Agenda item

To consider reports from Cabinet Members.

The Council received reports from the relevant Cabinet Members on specific issues upon which they had been asked to comment, as set out below:

 

(a)       Policy, Corporate and Asset Management

           

Councillor Hart circulated a Report, as requested by Councillor Hannaford, on the option for all eligible electors in the Devon County Council area to vote entirely by post in the next set of local elections in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leader highlighted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Government had legislated to postpone all planned elections and referenda until 6 May 2021. Since that time, Government had confirmed there would be no further primary legislation around elections which ruled out all out postal voting, changes to polling hours and allowing by-elections or referenda to take place before 6 May 2021. The Government recognised that the polls would present new challenges and that electoral administrators would have to make changes. The Report referred to a letter from Chloe Smith MP Minister of State for the Constitution and Devolution which said it was not necessary for significant changes such as imposing an all-postal vote as it was felt all-postal voting increased fraud risks and removed choice from voters.

 

Government had been considering a potential smaller change to legislation to support electors with absent voting, as well as considering other ways of ensuring voter participation. Government had confirmed they would consider secondary legislation to make COVID-19 related restrictions (i.e. quarantining and self-isolation) an eligibility for emergency proxy voting, as was the case in Scotland.

 

Due to the changing nature of the impact and response to coronavirus nationally and locally, it would be important that communication plans were flexible and could be adapted to respond to changing circumstances.

 

The Leader also responded in writing to the recent spending review announcements by the Chancellor and how they might impact on Devon. The Spending Review had been presented to the House of Commons on the 26th October. Whilst Local Authorities had been anticipating a three year Spending Review, it was not a surprise that due to the economic and financial impact of the Pandemic this had been reduced to just one year. The Council’s funding allocations would not be known until the week of the 14^th December at the earliest, although the size of some grant funding streams might not be known until the new year.

 

However, the Leader outlined a number of the key messages from the Spending Review such as Core Spending Power to increase by 4% and a new Social Care grant of £300 millions nationally. The Council Tax increase that would trigger the need for a referendum was 2% and there was an option to set an Adult Social Care Precept of up to 3% as well as current Social Care grants continuing.

 

A public sector pay freeze had been announced, except for those earning less than £24,000 per annum and the National Living Wage would increase.

 

The Leader also reported on the COVID related grants, the Council Tax Income Guarantee Scheme, the New Homes Bonus scheme would continue next year and that the Fairer Funding Review, 75% Business Rate Retention and the Business Rates Reset had all been delayed.

 

A number of other grants had been announced, expected to be ring-fenced in the majority of cases, that authorities could bid for. These included Cyber Security modernisation, Test & Trace, Personal Protective Equipment, Rough Sleepers, Domestic Abuse, Troubled Families, School Transport Capacity, Secure Children’s Homes, Social Housing Decarbonisation, Roads Maintenance & upgrades, Cycling, High Street Regeneration and Levelling up for local infrastructure.

 

What this meant for Devon was unclear until receipt of the Provisional Settlement.

 

The Leader also responded to questions on council tax and the social care precept.

 

(b)       Community, Public Health, Transportation and Environment

 

Councillor Croad circulated a Report, as requested by Councillor Hannaford, on the current status of varroa destructor mite infections on Devon’s honeybees, the work being done to combat and contain it and work with key partners, bee keepers, regulators and landscape managers.

 

He highlighted in the Report that Varroa destructor, a global pest of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), was first reported in the UK, in Devon, in 1992 and was now present in every known honey bee colony across the County.  If left untreated, Varroa infection would lead to the loss of a honey bee colony within 2-3 years. Over 90% of beekeepers in the UK controlled the Varroa mite in accordance with the ‘managing Varroa’ guide provided by BeeBase, which was a mechanical treatment of the colony at low numbers of infestation, swapping to chemical control with the introduction of Varroa medicines when mite populations surpassed 1,000. The Report highlighted the work of the National Beekeepers Union, training events in the South West and participant numbers in those events. There was also university led research, including the ‘ReViVe’ project, to better understand resistance to Varroa and winter colony losses and ‘B4: Bringing Black Bees Back’ project. The Cabinet Member also confirmed there was no cross contamination between domesticated and wild bee species, but when the Varroa mite was present in a hive, it increased the prevalence of deformed wing virus (DWV) in the honey bees, which then increased the chance of the virus being spread to wild bumblebee species visiting the same flowers . 

