Agenda item

Councillor Steve Battlemuch declared an Other Interest in relation to councillor question 5 of agenda item 5 Questions from Councillors (minute reference 21), because he is a Director of the Robin Hood Energy Board.  He stated that he would take no part in discussions regarding Robin Hood Energy at meetings of the Audit Committee.

 

Broadmarsh Development

Councillor Kevin Clarke asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

 

Following last week’s developments regarding Intu handing back control of the Broadmarsh Centre to Nottingham City Council, can the Leader confirm that the responsibility of the site now lies fully with the Council?  If so, and while we understand firm plans cannot be drawn up overnight, can the Leader outline to us the options that are available and being considered for the future of the site?

 

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Clarke for his question.  As mentioned in my previous answer to the member of the public, on 3 July 2020 the Intu holding companies associated with the Broadmarsh Centre entered into receivership.  As a result, the Official Receiver disclaimed the lease for the Broadmarsh Centre to the Council as owner of the freehold. This outcome is a hugely significant step for the City.  It means that the Council now has both a greater opportunity to start to develop a new sustainable plan for the whole of the Broadmarsh site; and it also takes on the liabilities for the area, which as all can see is a building site and, whatever the plans for the future, needs initially to be made safe before any future plans can be realised.  An open and widespread conversation about the future of the area needs to take place with Nottingham citizens as the opportunity arises to really assess what should happen in this space.  The first priority is to get the public access safely restored from Collin Street to Lister Gate through the Centre. 

 

Robin Hood Energy

Councillor Kevin Clarke asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre:

 

In the financial year 2018/19 Robin Hood Energy posted losses of £23.1million. According to their own accounts, they have made losses of over £33.5million across the previous five years. Indeed, they have only posted a profit one year across their entire existence.  While the Council can hardly be blamed for the current financial hardships caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the fact remains that the present situation is critically fragile. Does the Portfolio Holder not therefore agree that it is finally time to follow the Labour-led Bristol City Council’s lead and divest itself of its commitment to what is obvious to everyone, a failing energy company?

 

Councillor Sam Webster replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you to Councillor Clarke for the question.  As he will know, the Executive Board of the Council, on 17 December 2019, noted the intention to carry out a full options appraisal and strategic review regarding the future of Robin Hood Energy.  This process commenced back in January 2020.  The public statement from the Company announcing the review in January said: “we have commenced a strategic review of the business.  This will consider all options for Robin Hood Energy and will be complete by the summer.  Meanwhile our key objectives are to find further efficiencies in our processes, ensure we continue to provide a great customer experience and deliver for our shareholder and most importantly the people of Nottingham”.  So we are anticipating the conclusion of the review shortly and the Robin Hood Energy Board will need to make a decision on this consistent with the best interests of Nottingham City Council as the shareholder.  Any decision for the Council resulting from this will be taken in accordance with the City Council’s Constitution. 

 

Response to Coronavirus outbreak

Councillor Maria Watson asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

 

In the previous Full Council meeting back in May, all parties here expressed words of gratitude and support to the communities and council workers responding to this once in a lifetime crisis. While we don’t wish to go over old ground, we would like to draw attention to the work of some council workers who we believe deserve greater attention for the work they do, than they are currently receiving.

 

The Cleansing and Maintenance teams of Clifton, as I’m sure across the whole of Nottingham, do an arduous and thankless job but we as councillors could not be more grateful for the work they’ve done during this crisis. The cleansing teams have gone above and beyond to ensure that Clifton is a safe place for its residents.  Will the Leader of the Council join me to thank the Clifton team, our Neighbourhood Operations Manager and I’m sure all of the Council teams across Nottingham for everything they have done over the past few months for the good of this City?

 

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Watson for her question.  I am delighted to join with you and all councillors in thanking our frontline Street Scene Teams and other key staff who have helped us and the people of Nottingham get through the coronavirus outbreak so far.  The focus on helping our citizens and communities has been highly commendable.  The Street Scene Teams have demonstrated great resilience as a workforce through this lockdown period.  Keeping our City and neighbourhoods clean and well maintained remains a key priority for the City and whilst it has been incredibly difficult and challenging for the Street Scene Teams to keep on top of the cleansing and grounds maintenance work through this period, it is clear that while standards are not consistently as good as we would like in normal times the Teams have done a fantastic job in keeping on top of the bulk of the work during the lockdown. 

