Minutes:
Question
There will be a considerable amount of work required by Wokingham Borough Council to ensure that there is a coordinated and speedy route to enable our local Health Services to administer the long awaited Covid-19 Vaccines to our residents in the Borough. This action is likely to require additional financial resource as well as the need for additional staff to provide these functions. The Liberal Democrat Group on WBC support such action. It is also important that WBC continue to provide as many of our local services during this period as possible.
We recommend that WBC find someone with experience in logistics/programme management or project management to ensure these capabilities are provided in a cost effective and efficient manner. This work will be complex and it is essential that these actions are implemented in an expedite manner.
As time has been short, the information within the Executive paper will by definition be limited. Can the Leader of the Council provide additional information on this project at the Executive meeting and will he continue to provide updates on a regular basis, so that all parties can be made aware of what has been achieved and what still needs to be completed?
Answer
The Council has successfully managed its Covid-19 response since March by standing up and using its emergency planning governance to oversee planning and delivery. This is chaired by the Chief Executive and includes all the directors. The ‘Gold’ meeting, as it is called, meets as often as needed and was meeting daily at the height of the pandemic. As part of this function the Council draws on all of its resource and expertise as needed from around the Council, included in this is access to qualified and experienced programme management.
This meeting tonight is to finalise plans to release additional funding that will support several initiatives across the Council’s Covid-19 response. This includes the delivery of rapid tests to enable care home visits before Christmas, building upon its local contact tracing service and supporting the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccination programme across the Borough.
Subject to approval tonight, £500,000 has been requested to support these initiatives and ensure they can run effectively. Significant work is already being undertaken, with Council employees working tirelessly on the planning and preparation of a local pilot that will support care homes with their rapid testing of visitors.
This is an important step and will mean that care home residents in the Borough could have face-to-face contact with loved ones before Christmas. To help local care home providers navigate rapid testing for visitors the Council has made the decision to manage the process and conduct these tests at its Shute End Offices. There will be a range of measures in place to ensure that the site is as safe as it can be possible.
Throughout the pandemic, our aim has always been to support our communities as much as possible, particularly our most vulnerable residents in local care homes. There are a lot of administrative and technical logistics involved with rapid testing, which could put an additional pressure on care homes that are already under a lot of strain. This is why we have decided to create a central test point at our Shute End Offices.
We will be one of the first Boroughs in the UK, actually I think we are the first, to undertake a pilot of this kind and a tremendous amount of effort has gone into its organisation. To be able to facilitate a rapid testing programme and enable residents to visit care homes before, during, and after the festive period is extremely rewarding. That said, we will continue to take extra precautions and for safety visitors will need to keep their distance and still wear full PPE when visiting loved ones.
In terms of other programmes identified, the Council has already been running a successful contact tracing scheme to support NHS Test and Trace, with the contact tracing success rate currently sitting at 90% across the Borough. It is proposed that additional funding will support the continuation of this service and develop a further element of self-isolation for those who need it.
In addition to this, Wokingham Borough has been allocated a limited number of vaccinations for care home residents and staff. While the roll-out of the vaccination programme is being led by the NHS, it is supported by local authorities, and in particular us, and it is expected that the Council will need to provide additional support to its partners as the programme expands. This will require additional resource to manage and coordinate the programme locally.
We are continuing to dedicate a huge amount of resource to our Covid-19 response and we are proud of those efforts. However, we must remember that it will be some time before we can see the impact of certain initiatives, such as the vaccine programme, on our case rates. Therefore, it is extremely important that we adhere to the rules and follow social distancing guidance to prevent a rise in community transmission rates during the rollout of these programmes.
I will always, as you know, endeavour to be open and transparent in how we support our residents and will happily commit to giving you regular updates as I have in the past.
Supplementary Question
As you know if there is something that I am prepared to support the Council with I will stand up and say so. This is one of those issues and I think is absolutely vital and fully support the actions. Have any grants or anything come from Government to support this or is this funded from within?
Supplementary Answer
It is a very difficult question because what the Government has done is given grants and said this is your lot until March 2022. So, the current presumption is that we are not going to get anymore money but I suspect that will change because the new requirement for lateral flow testing for schools, which is not really completely developed, is going to require a huge amount of resource, particularly from us, to do it properly. So at the moment the answer is no but I suspect the future answer will be yes.