MyEDC

    Technical Notes 2021, Issue 03 - Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Service Update

    • TN Number:

      003-21

    • Subject:

      Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Service Update

    Section

    PLACE, NEIGHBOURHOOD & CORPORATE ASSETS: SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 9 April 2021

    In this section, you will find information on:

    Assets & Facilities

    Facilities Management

    With the return of all pupils to Primary schools and Early Years sites, cleaning and catering staff including day cleaners have returned to normal working arrangements.  With additional pupils attending Secondary schools, cleaning staff have returned to normal working arrangements and catering staff continue to working on a rotational basis providing hot lunches. Day cleaning interviews now concluded and the remaining vacant positions have been filled.   An additional recruitment exercise is underway to fill vacant FM cleaning, catering and Janitorial positions across the Education and Corporate estate.

    The implementation of Cashless Catering in Primary schools is complete with twenty eight schools now operating the cashless catering system and the existing cashless system in all Secondary schools and new build Primary schools has been upgraded, completing the full roll out of this project.

    The pre-order system is operational in Secondary schools which allows pupils to pre-order lunches from mobile phones and view orders and balances.   Facilities Management is supporting Snack n Play across five Primary schools and additional learning in five Secondary schools during the Easter holiday period with the provision of Janitorial, catering and cleaning services. 

    Property Maintenance

    We have now cleared the backlog of Gas Safety inspections most of which were as a result of the current pandemic and we will continue to closely monitor inspections going forward ensuring compliance across our housing stock

    Significant progress has been made on reducing the number of void properties over the past few weeks and we will continue to utilise resources to drive the numbers down further. Improvement measures across the void contract have been implemented and we will continue to look at ways of enhancing service delivery going forward. Emergency and essential reactive repairs are ongoing with the minor works element of the Care & Repair service still on hold at this time.

    Completion of Aids & Adaptation works continues to go well and the Smoke and Heat detector installation programme is ongoing across the estate with good progress being made in achieving the Government target date for completion. Kitchen, Bathroom and Heating replacement programmes remain on hold and will restart as soon as is practicable and safe to do so.

    Roofing work is ongoing as we continue to work through the replacement programme.Progress continues in carrying out essential and larger scale refurbishment works across the education and non housing stock.

    Works associated with the upcoming elections will be ongoing and we will continue to provide assistance where required during this period.

    Assets & Estates

    The refurbishment of Southbank House and KHCC is now complete.  Lairdsland Early Years Centre at Southbank is substantially complete and handover of the building is expected over the Easter break.  Works remain on-going at Bearsden Early Years Centre, with completion expected later in April and good progress continues to be made at Boclair Academy and Allander Leisure and Day Care Centre.  Contractual terms are almost concluded for the new Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex.

    The planning application for the ASN school was approved at Planning Board on 30th March.  Design and cost development remains on-going and a Stage 2 Report for the project is due for consideration by Council around June.

    The Estates Management team continue to develop and manage servicing and maintenance contracts across the Estate, with a priority on regulatory compliance and building safety, and this work progresses on a continual basis.  The team also continue to deliver a repairs services across the full estate with a current focus on priority issues within the Education estate.  In the non-operational (commercial) estate, the team continue to support both new and existing SME businesses with their property requirements, including the renewal of leases, coordinating repairs and sourcing premises. 

    The Asset Management team continue to deliver a range of capital projects across the property estate.  Work remains in progress at Lenzie Academy (3G Pitch Installation) and Hilton Depot (Drying Room / Canteen Refurb) and Balmuildy Primary School (classroom sink replacement).  Design work is underway to progress various projects within the School Estate Refurbishment Programme.

    Housing Capital
    The team continue to deliver a range of capital projects across the Housing portfolio, including external rendering of properties in Waterside, window replacement and electrical rewire to void properties.  Preparations are underway to re-commence kitchens and bathroom installations later in 2021 with colleagues in Property Maintenance when safe and appropriate to do so, roof replacement to mixed tenure properties and external wall insulation.  This will be subject to the lifting of construction industry restrictions which currently prohibit non-emergency works within houses.

