Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

 

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, the following interest was declared:

 

Councillor C A Holley - personal - Minute Nos. 149 – Daughter works for Social Services.

In accordance with the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, no declarations of Whipped Votes or Party Whips were declared.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.  

 

Resolved that the Minutes of the Scrutiny Programme Committee held on 14 July 2020 be approved as a correct record.

Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting.  Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

There were no public questions.

The Leader / Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance & Strategy, the Chief Executive, the Director of Place and the Deputy Chief Finance Officer were present for the Committee’s consideration of the Council’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and recovery planning. 

 

The Chief Executive led the presentation of information to the Committee, which focussed on the recovery and included: -

 

·            City Economy

o     Regional approach via Growth Deal

o     Regeneration Programme continuing

o     Sectoral Impacts

·            Supporting Business

·            The 3 phases of the recovery plan: Remobilise, Reshape, Regenerate

·            Timeline – Cabinet approval of recovery plan was anticipated end of September / early October

·            Workstreams

o     Care Services

o     Education and Learning

o     Future Workforce

o     Equalities

o     Community Support

o     Economy and Environment

 

Questions and discussions with the Leader and Officers focused on the following:

 

Test, Trace & Protect (TTP) Service

·            Staff employed in the TTP service - 4 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Clinical Leads, 12 FTE Tracers, 32 FTE Advisers, 5 FTE Environmental Health Officers made up of a mix of secondees and NHS staff

·            Measuring success – current figures were approx. 90% traced within 24 hours (exceeding national target), however the number of cases were low. 

·            Testing capacity and numbers of people being tested – approx. 2-3% of tests were positive

·            Partnership working with other Authorities

·            Public awareness of TTP and compliance

·            Monitoring of people who needed to self-isolate

·            Testing in care homes

             

Recovery Planning

·            Recommencing services as far as possible

·            Maximising public investment to support recovery planning

·            Attracting third party investment

·            Building further on excellent collaboration created with other partners and agencies throughout the pandemic

·            Covid-19 outlook that may affect recovery planning

 

Emergency food support

·            Ongoing needs and support for asylum seekers and refugees

 

Business and economy

·            Reimbursement for money spent  and lost income

·            Schemes to help businesses - business grants, waived fees for using outside space, fast tracked licences for use of outside space, advice for re-opening safely

·            Current position with footfall / retail recovery

·            Employment of local staff and local companies in the City Centre Development, particularly the new Arena

·            Community benefits from City Centre Developments

·            Impact of homeworking on the City Centre and the demand for office space

·            Demand and uptake of City Centre student accommodation

·            Possibility of incorporating agile staff working spaces in Community Hubs

·            Potential closure of District Housing Offices – alternative provision of services

 

Finance

·            Impact of loss of income – expectation of reimbursement from Welsh Government and financial support to aid recovery

·            Comprehensive Spending Review

 

Environment

·            Roll out of Green Infrastructure Programme to other areas in Swansea

 

Resolved that the Chair of Scrutiny Programme Committee write to the Leader, reflecting the discussion and sharing the views of the Committee.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Community Health Services and the Director of Social Services were present for the presentation of the ‘West Glamorgan Regional Partnership - Overview of the Regional Response to COVID focused on Care Homes’.

 

The report looked at the regional response to COVID in care homes based on advice and guidance available at the relevant times. The review was commissioned by the Regional Partnership. It reflects upon the implementation of government advice and partnership decision-making, the management of COVID in care homes and safeguarding, as well as challenges within the partnership.

 

The Director of Social Services highlighted some of the key findings of the report including the positives and challenges of the Partnership. The collaboration and partnership working was identified as a particular strength. A particular challenge had been the over reliance on symptomology, however it is now known that asymptomatic transmission was a problem in closed settings. There was more work to be done to plan for any potential future spikes in COVID-19, but also a number of lessons had been learned from the experience so far.

 

Questions focused on: -

 

·            Figures of those who had COVID-19 – various numbers and changes in recording and other variants provide different figures.

·            Concern about the discharge from hospital of those with COVID-19 and lessons learned

·            Frequency of testing of both staff and residents in care homes and levels of cases

 

The Cabinet Member expressed his thanks to all care home staff both in-house and external for their hard work.

 

Jack Straw, Independent Chair of the Health and Social Care Group on behalf of the Extraordinary Regional Partnership Board, was thanked for his work on the report as well as the Cabinet Member and Director of Social Services. 

The dates and times of the upcoming Panel / Working Group meetings were noted.