Issue - meetings

Questions on Notice

Meeting: 21/04/2021 - Council (Item 90)

To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.

A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions. This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that 6 questions had been submitted for consideration at the meeting. There would be no subsidiary questions.

Question Submitted by Councillor P. McDonald

“The Institute for Employment Rights (IER) report, compiled by 11 specialists in occupational health and safety and labour law, claims that Covid-19 guidance is not being properly enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The government’s approach to enforcing its guidance in the workplace has been underfunded, light-touch and run by an understaffed HSE. As a result, researchers claim that workplace risk has not been managed properly, and is not in line with the government’s claim that is making workplaces Covid-secure. Researchers said there has been widespread failure to control risks of airborne and surface transmission in workplaces, shown by the emergence of infection clusters.

Considering this what action is the Council taking to ensure the Council is Covid secure?”

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Enabling explained that the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it many challenges, many of which required swift action to put in place safety measures to ensure that the Council could continue to deliver its services in an efficient way, whilst also minimising the risks to staff of transmission of the virus. The Council had, during the previous twelve months, followed Government guidance in relation to working from home, the wearing of masks, social distancing, testing and all other guidance issued by central Government. The Council had also taken a number of actions and continued to implement any changes required by Government in order to ensure compliance. Some of these actions included:

· All business continuity plans were checked and updated as the pandemic developed in the early part of 2020.

· All staff who could work from home were told to do so with additional infrastructure and equipment provided by IT services.

· Specific risk management was undertaken for all staff in customer-facing and frontline roles.

· A frequently asked questions update had been maintained for staff throughout the pandemic, with updates based on changing Government guidance.

· Regular communications had been issued across the organisation to highlight changed guidance or the need for compliance.

· Communications reminding staff where the nearest testing centres were had been issued.

· General risk management was undertaken for all colleagues, ensuring those frontline colleagues with identified vulnerabilities were either safely redeployed or permitted to work from home.

· PPE was provided along with advice on how to best utilise it and dispose of it safely after use.

· In buildings, COVID-secure measures were put in place, such as:

- teams being split into cohort groups to reduce transmission through the mixing of groups.

- hand sanitiser stations provided at various points throughout buildings.

- social distancing markings and reminder posters put in buildings.

- limited numbers of staff allowed in offices ensuring compliance with social distancing.

- social distancing was further enabled through the introduction of one-way systems, restricted access points, QR code posters for track and trace, signing in/out books and a desk booking system requiring staff who ... view the full minutes text for item 90