    Housing New Build

    Construction continues to progress well at the former TJH site, Kirkintilloch.  Contractual terms are agreed for the development of new affordable housing at the former Lairdsland Primary School site , Kirkintilloch (due to commence April 2021 - Feb 2023); Blackthorn Grove, Lenzie (due to commence April 2021 - December 2021) and the Loaning, Kirkintilloch (dates TBC). 

    The revised Strategic Housing Investment Plan (2021-26) and the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (2021-26) were both approved by Council at the budget meeting in February and various work streams continue to deliver against these strategic priorities for the service.

    Housing

    Homelessness & Prevention

    During March 2021 a total of 21 households made a homelessness application.  Homelessness numbers in the area remain relatively low; 251 homelessness applications were taken during 2020/21 which is a 40% reduction in comparison to the previous year (417 applications 2019/20).  There are currently 288 applicants on the homelessness list (51 applicants under offer).  Of the 237 households awaiting offer only 4 (2%) have been on the list longer than 3 years.

    There are no households in bed and breakfast and the Council has not breached the Unsuitable Accommodation Order during 2020/21.

    The Homelessness & Prevention Team welcome Lucas Clarke to the Team.  Lucas started his role as Case Worker (Project 101) on 6 April 2021 and is currently completing his 2 week induction.

    As part of the Scottish Government's COVID19 vaccination role out, the vast majority of the Team has now received both COVID19 vaccinations and are currently reviewing procedures/approaches in accordance with the Scottish Governments COVID19 recovery plans.  It is hoped that with new procedures in the place the Team will return to the office on a rota basis in the coming months.

    Housing Operations

    The Housing Operations Team continues to work closely with Property Maintenance with the aim of reducing the back-log of void properties as quickly as possible.  Since the start of April 2020 a total of 201 new tenancies (including 45 new builds) have been created this financial year. Void levels with PM has reduced from around 140 in Oct 20 to 45 now. The team also continues to work closely with Housing Associations in the area to provide nominations for void and new build properties in this sector. As a result of the nominations agreements in place, 68 applicants from the Council's housing list have accepted tenancies with Housing Associations in the area.

    The team continues to work jointly with Legal Services, Police Scotland and the Community Safety Team to deal with anti-social behaviour and noise complaints of a more serious nature within each of the housing localities.

    Rents

    The Rents Team continue to engage with tenants to ensure rental income is being maximised. Advice and support is being offered to tenants whose circumstances have changed as a result of the pandemic or are struggling to pay their rent.  There are tenants who do not pay and/or engage. The service has been issuing arrears letters since late 2020 and has now restarted serving Notices of Proceedings in an attempt to get responses from tenants who are not paying.  There are no current court actions for rent arrears taking place as Coronavirus (Scotland) Act regulations has banned evictions. These regulations have been further extended, with the ban now being reviewed every 21 days by the Scottish Government.  The rents team continue to support and assist as many tenants as they can with UC claims/verifications, DHP claims, putting affordable agreements in place and also referring to CAB when required, ensuring that income is maximised where possible. Year end rent arrears were £1,084,226 (week 52) which is well up on last year mainly due to the pandemic and limited actions available to the service.

    Tenant Participation

    Tenants will have received the latest issue of Taking Part newsletter within the last week. The next online TPWG meeting will be held on Thursday 22 April 2021.

    Systems and Policy

    The Team are working through year end returns and has finalised and distributed the rent review paperwork.

    The Annual Return on Charter will be due at the end of May this year and the team has already started to collate information from year end stats.  The performance for 20/21 will be unlike any other year due to the pandemic and it will be interesting to compare our performance with other Local Authorities in light of these unprecedented times.

    The Local Housing Strategy is due for review this year with a procurement assisting mini competition due out in relation to external consultation.