 

The Street Scene workforce has been stretched in multiple directions during this time, with a number of staff off due to Covid shielding whilst other staff have been needed to support waste operations such as bin collection during the pandemic.  This additional work and Covid impact has placed a great strain on resources and this has resulted in reduced services in some areas of the City.  However, each area is now developing a Covid Recovery Plan in order to help prioritise the available resources to the priority work tasks and to help programme the backlog of grounds maintenance work over the coming months.  Once the Recovery Plans have been confirmed, the Service also hopes to host a major citywide volunteer campaign.  This will take place in the autumn.  It is hoped that the Clean Champions and the community will all come out to help us accelerate the recovery process.  We are very grateful for all those volunteers both in Clifton and across the City, including many Clean Champions, who have helped us consistently keep our communities clean through litter-picks and other community clean-ups.  It is clear that there is work to be done and that it will take some time to get back to normal.  That said, we will remain focused on our ‘Clean City’ priorities and with councillor support I am sure we can get all of the City back to a standard that we are proud of. 

 

So thank you again Councillor Watson.  I will ensure that the Neighbourhood Operations Manager for Clifton and the Team that works alongside him, and all the Street Scene Teams are thanked for their hard work and dedication that has been seen throughout the lockdown. 

 

Employee redundancies

Councillor Kirsty Jones asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

 

While we are aware the current financial pressure is of a situation completely outside of the Council’s control, the recent public threat of redundancies is of course still a huge concern. And while I’m sure the decisions have not been taken lightly, that will be of little comfort either for the council officers who now fear for their jobs, nor for the service users who already rely on financially stretched services. Can the Leader guarantee these people, that following the end of this current round of voluntary redundancies, everything possible will be done to avoid any further job losses?  Further, will he also commit to carefully evaluating the proposals recently put forward by UNISON, UNITE and GMB, and consider them as serious alternatives to our colleagues losing their jobs?

 

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Jones for her question.  I’m glad Councillor Jones that you recognise that the Council is dealing with a situation outside of our own making.  It is also a situation we were led to believe we would not be facing alone.  When the coronavirus crisis started, ministers urged councillors to do what we needed to do, to spend what we needed to, that they would be shoulder to shoulder with us. They even asked us to take on additional tasks such as shielding the vulnerable by supporting them – that was 18,000 people in Nottingham – and to support local businesses by the administration of grants to support businesses.  That was on top of work to support our adult care services both in care homes, home care and our duties towards those who were street homeless.  I am rightly proud Lord Mayor of how Council staff have stepped up to the plate, worked so hard, done other jobs, gone the extra mile to support and protect Nottingham citizens and businesses.  I am appalled at the way Government has not honoured their sacrifice and let our City and our Council staff down. 

 