 

He also reported, in writing, as requested by Councillor Hannaford, on the latest trends, figures, rates and convictions regarding domestic violence and sexual abuse in Devon, to include places of safety capacity, prevention work, and child centred practice and any modelling work to scope out future service pressures in light of sector drivers resulting from the pandemic, mental health and acute social issues and economic downturn.

 

The Cabinet Member’s Report highlighted that Devon’s response to domestic violence and abuse spanned many agencies and the Community Safety Strategic Assessment brought together key information to assess crime, disorder and safety issues across Devon, including both domestic abuse and sexual violence.

 

The Assessment for 2019-20 showed a 3% increase in incidents recorded by police linked to domestic abuse in Devon (11,000 incidents, 16.8 incidents per 1,000 population) and the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggested there has been little change in the prevalence of domestic abuse in recent years. In the most recent quarter (July-September 2020) there had been a small increase in domestic abuse crimes recorded compared to the same period in the previous year, but a small decrease in the number of domestic abuse incidents.

 

There had been a steady increase in referrals and requests for specialist support for victims of domestic abuse in Devon in recent years, and a sharp increase since the Spring COVID-19 lockdown, with the Splitz Support Service seeing a 60% increase in calls in April 2020 compared to April 2019.  An increase in the complexity of cases had also intensified the pressure.  The Council responded by allocating an additional £250k of funding. There had also been a substantial increase in the number of professionals seeking advice on how to support families experiencing domestic abuse.

 

Two thirds of cases receiving specialist domestic abuse support included children and the needs of children as witnesses and victims of domestic abuse were being addressed in a number of ways, as outlined the Report. 

 

The Council had also allocated £150k of COVID-19 emergency funding to strengthen the ability of the multi-agency Early Help locality teams to provide direct support to families experiencing domestic abuse where appropriate. 

 

Several initiatives were also under way to prevent domestic abuse by identifying and intervening early and reducing repeat victimisation and perpetration.

 

The availability of safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children was affected by a severe shortage of affordable accommodation of all kinds.  District Councils could provide temporary accommodation in some situations and fixed term Government funding had enabled the creation of three dedicated Places of Safety (2-bedroom flats) and two further sites were being discussed.

 

The Council noted that the Domestic Abuse Bill currently before Parliament would introduce a new duty to provide domestic abuse support for victims and their children who were living in safe accommodation. 

 

The Cabinet Member then provided an update on the roll out of the scheme to support vulnerable children and families in Devon, including free school meals. Throughout the COVID-19 response, the Council had worked and provided significant investment in alleviating the impacts of financial hardship on the most vulnerable. The Council also welcomed the funding for the Winter Grant Fund which equated to £2.042m and increased funding from April 2021 to the Holiday Activities and Food Programme and an uplift in Early Start Vouchers to £4.25.

 

The Council was also seeking to develop a comprehensive and timely response and create sustainability and some legacy from the funding. As such, there were three key areas of investment.

 

1. to align funding and arrangements with the Council’s previous £1.7M investment in hardship funding to District Councils to provide vital support to families impacted by economic pressures;

 

2. the Council had commissioned the Devon Community Foundation to facilitate a rapid piece of work to develop a series of Food Networks across Devon, with an ambition to develop or align to, at least one network per District area, before Christmas. In the longer term it was hoped these networks would continue to develop to support the Council in its wider ambitions around food, particularly in relation to sustainability, local production, good nutrition and health, and food security; and

 

3. the commitment of the Council to provide a universal offer to those families currently relying on term time food within schools. The Council would make available a voucher for each of the 15,000 children eligible and accessing free school meals across Devon which would equate to an allocation of £30 per child over the Christmas holidays. In addition, the Council would provide a basic food box facility should families be unable to utilise a voucher and required urgent support.

 

In addition, the Council would make a significant number of vouchers or equivalent available to Early Help Teams, Children’s Centres, Food Networks and District Councils to ensure that vulnerable families, who may fall outside eligibility for free school meals, were supported over the coming weeks.