    Our new Policy Officer Sandra McPhee will start on the 19th April.  The Systems Development Officer, Megan Irvine is leaving on Friday to take a year's career break.

    Land Planning & Development

    Planning Applications and Building Standards

    The Planning Service is currently operating as close to normal services as possible.  In accordance with the relevant risk assessment planning and enforcement site visits are continuing to take place under the current local and national restrictions.  Building Standards is also currently operating as close to normal services as possible.  Similar to Planning, site visits are continuing to take place in accordance with the relevant risk assessment for those properties and sites only where suitable alternative evidence is not appropriate. 

    Monthly updates are now to be provided to the Scottish Government Building Standards Division to help monitor performance of Building Standards at a national level.

    Both the Planning Applications and Building Standards teams continues to receive the number of applications expected by this point in the financial year. 

    Following the outcome of the Full Council meeting on the 30th March officers are now preparing submission to Scottish Ministers due to requirement to notify them of the decision to support approval of the Additional Support Needs School at Waterside Road in Kirkintilloch .

    Scottish Ministers normally only intervene in exceptional circumstances and generally only become involved in cases that raise issues of national as opposed to local significance. That said, there is no definitive list of criteria used to decide whether to call-in a planning application; each case is considered on its own merits.

    Once Scottish Ministers have been notified they have 28 days to decide whether to call-in the application or return it to the planning authority for their own decision. Scottish Ministers can extend the 28 day period for as long as it takes them to reach a decision on whether to call-in an application.  .

    Land Planning and Sustainability Policy and GIS

    The Council’s Local Development Plan 2 was approved at August Council and consultation took place between October 2020 and 15 January 2021.  Over 2000 representations have been received and acknowledged and officers have begun analysis and drafting of the Council’s response.  A Local Development Plan Working Party will be scheduled to provide detailed updates. Officers are also working on planning guidance, the historic environment designations review, which is currently being consulted on following a LDP Working Party, and site specific projects such as Kirkintilloch Gateway.

    The East Dunbartonshire Economic Recovery Plan was reported to Council on 1 October 2020.  The Plan draws together actions across the Council and those being progressed by economic partners as part of delivery of Local Outcome 1. It is a live document, reflecting the ongoing nature of the public health and economic crisis.  Consultation took place in November 2020 and the findings and ongoing data analysis are being used to update the Economic Recovery Plan.  Work has commenced on initial project planning for a Circular Economy Strategy.

    A Draft Parking Management Plan is currently being worked on by officers ahead of it being presented to the Transport Working Group for discussion. Work has commenced on initial project planning for the next Active Travel Strategy, which replace the 2015-20 Strategy. These are two of a number of actions in the Local Transport Strategy, approved in March 2020, which is currently being progressed by the Land Planning Policy Team in conjunction with other Services.

    Initial work on the preparation of a Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the Council is now under way.  The first stage of this is an early engagement exercise - the ‘Climate Conversation’.  This invites people across our communities to join online events to discuss their concerns about climate change, how it is already affecting them, and the action they think the Council needs to take to respond to the climate challenge.  A number of surveys are available online, tailored to communities and individuals; businesses; young people; and Council staff, to gather views on how the CAP should address climate change and inform its development      The Climate Conversation webpages went live on 8th March and the consultation will close on 2nd May.  The main webpage

    Consultation on the draft Glasgow City Region Climate Adaptation Strategy, prepared by Climate Ready Clyde in partnership with East Dunbartonshire Council and other partners, closed on December 24th.  The Strategy is now being finalised and an Action Plan prepared.  This will be presented to Glasgow City Region Cabinet for agreement in June, and will also be reported to a future PNCA Committee or Council meeting for endorsement. 

    Work is commencing on a new Greenspace Strategy for the Council, to replace the existing Open Space and Green Network Strategies and will be prepared in the context of the Glasgow City Region Green Network Blueprint.  An audit of our open spaces has been completed and early engagement to inform the development of the draft Strategy is scheduled to take place in June.