The Council has worked hard through austerity to protect jobs and services but the ongoing pressure caused by Central Government cuts to funding, compounded by the Covid pandemic has left us in a particularly challenging financial position this year.  We have spent additional money because of Covid and we have had the income that we were expecting really curtailed by lockdown.  So yes, sadly job losses have to be considered as we seek to balance our budgets in-year.  Lord Mayor, we have received some money from Government towards our Covid costs but the amount given does not nearly met the extra amounts that we have spent and the income we have lost through Covid.  More money was announced ten days ago by the Local Government Minister but we have no idea what Nottingham’s share of this amount will be – another example of the practice of this Government throughout this crisis: announcement today, work out what the announcement means tomorrow.  So in the face of a lack of support and a lack of clarity from the Government, councillors and officers are working hard to develop a range of budget reduction proposals that balance the need for the Council to be financially sustainable with the desire to protect both jobs and services.  Alongside these budget proposals, as requested by our trade union colleagues, a number of further steps are being taken to manage the financial challenge.  We continue to lobby Government to provide the necessary funding for councils and to manage the Covid crisis.  We have done this by ourselves and alongside our partners in Core Cities and at the Local Government Association.  We are looking at the Council’s overall finances to determine how many of our reserves can be used to ease the pressure this year, but it should be noted that this is one-off funding and will need to be repaid. As Councillor Jones has rightly pointed out, we have introduced a voluntary redundancy scheme as we strongly believe that the size of the financial challenge is such that we will not be able to meet our statutory obligations to balance the budget without some reduction in the overall number of people that we employ.  We have introduced a voluntary scheme for redundancy not because we want to see valuable staff leave but because in our situation job losses seem inevitable and an enhanced voluntary scheme is preferable to compulsory redundancies.  We will continue to consult, and work with our trade union colleagues and the workforce and remain committed to working with all stakeholders to pursue all viable budget reduction options and proposals.  Even now at this late stage I would appeal to the Government to keep its promise to stand shoulder to shoulder with us so that these savings and job losses are not necessary.  As far as the future goes, we will continue to protect jobs wherever we can but until the Government grasp the nettle and funds adult social care properly – a service that has been vital during the last few months -; until they meet the underfunding of children’s services – a lack of resourcing recognised by all councils regardless of political affiliation across the country; until they acknowledge and properly fund local councils serving our communities so faithfully then the pledge that there will be no more cuts is impossible to give.  What I can say is that here at Nottingham City Council we will do everything we can to support the people of the City and the services we deliver to them. 

 

Robin Hood Energy

Councillor Andrew Rule asked the following question of the Chair of the Audit Committee:

 

The Chair of the Audit Committee will be aware from media reports that a strategic review of Robin Hood Energy is currently underway.  Given the severity of the Council’s financial situation and the risk posed by Robin Hood Energy’s financial performance on its ability to repay the lending to it by the Council – will the Chair of Audit Committee undertake to request a copy of this review and convene a meeting of the Audit Committee where it can be discussed in more detail?

 

Councillor Steve Battlemuch replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and I would like to thank Councillor Rule for his question.  I think, as he knows, the strategic review is a matter for the Council’s Executive and for the Board of Robin Hood Energy and it will be rightly considered in due course in line with the Council’s governance structure.  Councillor Webster also made that clear in a previous answer.  The Council’s Audit Committee already does, and will continue to review and monitor the financial health of the Council.  We have got meetings scheduled, as he knows, for the months ahead where we will continue to carry out our audit duties.  The primary focus of the review and the decision makers for the review is the Council’s Executive and the Board of Robin Hood Energy.

 

Broadmarsh Development

Councillor Andrew Rule asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

 

Could the Leader of the Council update the Chamber in respect of the prospects of the Council recovering any of the £17million put at risk following the appointment of administrators over Intu and the collapse of the redevelopment of the Broadmarsh’s shopping centre?

 

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Rule for his question.  As mentioned previously this afternoon, on 3 July 2020 the Intu holding companies associated with the Broadmarsh Centre entered receivership.  As a result the Official Receiver disclaimed the lease for the Broadmarsh Centre to the Council as owners of the freehold.  Previous to this, Intu had informed the Council that the Intu Broadmarsh development had been paused due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.  The pandemic has caused a massive shock to economies around the world, having a major impact on construction projects with the retail sector and high streets particularly badly hit.  The redevelopment of the shopping centre was Intu’s project.  They operated the Centre and contracted to Robert McAlpine to carry out the development work.  As Nottingham City Council had a freehold and financial interest, a comprehensive development agreement was in place for the project with clear contractual obligations.  The agreement involved the Council putting a contribution into the project in view of our status as the freeholder and owner of the site in return for rental received from units within the Centre.  We had made part of our contribution and this has helped pay for works such as the removal of asbestos from the Centre and work that needed to be done whatever the future of the Centre and grounds works that will also be helpful in the future.  Our lawyers are looking again at the development agreement to see if any money might be returned but it seems unlikely at this stage that we will be fully recompensed for money we have invested. 

