Agenda item

The following questions have been received and will be responded to during the meeting:

Cllr Alan Bacon

Test and Trace

"Government is allocating funds to local authorities across England to support Covid-19 test and trace services.  Will the portfolio holder please report on the Council’s progress in working with Public Health England to develop and improve these test and trace services in Buckinghamshire?"

Cllr Robin Stuchbury

Free school meals and all the equivalent support over the forthcoming summer holidays

“What work has been undertaken by the local authority based upon the information available to the council to ascertain what will be the true volume of children currently within education within Buckinghamshire who are/were in receipt of free school meals historically, who are currently, through the pandemic, not receiving this valuable support?

And what preparation has been undertaken within social care to both identify these children as we approach the summer holiday period insuring no child goes hungry who the council is aware is currently receiving free school meals?”

Three questions had been submitted for this item, two from Cllr Robin Stuchbury and one from Cllr Alan Bacon.  The question and response to Robin Stuchbury’s second question would be published with the minutes.  Unfortunately, Alan Bacon was unable to join the meeting so Martin Tett read out his question.

Test and Trace

"Government is allocating funds to local authorities across England to support Covid-19 test and trace services.  Will the portfolio holder please report on the Council’s progress in working with Public Health England to develop and improve these test and trace services in Buckinghamshire?"

Response provided by Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health:

Test and trace was designed to keep COVID infection levels low and prevent local outbreaks as lockdown restrictions were eased nationally.  The Council had carried out the following:

• Multi-faceted outbreak plans had been developed.
• A Member Recovery Board, which included councillors, to oversee the outbreak control had been set up.
• The Health Protection Board had been created which would take the necessary action to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks. The Board included members from Buckinghamshire Council, PHE and the NHS. The Board met regularly and was chaired by the Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire Council. 
• The Council had worked closely with PHE to develop focussed outbreak control plans for Buckinghamshire with specific focus on settings (e.g. schools, care homes, universities, hospices, workplaces etc.) and at risk population groups (e.g. homeless, people from Black Asian and Minority ethnic groups).
• Increased local testing capacity; there were two mobile local swab teams  operating seven days a week in various locations in Buckinghamshire which were promoted by the Communications team.  Residents had access to regional testing centres in Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire and a drop-in centre in Slough.  Postal/courier-delivered swab kits were also available.

• The Council was working closely with PHE and the Joint Biosecurity Centre to closely monitor the data on cases and risks and spot rising levels of infection and outbreaks early.
• The Public Health team was also monitoring the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 data.
• Communication was a very important element of the Member Recovery and Member Engagement Board and the Board would liaise with the public to support residents to stay safe.

M Tett clarified that Pillar 1 data referred to the data from tests carried out in a hospital and Pillar 2 data related tests carried out in a clinical setting.

Cllr Robin Stuchbury -Free school meals and all the equivalent support over the forthcoming summer holidays

“What work has been undertaken by the local authority based upon the information available to the council to ascertain what will be the true volume of children currently within education within Buckinghamshire who are/were in receipt of free school meals historically, who are currently, through the pandemic, not receiving this valuable support? And what preparation has been undertaken within social care to both identify these children as we approach the summer holiday period insuring no child goes hungry.  The scheme was coming to an end on 17 June and was a multi-faceted voucher and credit card scheme.”

Response provided by Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Thank you for your question relating to free school meals. All children who were entitled to free school meals had been receiving supermarket vouchers through the DfE scheme since its inception at the start of the lockdown. As an authority we had lobbied the DfE to ensure that the early issues with the scheme were corrected and that all families received their due entitlement. We had occasionally had to contact schools to address issues regarding the deployment of the scheme that had been raised with us by parents – all of them had been resolved satisfactorily.   The DfE announced on Tuesday 16 June 2020 that all children who were eligible for free school meals would be entitled to supermarket vouchers to ensure that they did not go hungry over the summer holiday period. All teams across children’s services would monitor the situation closely, and work with schools and families to resolve any issues should they arise.  All children who were eligible would be reached and taken care of during the summer holidays.