Agenda item

This report provides an overview of the response and recovery strategy to protect Kent and Medway’s populations from COVID-19 impacts. It describes actions that Kent County Council (KCC) and Medway Council (MC), in partnership with key stakeholders, have taken to develop the COVID-19 Local Outbreak Control Plan (LOP).

The report also sets out the governance arrangements and framework, through which KCC and MC will collaborate to deliver their statutory functions to protect their populations and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Discussion:

The Director of Public Health for Medway introduced the report which had been co-produced with the Director of Public Health for Kent and provided the Joint Board with an overview of the response and recovery strategy to protect Kent and Medway’s populations from Covid-19 impacts. It set out the Kent and Medway Local Outbreak Control Plan (LOCP), which covered eight key themes including governance, complex settings, arrangements for tracing and testing, outbreak management, how to support vulnerable populations and communications strategies.  The report also recommended that the Joint Board fulfil the role of the Local Outbreak Engagement Board (LOEB).

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·       Testing the LOCP – reference was made to the ongoing testing of the LOCP, using scenarios that were being experienced elsewhere to learn from those and how best agencies and communities should respond. 

·       Kent and Medway LOCP – reference was made to the fact that the Plan covered the whole area of Kent and Medway and this was commended as it helped partnership working with other agencies in the area that covered the whole geographic area of both Kent and Medway, such as one Clinical Commissioning Group and one Resilience Liaison Forum.

·       Strategic responsibilities of each local authority – clarification was made that the LOCP and LOEB would not absolve  each individual upper tier local authority’s from its own strategic responsibilities and reference was made to the additional layers of engagement and governance that would sit within the structures of both KCC and Medway Council to enable the two local authorities to discharge their specific public health responsibilities.

·       Communication – in response to a comment made regarding the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) and the LOEB’s role in communication strategies, the Director of Public Health for Medway explained that the KRF had responsibility through the Civil Contingencies Act in relation to the warning and informing elements of communication.  In addition to that, there were also local Kent Protect/Medway Protect campaigns to champion the work of the local authority to reach out to certain groups, businesses etc in a tailored approach.

·       Governance Structure – clarification was sort in relation to the governance structure at figure 1 of the LOCP.  In response, the Director of Public Health for Medway confirmed that existing gold command structures within each authority had been used.  He added that the role of the Health Protection Committee was set out in the framework within the LOCP and provided assurance that existing mechanisms for escalation would be used.  Communication and lines of engagement would be escalated through the governance structure when there was a need for wider consequential management, such as containment measures.

·       Education – concern was raised about how secondary schools would manage bubbles of students in year groups as well as the addition of  young people possibly being invited back in the Autumn to sit the exams they had not been able to in the summer months. In response, the Director of Public Health for Medway explained that one of the tests of the LOCP and its effectiveness had focused on schools. He added that officers were working closely with schools to ensure appropriate risk assessments and guidance were in place to assist them. It was also confirmed by the Director of Public Health for Kent that more guidance from the Department for Education and Public Health England was anticipated to support schools further and in addition, work was underway to deliver the flu vaccine to all primary school aged children and those in year 7.

·       Quarantine requirements – clarification was sought about the most recent quarantine measures advice that had been issued by the Government.  The Director of Public Health for Medway undertook to report back to the Member separately, once he had looked at the specifics of the guidance.

·       Membership of the Health Protection Committee – some errors to the membership were raised, in relation to organisations and job titles detailed at paragraphs 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.  Officers undertook to correct these.

·       How to make populations ready – in the context of vulnerable people, reference was made to the importance of ensuring those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, were reviewed and supported to help with the readiness of any further waves of Covid-19.

Decision:

The Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board:

a)    agreed, in principle, that this Board should fulfil the role of the Local Outbreak Engagement Board (i.e. to provide political ownership and public-facing engagement and communication for outbreak response) subject to formal agreement of both the Medway and Kent Health and Wellbeing Boards.

b)    recommended to both Councils’ Health and Wellbeing Boards that they formally delegate the function of the Local Outbreak Engagement Board (LOEB) to this Board and agree the terms of reference of the LOEB to be fulfilled by this Board.