 

Day Care Centre Services

Councillor Andrew Rule asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Local Transport:

 

The Portfolio Holder will appreciate that following the suspension of services, the families of service users and the service users of the City Council’s day care centres have been somewhat left in limbo of late as they’ve received no communication from the Council with regard to when a full or even partial service will resume.  Will the Portfolio Holder therefore urgently press the Head of Service to publish a timeframe for when this might happen to give families much needed clarity in this area?

 

Councillor Williams replied as follows:

 

Thank you Councillor Rule for your question.  Obviously we recognise that these day services provide really important support to the people who use them and to their families, and really appreciate the impact of the, of course necessary, closure of services for safety reasons and following Government advice, will have had.  So our fantastic staff have been making sure we understand how individuals and families are coping without the day services, and have developed alternative support for those citizens and families who need it from us.  We have maintained absolutely regular contact with people who use our services throughout the closure and have provided additional support where it is needed.  I would thank those staff for their work and dedication in working to different models of support for citizens and their families. 

 

Officers have considered the revised national and public health guidance and it is clear that at this stage we are able to provide some building-based support for a smaller number of people and we are planning to reopen services to those who most need building-based support and we will write out as soon as possible to the relevant people when we are able to confirm these next steps and timetables. 

 

Thank you.

 

Distribution of funding to businesses

Councillor Andrew Rule asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre:

 

The Portfolio Holder will be aware that despite the impressive efforts of Council to distribute Government backed funding to businesses across the City, as at 5 July there remains unallocated funding of circa £12million.  Could the Portfolio Holder comment on the challenges that have hampered allocating this funding and how the Council is seeking to address those challenges?

 

Councillor Sam Webster replied as follows:

 

Thank you Councillor Rule for the question.  I also want to thank him for recognising, in his words, the impressive efforts of Council, by which I think he means efforts of Council staff, to distribute small business grants.  I would agree that Council officers have pulled out all the stops to ensure that all eligible grant applications have now been paid.  Council staff literally worked around the clock to distribute grants as quickly and efficiently as possible.  As of the date of this question, 5 July, the Council had awarded £51.3million to 4303 Nottingham small businesses.  This has been achieved by direct publicity targeted at businesses, social media campaigns, the Nottingham City Council website, outbound calls to businesses, a focus on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) businesses by the Council’s B-Global Network, and communications through the Growth Hub of the Nottingham Economic Recovery Unit.  However the grant does rely on businesses applying to ensure compliance with legal requirements as per the Government’s criteria.  Since retail and hospitality premises have started to reopen a further issue of direct communications has been targeted at those businesses that appear to be eligible but have not yet applied.  There is a consistent flow of new applications being received. 

 

There are several areas that I would like to highlight.  All eligible applications to date have been paid.  Checks on eligibility are carried out to minimise fraud.  Sadly some people will try to defraud the Council, and therefore taxpayers, even in these most trying of circumstances.  This is important and we took time to get our processes right.  Councillor Rule might have seen a recent report by the Policy Exchange, endorsed by Sajid Javid, which highlighted that fraud and error in emergency support schemes could cost the Government up to £7.9million.  We were, and are keen, to make sure money gets to Nottingham businesses and individuals that most need it and are eligible.  We do not want to see money wasted on fraudsters.  This scheme is about protecting the jobs of our residents and that’s why it is so important that no money is wasted.  We have lobbied Government to keep the scheme open to the end of the financial year as businesses are still making applications.  There are still businesses who we think are eligible who have not claimed.  We have sent two letters to those businesses and conducted an outbound calls process to make contact and offer support.  We were the first Council in the country to spot big gaps in the Government’s original grand scheme and so we lobbied for a further fund to help businesses in shared accommodation, charities, social enterprises, co-operatives and market traders.  I was pleased that the Government answered our call and provided a further £3.3million discretionary grant.  We have now used up all of the discretionary grant and, as I warned at the funding announcement, the fund size was inadequate.  I believe that we could have quite easily have supported twice the number of businesses if the fund had been more adequate.  I do want to mention two individuals from the Filthy Vegan Kings Walk Kitchen.  They recently commented in the Nottingham Post that the Council’s discretionary grants scheme was a massive boost and had really helped them out at a time when they had taken a big hit with no income for three months.  They went on to say “it’s been a massive pillar of support for us helping with costs and rent.  We didn’t think we were in a position to get a grant so it was very helpful and welcome”.  We will continue to work with the Government Valuation Office and our partner organisations to encourage the remaining potentially eligible businesses to apply for a grant.