    Work on the Council’s other key Land Planning and Sustainability Strategies and Plans is ongoing.  This includes ongoing policy development, continuation with consultation using electronic methods and plans and strategies being presented to Council for approval. 

    Work progresses well for a number of key projects that the GIS team are leading on and supporting.  The team have recently completed over 800 assessments of safe walking routes for school placement requests,.  .  The team are also collaborating with Glasgow City Council, the Digital Office and the NHS to create a Covid-19 case tracker. This will show real time cases of Covid-19, recorded by the NHS within the East Dunbartonshire boundary.  The team are also planning a programme of work that will ensure the accuracy of address data with the Scottish Assessors Association and other key stakeholders.  This is to support the issuing and recording of postal ballot votes for the upcoming May elections.  The GIS Team are also working to assist the ongoing Climate Conversation which is ongoing in order to allow responses to be recorded.  Finally, the team are continuing to liaise with the Planning, Building Standards and Validation officers to ensure that any issues with the IDOX application are resolved swiftly.  Recruitment is underway to fill a vacant post within the team.

    City Deal

    The City Deal core team is now fully resourced with 3 dedicated Officers and a Team Leader.  Additional resource across the Council is being put in place to progress the projects.  Officers continue to engage with partners across the City Region on the Council’s developing City Deal project, including landowners, SPT and GCC and First Bus. 

    Work on the outline business case has been delayed due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, but progress is being made in relation to: programming of the individual projects and work relating to the OBC and work on early economic impacts forecasting (as required under the funding approval).  Consultants have been appointed to undertake work on the Bishopbriggs Public Realm Plan and have now completed initial desktop research and site visits.  Stage 2 of their programme includes agreement on initial engagement arrangements.  More details will be provided to members in due course.   

    Regeneration & Town Centres

    The team are working towards delivering a range of projects despite the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 including those approved at the Council meeting on the 1st October 2020 The team are pleased to report that the new Antonine Wall Play Park in Peel Park Kirkintilloch is now open and is getting a great reviews from local families. Designs have been finalised for phase 2 of the Milngavie Public Realm project. The project will mirror the phase 1 design which created an attractive gateway to the start of the West Highland Way and will be managed by the Milngavie BID with support from the team as required. The team have secured £1.1m of Scottish Government Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for the Twechar Canalside project and the budget has just received a further boost with the team successfully applying for £100,000 from Sports Scotland. The Regent Gardens project is being progressed, working closely with the local community council preparing draft designs for consultation which will run through April. Work to identify and apply for external funding is ongoing to support both Council and community led projects as required and an update will be presented to an upcoming PNCA Committee. Work continues supporting a number of local groups and organisations to deliver Scotland’s Towns Partnership “Love Local” fund projects which will help town centres and local businesses adapt to and recover from the impacts of Covid-19. Unfortunately the Kirkintilloch Canal Festival has been cancelled for another year but the team are looking into the possibility of smaller-scale events in local communities - if and when they are permissible under the safety guidance.

    Business Support

    The full range of support services and grants available and administered by the Council continues to be updated on the Council’s Coronavirus Update page.

    As mandated by the Scottish Government, the Strategic Framework Business Fund closed to new applications at 5pm on Monday 22 March 2021. You had to apply to the Strategic Framework Business Fund before 5 February 2021 to - potentially - be eligible for Top-Up Funding.  The As per Scottish Government instructions, the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support fund also closed to new applications on 25 March 2021.

    The team over the last 12 months have now administered over £21m in financial support.

    Updates from Scottish Government officials are provided via SLAED in relation to the rules and criteria surrounding current funds, and any proposed future support.

    The Council’s Business support during the coronavirus emergency webpage continues to be kept up to date. Due to the number of grants and volume, officers across the Place & Business Service, and other areas are supporting the grants schemes. The Business Support Team continue to experience high volumes and calls and e-mail enquiries. 

