Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report is a summary of the Residents and Communities recovery workstream for information.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided a summary of the Residents and Communities recovery workstream.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Residents at risk;
• Mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on communities and adults;
• Digital inclusion;
• Mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on children and young people;
• The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector; and
• Equalities.

The Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing suggested that at future meetings the Committee might want to look at specific areas of the COVID-19 recovery work, rather than receiving an overview.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Work to vaccinate rough sleepers;
• Work to engage with hidden communities who were reluctant to engage with authorities in relation to testing and vaccinations; and
• Support for VCSE organisations.

The Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing reported that the vaccination programme had three targeted strands, one around particular ethnic minority groups, one relating to disability and a third, Inclusive Health, which included rough sleepers and homeless people.  She explained the work taking place with charities and organisations which supported homeless people and that there was a site where homeless people could go to be vaccinated and also a van providing vaccines. 

The Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing outlined how VCSE organisations had been involved in the Health Equity work, including as members of community sounding boards, and the additional funding made available to VSCE groups undertaking health inclusion work.

The Head of Neighbourhoods informed the Committee how learning from the intensive engagement activity in areas where surge testing had been carried out was being used to identify different ways to work with some communities, including working with partner organisations who were trusted in those areas.

In response to a Member’s question on how many families the new families hostel would accommodate and how long families would stay at the hostel, the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) advised that she would provide this information after the meeting.  The Chair asked that this information be circulated to all Members of the Committee via the Scrutiny Support Officer.

In response to a question about domestic abuse, the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) drew Members’ attention to the data within the report and informed Members about additional funding to support work in this area.  She reported that officers had already suggested that they provide a report to the Committee in approximately June 2021 when full details of the Domestic Abuse Bill going through parliament were known.  Chief Superintendent Savill reported that GMP had invested resources to triage domestic abuse reports within 24 hours and outlined how this was dealt with, advising that there was a good system in place, working with and referring cases to partner organisations as appropriate.    

Decisions

The Committee:-

1.               Note the report.

2.         Request that information on how many families the new families hostel will accommodate and how long families will stay at the hostel be circulated to all Members of the Committee.