 

Thank you. 

 

Coronavirus outbreak

Councillor Graham Chapman asked the following question of the Deputy Leader of the Council:

 

Does the Deputy Leader of the Council feel there are sufficient data and support from Government to allow local partners to respond effectively were there to be a spike in COVID- 19 cases in Nottingham?

 

Councillor Sally Longford replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Chapman for the question which, of course, is very important.  Whether we have enough access to the vital data that will help us protect our citizens from a future outbreak of Covid-19 is an issue which has caused a great deal of frustration so I recently wrote to the Minister of Health.  Efforts to protect our citizens and workforce have been hampered due to the unavailability of data.  I chair our City of Nottingham Outbreak Control Engagement Board and we have recently published our Local Outbreak Control Plan.  This outlines the data that is available to us and how it will be used to inform the local response and effectively manage and prevent local outbreaks.  While the picture is improving and more detailed and timely data is now flowing to local authorities, we still have significant concerns.  Timely granular and complete data must be available to the local authority to enable us to effectively contain a local outbreak, such as that currently experienced in Leicester.  We welcome the recent public release of the Pillar 2 data by Public Health England, which is testing from members of the public who have been independently tested which alongside the previously available data from testing in health and social care environments, known as Pillar 1, provides us with a greater level of detail.  However, the availability of really detailed data does not go far enough for us to effectively monitor new cases and potential clusters.  Public Health England are making additional data available via Directors of Public Health.  Whilst this information is welcome, it does not provide the level of detail required to assess potential outbreaks.  Integration of national, regional and local data is required to enable the continuous monitoring of the frequency and distribution of disease and death due to Covid-19 infections.  Effective management of outbreaks will require contact tracing and self-isolation, which relies on the flow of data between key stakeholders and those at the frontline of infection prevention and control.  Key issues which I highlighted in my letter to the Minister included the need for details on all those accessing testing, not just the ones with the positive result, so that we can understand who is accessing testing within our local communities and whether it is equitable; details as to those who tested positive but have not been reached by the national NHS Testing Tracer so we can mobilise local contract tracing if appropriate;  identifiable, individual level data on positive cases and individual data on the contacts identified by the Test and Trace Service and those advised to self-isolate so that we can provide proactive support to vulnerable citizens who are isolating as we have been doing throughout the pandemic.  We also need better recording of ethnicity which is currently poorly completed; and improved data completeness, especially in relation to employment to start to develop the full picture of how things are being spread and so that individual positive cases can be linked with known outbreaks and/ or lively transmission routes.  We also need less restrictive information governance arrangements in order for us to share data with system partners without delay.  I have asked the Department of Health and Social Care to commit to the necessary data being made available along with less restrictive information governance for partnership shared working as soon as possible so that local authorities and partners have the necessary information to contain and tackle any potential outbreaks and protect our citizens and colleagues from further harm. 

 

