safe return to schools for all.  The Cabinet Member confirmed the Council had provided the highest number of support hubs in the region, and provided IT equipment for children to continue to be educated.

Councillor Davies confirmed that one of the benefits arising from the pandemic was the reduction in traffic which has led to an improvement in air quality.  The Council continues to work towards being carbon neutral by 2030 and there is a need to ensure that we take advantage of the situation and build on these improvements. .  Also the reduction in grass cutting has enabled the wildlife to flourish and as a bee friendly city this has been welcomed.  However, there is also a need to understand the impact on those most vulnerable in our society and there is much work to be done to help and assist people going forward.

Councillor Harvey confirmed that the Council’s parks are now open full time albeit with restriction on play equipment; looking at plans to reopen the central library, the mobile library has been working; plans are also being progressed to reopen the transporter bridge.

Councillor Jeavons confirmed that in respect of air quality and active travel, the Council has been successful in its bids to Welsh Government.  Waste and recycling services service continued throughout with the council working in partnership with Newport Wastesavers on recycling.  The booking system for visitors to the HWRC is working extremely well and staff are keen for the system to continue.  Staff were retrained in order to redeploy people to cemeteries to cope with excess death funerals.  Councillor Jeavons concluded by commending all staff who had assisted Debenhams with their request for rate relief which has resulted in the store reopening.

Councillor Cockeram confirmed that there had been 600K childcare sessions with food parcels, enormous pressure on children’s services, and safeguarding and mental health issues have risen by a third.  The crisis has made the service look at different ways of working with some staff going out to homes with PPE and doing respite in the children’s own homes; the Council is now doing its own domiciliary care with disabled and vulnerable children.  With regard to PPE, the Council’s own care homes had stock of this equipment and the Council was also able to supply PPE to independent care homes.  There have been no Covid-19 deaths recorded in the Council’s care homes.  Going forward there will be significant pressure in relation to safeguarding.  The Cabinet Member thanked all social services staff for their tremendous hard work.  Councillor Cockeram also paid tribute to the community connectors who have been supporting carers during this time. 

Councillor Rahman commended the Council for the work done in partnership with the Salvation Army, the Wallich, Pobl, and other organisations to provide accommodation, meals and health checks to the homeless within the city, these people being amongst the most vulnerable.  He also gave thanks to   everyone for the help given to the BAME community who have been badly affected by this virus and also gave thanks to staff for the support with the BLM campaign and community cohesion issues.

The Leader shared with colleagues that she is due to have a roundtable discussion with the organiser of the BLM march in Newport in order to continue this dialogue and to keep any actions at the forefront of the agenda. 

Councillor Giles reported that in line with Councillor Cockeram’s comments regarding supporting vulnerable children, a system is in place with Gwent Police who work very closely with schools in regard to vulnerable children who may be at risk.  Newly reported vulnerable children have been identified by education to social services.  Councillor Giles also confirmed the free school meal voucher scheme has been very successful and provision will continue throughout August.

Councillor Harvey applauded the work done to get food parcels out to those that required them, all Newport’s Flying Start facilities remained open. She gave special thanks to the Headteacher of Llanwern High who had delivered papers to children at home who didn’t have IT access to enable them to continue with their education.

Councillor Davies confirmed that through the community hubs over 600 food parcels had been delivered to support those most vulnerable in the community, and an extra £30K funding has been given to the hubs to ensure food parcels can continue to be delivered.  She thanked Newport City Homes for providing logistical support to make this happen.

Councillor Jeavons confirmed that parks, cemeteries, the HWRC have been able to reopen following   thorough rigorous risk assessments, these assessments have contributed to the success within the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area as it was the worst affected area at the outset of the pandemic.

Councillor Truman praised the Council’s staff for stepping up to the plate, to some degree at their own personal risk, to ensure services were maintained. 

The Leader thanked her cabinet colleagues for their comments and proposed that Cabinet endorse the Strategic Recovery Aims that will enable the Council’s services to recover and operate whilst continuing to support the Council’s Strategic Aims set out in the Corporate Plan 2017/22.

 

Decision:

 

Cabinet voted unanimously to endorse the report and the Strategic Recovery Aims, which will enable the Council to provide a strategic way forward for its Members, staff, service users and partners as the Council responds to the Covid-19 health emergency.