Agenda and minutes

·        4 November 2020

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2020 were approved

Members were presented with a verbal update on the Test, Trace and Protect Service (TTP). Before providing a breakdown of the statistics and current overall picture, Officers highlighted that the figures were a snapshot in time of a very dynamic situation and that the numbers were currently increasing.

Local Figures

It was stated that in the Swansea Bay Region over the last seven days the TTP Service had received 2,604 new index cases with almost 5,000 contacts associated with those cases, and in Neath Port Talbot over the last seven days the TTP Service had received 1,124 new index cases and 2,536 contacts associated with those cases.

Officers added that the epidemiology was showing that there consistently appeared to be more contacts associated with each case in the Neath Port Talbot area than in Swansea.

National Figures

In terms of national figures, it was noted that the seven day case incidence figure identified that Neath Port Talbot was currently the highest in Wales with 697.1 cases per 100,000 population; Merthyr Tydfil was second highest with 668 cases per 100,000 population and Swansea was ranked fifth in Wales with 549.8 cases per 100,000 population.

Test Positivity Figures

Members were informed that Neath Port Talbot was ranked second in Wales for the amount of tests that were identified as positive at 25.5%; Merthyr Tydfil was ranked first with a 28.7% positivity rate and Swansea was at 23%.

Age Group Breakdown

The positive cases were stated to be predominately within the working age population (40-49 year olds and 50-59 year olds); however, in recent weeks there had been an increase in the number of positive cases within the younger age groups (10-19 year olds and 20-29 year olds) which was being closely monitored and analysed.

Clusters and Exposure Locations

The Committee was informed that there were currently 22 care homes in Neath Port Talbot with ongoing outbreaks and that there was a high level of concern over the stability of the care home sector and community care in general; due to this business continuity issues were being experienced at this point in time. It was added that there was a number of clusters in open and closed work place settings across the Country Borough.

Schools

It was highlighted that 27 schools in Neath Port Talbot had reported more than one case in the last 14 days, however this was more likely to be due to the increase of transmission in households; the evidence was continuing to show that there was not wide transmission within the school environment and that much of the transmission within the school age range was a consequence of what was happening at home and during out of schools activities such as birthday parties and sports training. It was added that although there was transmission in schools, they were generally providing a Covid 19 secure and controlled environment.

Members were informed that the TPP Service had developed strong working relationships with Senior Management within the Councils education department and regular  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

The Committee received an update report in relation to the Covid 19 Member Panel – Recovery Phase which included a summary of the business undertaken by the Panel to date.

It was highlighted that the name of the Panel had recently changed to ‘Coronavirus – Member Panel’ as the circumstances had changed since it was first established.

A discussion took place in relation to recovery from the pandemic and if it was anticipated that a recovery phase would be entered during the first few months of 2021; the Council previously started giving some thought to recovery in the summer of 2020, when infection rates were extremely low, however in a matter of weeks the situation drastically changed. Officers stated that they hope that the planning around recovery would resume by Easter when the vaccination programme had made significant progress, so that over the summer discussions could take place with Members and the communities of how the recovery will take shape. It was added that recovery wasn’t a linier process and activities were already being undertaken with recovery in mind including progressing the work around the lessons learned over the past 9 months to ensure that this was not lost; there were also some immediate impacts, for example the work around homelessness and trying to develop some models for moving the people who were currently in temporary housing, into more permanent arrangements.

Members thanked all those who had been involved in contributing to the work of the Panel and the Focus Group.

Following scrutiny, the update was noted.

·        To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)

The committee scrutinised the following cabinet items:

Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024

The Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024 was presented to the Committee with the actions to meet the equality objectives.

Members asked how many staff had the Council employed who were on zero hour contracts and the reasoning behind why they were on this type of contract. In terms of the reason, it was noted that the individuals had elected themselves to take up casual contracts for work, for example in the Survey Team within the Environment Directorate; there was a relatively small number of staff who had specific reasons for being on that type of contract and these individuals make themselves available and can turn work down if it suits them; there was no specific pattern of work that could be planned in advance for them. It was confirmed that Officers would circulate the exact number of staff on zero hour contracts to the Committee following the meeting.

Detailed in the circulated report, it stated that no feedback was received from an event which was held with the Community of Practice for Engagement and Involvement in order to obtain an insight into what was important to the groups they regularly engage with; it was asked who was involved in the event and why wasn’t any feedback received. It was explained that the Participation Officers that the Council had across different service areas within the Council (including those who support the youth council, the looked after children version of the youth council and the community veterans) were asked to feed in any views, opinions or evidence that could support the development of the Strategic Equality Plan; whilst the equality objectives were being drafted, these Officers were asked to give some thought as to whether or not the right objectives had been selected, however due to the timing of the pandemic, the engagement work with these network of Officers was disrupted. The importance of their input and the need to pick up this work as part of the implementation was highlighted.

It was asked if the work to improve physical access to the committee facilities in both Neath and Port Talbot Civic Centres was still doable and if so, when it would be done; it was still very much the plan to improve the access arrangements for Members, especially in Port Talbot Civic Centre as there was some difficulties in terms of access particularly within the Council Chamber. It was noted that a lot of work was being undertaken prior to the pandemic, and one of the main pieces of work being looked at was clearing out the old kitchen area which wasn’t being utilised anymore and turning it into a meeting room as it was a very accessible space; having a meeting room downstairs would be beneficial as one of the issues with having meetings on the upper floors was that someone within that meeting would have to be responsible for evacuation procedures and be trained to do so, if there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To resolve to exclude the public for the following items pursuant to Regulation 4 (3) and (5) of Statutory Instrument 2001 No.2290 and the relevant exempt paragraphs of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972

·        To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)

The committee scrutinised the following private cabinet item:

Passenger Transport Subsidised Network

Members were updated on the private report on the Passenger Transport Subsidised Network.

Following scrutiny, the committee noted the report.