    Traffic and Transport

    The team has been successful in external funding bids from Transport Scotland, SPT and Paths for All, with over £1.2m of funding confirmed for 2021/22. We await confirmation of other funds up to an additional £0.8m.

    Installation of seven Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) units are ongoing on Milngavie Road, Bearsden, as well as three replacement shelters. The rollout of RTPI will continue into Milngavie Town Centre as part of the 2021/22 Capital Programme.

    The team are working with colleagues in Greenspace and Rangers at Mugdock Country Park to deliver path improvement projects throughout the authority including:

    - Langfaulds Path

    - Kilmardinny Loch

    - Cairnhill Woods Path.

    With the increase in cycling throughout 2020 schools are seeing a huge rise in need for cycle and scooter parking. The team have installed additional shelters at six schools. A new cycle shelter design competition will be launched at Balmuildy and Milngavie Primary Schools and implemented by Easter 2021.

    The team’s iBike Officers are working with colleagues in Outdoor Education on the roll out of led rides and led walks.

    Design work continues on the Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project which aims to improve the function of Canniesburn Toll for pedestrians and cyclists making travelling by these modes safer in the immediate vicinity of this roundabout. The project also aims to improve the flow of traffic and reduce journey times with the introduction of traffic signals. Draft designs will be issued for information to the local community and businesses over March and April.

    The team continue to work on the A803 Signal Optimisation Project funded by the Bus Priority Rapid Deployment Fund (BPRDF).

    The team have now completed their 2021/22 funding applications with over £1m of external sustainable transport funding expected in the coming year.

    Neighbourhood Services

    WASTE SERVICES

    Household Collection

    The Waste Service has been busy over the last fortnight including the recent Easter holiday period in the delivery of the full range of services.    

    Dry Recycling Collection and Food Waste Collection

    Collections are operating normally for residents with increased recycling tonnage being identified in line with previous updates. The service has now concluded the sign off with Legal Services for the new Dry Recycling contract which is due to commence in May. 

    Green Waste Collection

    The Garden Waste Service is operating in line with the routine fortnightly intervals.

    Bulky Collections (Special Uplifts)

    The Waste team continue to deliver the Special uplift service with demand for this area remaining consistent with recent activity.   

    Bin Deliveries

    The service continues to work through requests for replacement bins as resources allow with an upturn in demand for replacement garden waste bins. In line with previous commitments, priority is given to residual bin deliveries however the team continue to work through all requests as resources allow.

    Mavis Valley Recycling Centre

    The household waste recycling centre remains open and operational at this time however the site continues to experience high demand which has an impact on traffic at peak times. The service has now reinstated seven  day traffic management through an external contractor in order to manage the increased demand. Officers will now look to review resources with a view to increasing opening hours at this location in the near future.

    FLEET SERVICES

    Fleet Management

    The service continues to manage the legal operation of the Councils fleet including compliance with the Goods Vehicle Operators licence, Drivers hours’ management and maintenance regimes. Officers continue to progress work on the fleet replacement Capital Programme for the coming financial year. Work is progressing through procurement for tenders and orders for new vehicles due for delivery in through 2021/2022 financial year.  The team continue to progress the de-fleet and disposal of outgoing fleet assets in line with the replacement programme.

    Fleet Maintenance

    The fleet workshops based at the Hilton depot continue to service and maintain all front line Operational fleet vehicles and plant on a rotational shift basis. The service is currently working to meet significant demands for ongoing maintenance and remedial works in support of front line operations. The team continue to prioritise all work based on available staff and the greatest needs in order to deliver through these challenging times. 

    Transport Operations

    The team continue to support colleagues in Education, HSCP and Facilities Management for Transport activities associated with ASN School Transport, day services  and meal deliveries across the Authority. The team also continue to manage vehicle and plant hire activities which have increased significantly over the year, as a consequence of revised working arrangements for services, in delivering through the pandemic response.