 

The next reported matter was an update on COVID-19 including vaccinations, secondary school infections, infection rates, extended or additional lockdowns and the potential repercussions of a Christmas relaxation of restrictions.

 

Rates across Devon had increased steadily since October 2020, although recent data showed some early signs of overall rates reducing. The data published on the 23^rd November suggested the rate of infections for Devon and England was 110.5 and 251.5 respectively per 100,000 population.

 

The position in Care Homes was 91 known situations, which equated to around 180 confirmed cases. This was being managed through Adult Social Care with support from Public Health Devon and PHE.

In terms of schools the Report provided a graph showing the weekly rate of positive cases in school aged children in Devon as well as detail of the attendance figures which showed Devon continued to have a higher percentage of pupils attending school than the national figures across all categories.

As of the 23rd November, there were 54 schools (17 Secondary, 37 primary) with positive cases with staff, pupils, year groups or bubbles self-isolating and approximately 2231 (1251 secondary; 980 primary) pupil absences, due to positive COVID-19 cases, in Devon.

The Report gave detail in the testing capacity for people with COVID-19 symptoms. Positivity rates were currently 5% for the South West and 10% for England and some testing of asymptomatic people had commenced in Devon. 

The Government had signed agreements with seven separate vaccine developers, including Pfizer/BioNTech (40 million doses), Moderna (5million doses) and Oxford/AstraZeneca (100 million doses) and detailed planning was underway in Devon for a COVID-19 mass vaccination. Whilst detail was still awaited, it was anticipated that frontline health and social care staff, care home residents and staff, and people aged over 80 would be first in line.

The Report outlined the new Tier System which placed Devon in Tier 2 (high) and how the Government had made the decision and the Christmas coronavirus restrictions between 23^rd and 27^th December, allowing three households to form a Christmas bubble.

He finally reported on the National Audit Office (NAO) Report, as requested by Councillor Atkinson, which examined the effectiveness of the Government’s support for buses, and the extent to which enablers were in place for local authorities and operators to realise the long-term, sustained improvement that the Department for Transport (DfT) now intended.

 

Bus services had been declining across England for 70 years, with only a few local authorities bucking the trend. However, Government recognised that affordable bus services had public value, and funded around 24% of bus operators’ revenue income.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the DfT had come together with local authorities and operators, intervening rapidly to target the weakest areas and keep buses running.

The Report made a number of recommendations but for Devon there were no immediate implications and the details of the Government’s strategy for buses together with any long-term funding intentions were awaited (expected early in the New Year). Current efforts were focussed on sustaining the bus network during and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Until recently, Devon was one of the authority areas bucking the trend of decline in bus patronage which was attributed to successful joint, informal partnership working with the major commercial bus company (Stagecoach) as well as other small operators and the Cabinet Members report highlighted some of the achievements.

The NAO’s fifth recommendation on funding was supported and should include reform of the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG).

However, the Devon network was strong and well run but it was unlikely to emerge without changes and in this context the support from Government needed to be as clear, consistent and long-term as the NAO report advocated.

The Cabinet Member also responded to questions from the floor on research in America regarding the varroa destructor, testing of university students, peninsular transport vision, future of transport consultation, food vouchers, community models of food networking and specific numbers in relation to domestic violence incidents.

 

(c)       Children’s Services and Schools

 

Councillor McInnes commented, as requested by Councillor Hannaford, on the ongoing additional costs to Devon’s schools from the COVID-19 pandemic and the work being done to secure additional funding.

 

The Cabinet Member thanked Devon's headteachers, teachers and school and college staff who had risen to the challenge of educating children throughout the pandemic, in terms of helping children catch up, making schools as safe as possible, juggling with cases of Covid in both staff and children, organising bubbles and reorganising timetables etc.

 

He highlighted that in the last academic year, schools had been offered extra financial help from the Government to compensate for the extra costs of COVID-19 and that support had not been repeated in this academic year, therefore he had written to the Education Secretary calling for better compensation for schools for COVID-19 costs, which was attached as an appendix to the Report as well as a letter written by him as Chair of the f40 Group.