We are not alone.  There is widespread concern about this issue.  Peter Soulsby, the Mayor of Leicester, recently accused the Health Secretary of withholding viable data.  He said that it held back their city’s response to the recent spike in cases.  He mentioned in particular the urgent need to have access to accurate data about infection rates among vulnerable black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities as well as workplace information in order to better respond to the outbreak.  Political leaders of Salford have accused Matt Hancock of peddling untruths on the Andrew Marr Show when he stated that local authorities had all the data they needed.  I really hope that these deficiencies will be resolved soon so that cities like Nottingham with large ethnic minority populations and complex relationships between communities, workplaces and leisure activities will be able to nip any outbreak in the bud.  Accurate data that we can safely share with trusted partners would ensure we could respond in the most appropriate way to an upturn in infection rates.  We know that at times during the response to the pandemic it was difficult to fulfil our duty to mobilise civil society because we were unable to share data with emergency services and social housing providers who may have been best placed to respond.  Nottingham has done relatively well compared to other parts of the country in keeping our community safe in the public health crisis.  This is, I am sure, largely because our citizens have, in the main, been very sensible and followed guidance.  I would like to thank them sincerely for their forbearance and for caring for their friends and neighbours during this very difficult time. I have also received very positive feedback from a range of people about the Council’s response to the pandemic – for the sensitive way many people have been supported and for our well-executed plans for supporting vulnerable residents.  If we are to continue to respond in the best possible way to any future Covid outbreaks we need detailed data in order to be able to do so.  Unfortunately, this Conservative Government has repeatedly demonstrated a failure to plan and prepare for the changing situation during the global pandemic, and to provide for the needs of responders – from a failure to secure supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the first few weeks; to confusing mixed messaging about lockdown; to unfulfilled pledges to stand shoulder to shoulder with local councils.  It is not a pretty picture and I cannot say that I am optimistic that they will get this data issue sorted speedily.

 

Thank you.

 

Teaching of black history

Councillor Merlita Bryan asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Early Years, Education and Employment:

 

Given the increased awareness of racial history in Britain in recent weeks, does the Portfolio Holder for Early Years, Education and Employment concur with my staunch belief that now, more than ever, is it finally time to rectify this long-standing omission from our British education system, and to genuinely review the national curriculum, making the teaching of black history mandatory for all pupils in schools in England?

 

Councillor Neghat Khan replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Bryan for this important question.  Recent events have rightly ignited anger, not just in the United States, but all around the world.  Here in Nottingham we recognise and share this strength of emotion and we stand in solidarity with people across our communities.  We are extremely proud that people of different backgrounds get on so well together in Nottingham and this is something we should all be proud of.  We see first-hand the importance of our neighbourhoods, their cultural identities and the people who live and work within them.  Of course, understanding cultural identities is vital in the classroom.  Nottingham City Council has produced, through its Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant and Ideal Services, many good and relevant resources over the years relating to black history and embedded black perspectives into the curriculum.  Through this core offer we provide diversity within the curriculum and cover black and mixed heritage, asylum and refugee achievements.  Notwithstanding that, I know that more can, and must be done to review the curriculum so that there is a genuine attempt to view and teach black history through black eyes and not those of white colonial voices, for example understanding that the history of Africa didn’t begin with the arrival of European colonisers but that different ethnic groups had rich customs, practices, arts and culture that pre-existed European knowledge of Africa. 

 

Lord Mayor, there is a need to ensure that pressure is applied to the Department of Education and Ofsted to ensure that the awareness being generated by Black Lives Matter results in real change in the curriculum’s content.  Whilst it is good to identify and celebrate leading black figures who have been overlooked in history, a proper understanding of the wider pre-slavery history of black people followed by an understanding of the impact of colonial power and slavery in shaping the modern experience of black people is necessary.  Sadly, too often the comments of leading white politicians demonstrate that their understanding of black history is totally shaped by the colonial perspective that they have been taught in their school and university education.  We have to, I repeat have to, put an end to this by starting to reframe these histories and also provide a more accurate version of British history.  Now is the time to ensure that every child is taught about pre-colonial Britain and the Windrush Generation up to present day migration and deportation.  Lord Mayor, the Government needs to take responsibility for making black history mandatory instead of leaving it up to schools, many of which are grappling with significant budget cuts.  A realistic understanding of Britain’s history on migration in the Empire has never been more urgent. 

 

Thank you.

 

Coronavirus outbreak

Councillor Sam Gardiner asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

 

Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said that Government would do “whatever it takes to support councils” at the beginning of the lockdown.  The Conservative Government repeatedly echoed this statement, but it is now becoming clear that the Government will not help English councils with the shortfall and have broken their promise to fully recompense local councils for their efforts in responding to COVID-19.

