310 Review of the Council's Community response to the pandemic: The Community Hub and engagement with the voluntary sector PDF 368 KB
Minutes:
Madeline Homer introduced the report and said
the following:
·
The fairly detailed report before the Panel highlighted TD’s
response to the pandemic;
- When the national lockdown was put
in place the council had already started working to provide support
to local communities;
- Effective networks had been set up
with third sector organisations. This had improved the
council’s engagement with communities, including parish and
town councils;
- The council would like to continue
with this engagement approach.
Members made comments as follows:
- The work done by the Council in
response to the covid pandemic had been brilliant;
- The level of vaccination take up by
the vulnerable groups had been of concern nationwide;
- Some frontline working staff had
struggled to get vaccinated especially those that fell into the
young age groups;
- The CEx and her team worked very
well with parish and town councils as regular conference calls were
held to provide updates on how the council was managing the
situation in the district. Margate although not a parish/town
council was also invited into those update meetings;
- These meetings have been
excellent;
- The helpline was very helpful;
- Members thanked the council staff
for the work they did in response to the pandemic;
- The council stepped up to the plate
on this significant challenge.
Members agreed that these compliments by
councillors for the excellent work done by the council staff in
response to the pandemic should be on record.
Thereafter the Panel took no further action
and agreed to note the report.
The Impact of Covid-19 on businesses and communities in Thanet
Minutes:
Madeline Homer, CEx introduced
the item and said that it 2020/21 had been a year like no other in
terms of challenges for the public sector and that local government
was no exception to that. Ms Homer then gave an overview of some of
the achievements made by Thanet District Council as part of the
response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Homer said that the Council
was already dealing with the pandemic prior to the national
lockdown at the end of March 2020. Prior to that, the council had
already conducted the following:
- reviewed and
refreshed our business continuity plans in light of
coronavirus;
- provided capacity for
home working including training sessions and crib sheets for
access;
- provided staff with
regular updates on the situation and included access to frequently
asked questions;
- Established an
officer group including all senior management who met regularly to
review the situation and what may be required by us.
The CEx said that when the
national lockdown was introduced; whilst for most industries this
meant reduced work; for TDC it meant everyone stepping up and
working that little bit harder. Within the first week the council
had:
- Reduced access to the
offices, put in increased cleaning regimes and hand
sanitisers;
- Established back
office support for those working from home such as scanning and
printing assistance;
- Closed off public
spaces such as playgrounds;
- Maintained refuse
collection services;
- Allowed residents
with parking permits to park in council car parks free of charge
and suspended parking charges for all NHS and social care
workers;
- Set up and staffed a
dedicated 7 day a week phone line to support our vulnerable
residents access supplies;
- Worked with partners
to provide these essential supplies;
- Contributed to a Kent
wide dedicated business support line;
- Provided temporary
housing for all those who were sleeping rough.
This set the pattern for how
the council would be responding to the challenges posed by the
pandemic, for 2021 as TDC responded to the announcements from the
daily government briefings. The council carried out the following
activities:
- Telephoned or visited
over 6000 extremely vulnerable residents;
- Emailed, messaged and
telephoned again over 6000 extremely vulnerable
residents;
- Distributed
£92K worth of support for the extremely vulnerable through
food provision;
- Distributed
£113K in support for those in fuel poverty;
- Issued warnings and
prohibition notices to businesses who have flouted the
restrictions
- Responded to the
biggest influx of visitors to the coast in a long time;
- Increased toilet
cleaning regime;
- First council in Kent
to hold an online licensing sub-committee;
- Used innovative
antibacterial coatings on high touch points such as parking
machines;
- Temporarily closed
roads to support the reopening of high streets in July;
- Distributed
discretionary test and trace support funding;
- Set up an enforcement
team specifically for covid business enforcement and
advice;
- Provided a door
knocking service for track and trace;
- Introduced covid
wardens for the high street;
- Created a beach
management plan to respond to higher than usual visitor
numbers;
- Provided sites for
two drive in testing facilities and ...
view the full minutes text for item 303