Minutes:
(1) Mrs Bell (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health) provided an update on the disbursement of money received from the government’s Infection Control Fund. The first tranche of funding had been received with the second instalment due in July. 75% of the funding would be distributed to care homes in accordance with a set formula, with the balance allocated to home care and other care providers. She also referred to: the planning underway to deal with any local outbreaks of coronavirus; test centres in Ebbsfleet and Ashford; and plans for ‘pop-up’ test centres if there were localised outbreaks of infection.
(2) Mrs Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services) gave an update on work undertaken in relation to the Change for Kent Children’s programme including: the success, for the second consecutive year, in recruiting newly qualified social workers to increase resources within the children’s social work teams. In addition, ten social work apprentices had also been taken on. Mrs Chandler also referred to the critical situation in relation to the arrival of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. 509 children were in the care of KCC, of whom 252 had arrived this year, including 60 who had arrived in June. She said additional government funding and assistance with finding suitable placements for these children outside the county was very welcome and had reduced the cost to Kent residents by £5m this year. However, if children continued to arrive over the summer, the authority’s capacity would come under further pressure and, in the longer-term, additional funding from government and a sustainable national transfer scheme was needed.
(3) Mr Long (Cabinet Member for Education and Skills) said that children in year 5, many of whom were due to take the Kent Test, would not return to school until September and he was, therefore, considering proposals to delay the test and to increase the number of schools that could be selected on the secondary common application form for one year only. 91% of schools, that had responded to the consultation, supported the proposal to delay the test by one month. Mr Long also said that 5,000 pupils were attending school before half-term, and the number had increased to 10,000 after half-term with 19,000 attending last week. Mr Long concluded by saying that many schools were providing an excellent online education offer.
(4) Mr Payne (Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport) said he was seeking to lock in the benefits of lockdown for the future, and in particular the reduction in car journeys. A bid had been submitted to the government’s Active Travel Fund and members would be consulted about any future bids.
(5) Miss Carey (Cabinet Member for the Environment) said that all household waste and recycling centres were now open. When the sites re-opened on 15 May, there were 20,000 slots which could be booked online by residents and this number had now increased to just under 23,000. 90% of the slots available at some centres were booked and more slots would be made available as soon as it was possible. Miss Carey also said that she had joined today’s Cabinet meeting remotely from Worrall House as she was attending the ‘switch-on’ of 508 solar panels on its roof. She said that 1500 solar panels had been installed on five KCC buildings as part of a project to reduce the authority’s carbon emissions to zero.
(6) Mr Hill (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services) said the births registration service had re-started on Wednesday, 17 June. A backlog of 3,500 births to be registered had built up since the service had been closed in March. 2,300 appointments had been made in 12 locations across the county and he anticipated that the backlog would be cleared within 4-6 weeks. The registration of deaths continued to be conducted over the phone. There was no confirmation of the date when weddings could take place, but it was likely they would resume in July.
(7) Mrs Prendergast (Cabinet Member for Communications, Engagement and People) said that the flow of relevant and timely communications to both residents and staff had been, and would continue to be, a key priority for her service during the pandemic. As lockdown restrictions were eased, attention had been turning to how the county might move forward and a residents’ platform was being developed to make it easier for residents to contribute thoughts and ideas on proposals and strategies. Mrs Prendergast referred to the ‘Kent Together’ initiative which acted as a ‘front door’ for those who needed help and support during the pandemic and brought together a range of voluntary and statutory agencies. She referred to the survey that had been undertaken to understand how staff were feeling about working from home and about future ways of working. The results of the survey were being analysed and the intention was to increase support to staff, especially to those who found the new arrangements challenging. She concluded by thanking staff for their efforts over the previous 12 weeks.
(8) Mr Oakford (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services) said that of 377 buildings occupied by KCC, 63 were currently open and providing essential services to residents. He also said that 6,500 members of staff were currently working at home compared with an average of 400 per day prior to the pandemic. In line with government guidance staff would continue to work at home. A risk assessment, using the 50-page government guidance document, was underway to decide which buildings could be re-occupied, although he anticipated that occupancy levels would be between 20% and 30% of pre-pandemic levels. He anticipated that any building that was critical to service provision would be opened by September.
(9) There was no update from Mr Whiting (Cabinet Member for Economic Development)