 

Nottingham’s shortfall so far is £65 million and on top of 10 years of austerity can the Leader of the Council explain the impact this broken promise will have on local services and what actions would he call on the Government to make to meet their promises.

 

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Gardiner for his question.  Covid-19 has had a dramatic effect on the City and the way services are run in Nottingham.  We have had to respond quickly and effectively to the way we deliver services.  We have had to make hard choices about the services that matter most in order to protect our staff and keep people in our City safe from harm.  We can be proud that when it mattered most for Nottingham we delivered: whether it was supporting frail elderly or those with disabilities in care homes; sourcing our own personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies; contacting 18,000 vulnerable people for support; or helping to fund local businesses, we delivered.  Lord Mayor, whilst I acknowledge the Government has provided £3.2billion to local authorities across the country, and we welcome the extra resources received in Nottingham to mitigate the costs of responding to the pandemic, we were repeatedly reassured, as Councillor Gardiner said, by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government that further assistance would be forthcoming and councils should do whatever it takes, safe in the knowledge that additional reimbursement would follow.  Repeated calls for additional funding have been dismissed with comments that local government should be prepared to share the burden and that it shouldn’t labour under a false impression that what they are doing is guaranteed to be funded by Government. 

 

If the challenges were not significant enough, they follow ten long years of Government austerity where vital services that we all rely on have been squeezed to a point of crisis.  It’s no secret to those on this Council that since 2010 we have made cumulative savings of more than £270million, within that, Nottingham’s Revenue Support Grant falling from £126million in 2013/14 to just £25million this year.  At the same time, costs for care of the elderly and care for vulnerable young children have been rising and now the £16million of savings for 2020/21 as agreed at the Council budget meeting in March are at serious risk of delivery.  Lord Mayor, we cannot continue to deliver the vital services that people across the City need and deserve without sufficient additional funding from Government.  We are doing everything we can within our abilities to maintain vital services as well as taking on a range of additional responsibilities at a time of crisis for our people.  We are ensuring that nobody in our City sleeps rough providing emergency food and accommodation to those who need it; we are supporting families and children with a range of online resources to keep healthy and happy in their homes; as well as having provided emergency food for people in need. 

 

Lord Mayor, Councillor Gardiner is right, despite the £19.8million received from Government so far we estimate the cost of Covid-19 to the Council is £85million, leaving a shortfall of £65million.  Despite the announcement of a further tranche of support to address spending pressures and in recognition of lost income, the method of distribution in unclear at best.  However, what is clear is our commitment to continue to stand up for the people of Nottingham, the frontline workers who put their lives on the line to keep us safe, the lives of families severely disrupted by some of the most challenging circumstances in a generation, the frail and elderly who continue to need our support, our libraries, our leisure centres which are vital services that we know Nottingham people need right now more than ever just to keep going.  Failure to stand shoulder to shoulder with local councillors now would be breaking the Government’s promises.  Lord Mayor, whilst I am Leader of this Council we will always try to protect frontline services and the services that are relied upon by our most vulnerable residents but we are now having to look at every area because our lack of funding is so severe and those vital services are at risk.  It would be a kick in the teeth for Nottingham and the key workers we stood to applaud week after week if the Government didn’t stick to its promise.  I will continue to speak up for Nottingham and I am sure that members on the Labour side of the Chamber will do so as well.  I urge the leaders of our Opposition Groups to join me in writing to the Government to stand up for this City.  Join me in standing up for public services, local libraries and parks, the things that people really value, the beating heart of our City.  It is what our communities demand and deserve.

 

Thank you.

 

Adult social care

Councillor Carole McCulloch asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Local Transport:

 

Does the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Local Transport agree with me that the Prime Minister’s comments on care homes should be the subject of a personal apology and in light of those comments can the Portfolio Holder tell us about the support given to the local care sector from the City Council and the increased costs that have been incurred in providing that vital support?

