A message from the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive, South Gloucestershire Council
Thank you to all our residents for your continued support in these deeply challenging and unsettling times. Below are some highlights from a national level and updates on our response as a council to the coronavirus outbreak. As we are sure you will appreciate, we are moving at pace, so the information below is a summary and we will aim to keep you briefed as frequently as we can.
Cllr Toby Savage,
Leader of South Gloucestershire Council
Dave Perry
Chief Executive, South Gloucestershire Council
Overview of the current situation
Confirmed cases in South Gloucestershire
As of 27 March, we have had 37 confirmed cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) in South Gloucestershire.
Given the current testing regime, the actual number is expected to be significantly higher than this. Total cases in the UK is 14,543 and total UK deaths, 759.
Stay at home and save lives
Only go outside for food, health reasons, work (but only if you cannot work from home), or one exercise session per day. Do not go outside if you have been contacted by the NHS and given ‘shielding’ advice.
Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people
Wash your hands as soon as you get home.
Coronavirus Act 2020
Following agreement by both Houses of Parliament, the Coronavirus Bill received Royal Assent on 25 March.
This free government service provides trustworthy information and advice about coronavirus. Simply add 07860 064422 in your phone contacts then send the word ‘hi’ in a WhatsApp message to get started.
MOT exemption
All vehicle owners will be granted a 6-month exemption from MOT testing from 30 March 2020, enabling them to continue to travel to work where this absolutely cannot be done from home, or shop for necessities.
Volunteering
Public Health England has published new guidance on how to help people safely. This is aimed at people who are providing essential support to friends, family and neighbours who are in isolation.
We’re working to ensure that the people who the government has asked to shield for 12 weeks have the provisions and medication they need.
We should receive emergency food supplies today which staff will package into food parcels for delivery in the coming days.
These supplies are being provided so that we can deliver immediate support to those who have been asked to shield themselves at home and who do not have access to friends, family, neighbours or other local support networks to go shopping for them, etc.
Over time, food will be provided direct by the suppliers and medication by community pharmacies. We will continue to support in providing any wrap around social care required.
Redeployment of staff
Our HR team is working with managers to redeploy staff who are unable to perform their normal roles, matching their skills to bolster our essential services.
Staff who usually work in school catering, finance, IT and HR have joined the community meals team to help ensure our most vulnerable residents continue to receive healthy, hot meals during the coronavirus outbreak.
Some office-based staff from our StreetCare team have been retrained and redeployed to work on the waste and recycling vehicles and help with essential household waste collections.
Funding
The government has provided the council with additional emergency funding to support our response to this emergency.
More work is ongoing nationally to identify what future levels of funding local government will need over the remainder of this year. The government has already paid the council most of next year’s grants to aid cashflow.
Closures and changes to council services
This is an ever-changing situation as we follow government guidance and deal with staff shortages.
The council website now features information for residents, businesses and carers during the coronavirus outbreak. We are adding a webform to take enquiries where answers cannot be found on the website.
Social media
We are using social media to:
share important information from government and the NHS
keep you up to date with service changes and share stories of people going above and beyond
reach out to community groups to build a Community Aid directory so people know where to go to offer help or receive support.
Please retweet and share our messages to your friends and family in South Gloucestershire.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support
Parents and carers are telling us that they feel unprepared and overwhelmed at this time. They have also provided positive feedback about the council’s engagement and support to them to date.
We recognise that their role is to reassure their child as best they can and to support their child’s and their own wellbeing.
We are working with schools to maintain access to education for vulnerable children, children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and also key workers’ children.
However, the overriding message we need to stress to all parents is the importance of social distancing at this time and the very clear government guidance in relation to this.
We have prepared information and learning packages for parents, carers and teachers to use with children at home or in school. You can find these on the home learning website.
Voluntary groups
We have issued a range of information and guidance materials to support the increasing number of community groups that are springing up in neighbourhoods across the district.
Adult social care - Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Access to PPE for our care staff and that of our care providers is one of our most urgent issues currently.
This week, both Cllr Toby Savage, the Leader of the Council and Dave Perry, Chief Executive, have escalated this issue at every opportunity. The Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government has assured us that the army is now assisting in getting PPE delivered. This will continue to be top priority for the council's senior leadership team.
Help us get the message out
With social-distancing, stay-at-home directives and the ever-changing situation, digital channels are our main means of communicating at present.
However, we know our digital communications do not reach all of our residents.
If you have family, friends or neighbours who might not be aware of our messages published online and via social media, please call them to let them know.
If you are part of a local support group and are making phone calls to particularly isolated people in your area, please take a moment to update them on any relevant changes to council services or support available.
In normal times, we would be using mailings, posters and face-to-face contact to reach residents who are not online but these channels are currently too slow to get information out before it becomes out of date.
We are eliciting the support of local newspapers and radio and hope to be able to reach more residents through regular printed editorial and broadcasts of useful council information.
Sharing information
Please help us to share information and advice to support communities:
follow the Department for Health and Social Care on social media which is sharing some particularly helpful messages.
And finally, please recognise that our council teams are extremely stretched at this time due to staff being ill or supporting family members and children at home. Please bear with us in these challenging times.