 

Finally, the Cabinet Member had met with officials responsible for finance at the DfE as well as the Head of Education and Learning raising the issue in regular meetings with the DfE regional directorate, therefore a significant amount of lobbying activity to Devon’s Schools.

 

(d)       Adult Social Care and Health Services

 

Councillor Leadbetter circulated a Report, as requested by Councillor Hannaford on the progress and outcomes of the new care home testing pilot scheme in Devon and then also on the need for extra care housing particularly for the West of Exeter.

 

The Care Home Testing Pilot Scheme was a small-scale pilot involving eight care homes in Devon, the aim of which was to examine the role of how the testing of visitors, alongside other existing infection prevention/control measures, maximised safety. It would run for four weeks from 16 November to 13 December 2020 and the testing would use a combination of new rapid-results tests (Lateral Flow Devices (LFD) tests) as well as the tests already in use (existing PCR swab testing).

 

Feedback from homes had been mainly positive, reporting that the process was simple to follow and meaningful contact whilst wearing full PPE was appreciated. 30 visitors had been tested as of 20th November with one visitor testing positive. The DHSC would evaluate the pilot and review all of the training and guidance which would lead a phased rolling out of the visitor testing to care homes in the first two weeks of December, ensuring all homes had this in place in time for Christmas.

 

In relation to Extra Care Housing, the Council’s Commissioning Strategy was approved by Cabinet in 2010. The current needs assessment aligned to the strategic planning period up to 2033 which informed Local Plans and was used to inform work with housing/planning authority partners to identify suitable sites. Edwards Court in Exeter was due to complete in April 2021 and there was a currently a joint tendering for a housing and care operator for the scheme as a whole, with the City Council, which would provide 53 flats, leaving a forecast unmet need of a further 252 flats by 2033.  It had been highlighted they should be distributed across the city, with at least one scheme west of the Exe. Opportunities were being explored for a further ECH scheme of approx. 80 units on a site close to Morrison’s supermarket and regarding the west of the Exe, work was ongoing to look for a suitable site/opportunity.

 

The Cabinet Member, as requested by Councillor Connett, provided a briefing on the work being undertaken to support Carers and Young Carers across Devon since March 2020 and over the coming months to the end of March 2021. The Council noted that Devon Carers was in contact with and providing support to 22,704 adult carers of adults.

 

The impact of the pandemic on carers was significant and, although the actual numbers of new carers was not yet known, estimates were that numbers had increased significantly.

 

The Report outlined the support offered to carers, for example, work to identify as many carers as possible, carers passport, free PPE, the Devon Carers website and helpdesk, early delivery of a service in the hospitals to support carers, enhanced the availability of small Breaks payments, new small payments COVID-19 grants scheme for carers, ICT equipment to enable carers to stay in touch and prioritised other improvements considered likely to be urgently needed such as online Peer Support.

 

The Council was working with Devon Carers and the Carer Ambassadors to review the Carers’ Offer and an action plan of priority areas focussing on Personal wellbeing, Promoting the independence of the cared-for person, breaks and Changes in care.

 

In terms of young carers, there had been an increase from January 2020 in the number of young carers being supported (1,663 as at the end of September 2020) and an increase in the number of 1^st assessments the service had undertaken for young carers. The Service Provider had a ‘triage’ process in place to help determine the priority for assessment.

 

The Report gave a table showing the data and numbers for young carers Getting Advice, Getting Help, Getting More Help, Awaiting Assessment and 1st assessment complete, Young carers known to the service supported through CIN assessment and Young carers known to the service also supported through child protection.

 

Whilst many of the service functions had moved to a virtual delivery, the service had targeted face to face services for some young carers where needed.

 

The Report finally outlined the additional activity in response to COVID  Lockdown restrictions such as the introduction of young carer ID cards, getting more help (increased involvement with Early Help/ Multi-Agency support), weekly ‘check ins’ with as many of the most vulnerable young carers as possible, enhancement of transition support and continued multi-agency working.

 

The Cabinet Member also responded to questions on agency workers in care homes, the vaccine (rollout and certification) and also temperature control of the vaccine.