 

Councillor Adele Williams replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor McCulloch for your question.  I was also really appalled to read the Prime Minister’s comments and still more so to hear him double down on them with a further attempt to muddy the waters.  When we look back on this crisis it will not be care workers seen wanting.  When people come into care work they commit to supporting people with compassion and professionalism and thankfully, and they will have our lasting gratitude, they have stood by that commitment.  I think Boris Johnson himself stood on his doorstep each week applauding the key workers but it’s all a bit hollow if there’s been nothing of substance behind it.  Not enough, no credible commitment to fund adult social care properly, empty promises on personal protective equipment (PPE) and actually a real startling lack of understanding of the sector as has been evidenced by some of the issues raised already.  In supporting care homes in the care sector we have had in our minds the 400 Council staff and 5000 working in social care as care workers, and those they care for.  To them we gave gratitude but we also knew we had to back that up and give them underpinning support to keep them as safe as possible in their vital work.  When someone is committing to leave their own family behind and go and look after a member of someone else’s family just at the time when lots of us were hunkering down and staying safe in our homes the least we could do was make sure they had PPE.  So whereas the City’s care workers have shown that we can rely on them, the Government’s promises on PPE proved hollow again and again.  As letters to Government from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services back up, there was a massive mismatch between what was promised in those nightly briefings and what arrived through the Government’s promised distribution.  The one consistent element was unreliability, and our ability to get PPE to providers in the sector very quickly meant that they were not cut adrift when the Government supply let them down.  I would like to thank our Procurement Team as well, whose tireless work meant that carers and citizens were safer in our City.  So based on our experience of the PPE crisis I would share the Public Accounts Committee’s concerns that the Government may be ill-prepared for a second time and I would like to let you know that Nottingham has a cushion of PPE thanks to the work imaginatively sourcing and making sure the logistics were taken care of by our Procurement Team and other key workers. 

 

For their part, care providers have worked with us and the wider system to implement appropriate risk reducing measures to protect citizens and carers.  The Council provided a wide range of support to the care sector locally and a range of activities were undertaken with the care sector during the crisis.  These include activities that have a direct financial impact to us and teams who have been providing response or support directly as part of their role redefined through the Covid crisis.  So just to list some of those:  we set up a dedicated webpage on Ask Lion, our Council’s portal for support, and that was for all access to local information and national information on Covid-19 so it is all in the right place; we provided recruitment support including advertising and screening of applicants; we provided access to Nottingham City Council’s agency contract at the Council’s rates; we supported with DBS checks, online recruitment and training; we provided advice and guidance and access to specialist infection control colleagues.  We worked with the Clinical Commissioning Group on training for the care sector and other elements of the Covid response, such as testing.  As I said before, we worked really hard on access to PPE and we achieved PPE within an hour of ordering to the sector and ran this from our distribution centre at Harvey Hadden with the support of dozens of colleagues redeployed from other parts of the Council, and we thank them for their service to Nottingham.  Regular calls were made to providers to give advice and support initially and these were welcomed by suppliers.  We also had regular forums in category-specific areas so that people who had similar issues could support each other and we identified suppliers so that people could access things that they needed, such as food wholesalers.  We also supported financially with an extra 5% per month to community and residential services above the normal fee rate to ensure that providers could pay staff during these difficult times.  We paid on average for three months for community services rather than paying on activity delivered to make sure they could still pay their bills and pay staff when activity levels were reduced because they had to be and obviously some citizens declined care to protect themselves.  So the costs that were agreed and committed just during that period locally and financial support to the local care sector add up to £3.8million, providing PPE to the care sector so far is £1.8million.  So the total committed to date is £5.66million but we expect that our total spend encompassing savings we are not able to make, loss of income from citizen contributions to care and additional costs will be well well over that, upwards for the full year towards £11million for adult care alone.  As colleagues have already mentioned, Government funding so far has been utterly inadequate to meet that cost and we do this in the landscape and context of austerity for the last decade.  Others have talked about the lack of a credible plan for adult social care and I repeat that and endorse it.  What I would say is our carers have delivered for our City and our citizens and we absolutely demand Government do what they promised, and make their pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder materialise into real money coming into our City.

 

Thank you Lord Mayor.