    Place & Community Planning

    Environmental Health Team

    The national vaccination programme and current lockdown has seen community transmission of Covid-19 decline over recent successive weeks.  For Environmental Health however, all associated work continues to create a significant additional demand for Environmental Health Officers.

    The team are working with Education colleagues to deliver contact tracing within schools in liaison with health board colleagues through local Problem Assessment Groups (PAG’s) and Incident Management Teams (IMT’s).  We are also being advised of clusters within occupational settings that require to be investigated to ensure the adequate mitigation measures are being put in place by businesses to prevent virus transmission.  To this end, the service takes part in additional meetings with Health Board colleagues to agree investigation plans.

    The area is currently placed in Level 4 of the tiered strategy within The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations with a ‘Stay Local’ requirement also in place. This means that hospitality premises and a wide range of non-essential shops and services remain closed and restrictions on non-essential travel across local authority boundaries remain in place. In line with the Scottish Government’s timetable for the easing of restrictions, further significant changes are likely to take place on or around 26 April – including the opening of hospitality premises such as cafes, pubs and restaurants.

    The team are continuing to deliver an intervention at medium sized retailers to assess the suitability of Covid-19 mitigations.   Other visits are also taking place to respond to serious Covid-19 related complaints and the team continue to receive many requests from local businesses for advice on what the restrictions mean for their operation. Preparatory work is underway for the delivery of proportionate compliance activity when the hospitality sector re-opens. Additional service demands will also be inevitable when more premises and services re-open from 26th April.

    Other routine service requests such as food complaints continue to be received.  The team are sampling foods from local businesses to assist in national monitoring surveys to ensure safety, composition and labelling requirements are adhered to. The importance of food safety and food standards compliance continues to be significant during the course of a wider public health pandemic.

    Away from business regulation, officers continue to deal with other environmental regulation and public health in terms of Air Quality, Contaminated Land and numerous noise, odour, smoke, housing and dampness service complaints.  The team are also assessing relevant incoming planning applications and providing comment for planning colleagues on environmental public health considerations to be accounted for.

    The EU Exit Deal and its implications continue to be monitored, as there are implications to the import and export of food products.   Food Standards Scotland has given advance notice of the expectation for the Official Food Control Recovery Plan to be implemented by Councils. This is likely to generate very significant extra work over coming months with the presumption that inspection programmes can begin again in autumn.  Two new Covid-19 Public Health Compliance Officers have been taken on for 1 year to assist the team and have taken up their positions during the last couple of weeks.

    Trading Standards Team

    On 16 March 2021 the Scottish Government announced an updated timetable for lockdown easing [opens in a new window].

    Level 4 restrictions remain in place, however since 2nd April 2021 the Stay at Home requirement has been replaced with a Stay Local message with travel being allowed within the local authority area.

    On 5 April 2021 a number of retail businesses were permitted to reopen, including barbers and hairdressers premises (by appointment at a specific time), garden centres, showrooms, homeware, baby equipment, electrical repair, key cutting and mobility product shops. All other businesses can operate a click and collect service.

    It is anticipated the re-opening of hairdressers and barbers will lead to a significant increase in workload for Trading Standards team, including dealing with business advice requests and complaints. Hairdressers and barbers must operate an appointment system with customers being given a specific time. Face coverings must continue to be worn on these premises at all times and guidance clearly states that no treatment should be performed that requires the face covering to be removed, such as beard trimming.

    It is expected that from 26th April 2021 all other retail premises and mobile services will be able to re-open. Working in people’s homes should be able to resume fully and it is expected that gyms and swimming pools will reopen for individual exercise. Driving lessons and tests will resume and libraries, museums and galleries will be able to re-open.

    Trading Standards Officers continue to provide individually tailored advice and guidance to all non-food businesses on the emergency health protection Covid-19 Regulations and Scottish Government guidance. Since the restrictions came into place the Trading Standards team have dealt with over 400 complaints and business advice requests on Covid-19 related matters and have also delivered over 1500 interventions under the emergency Regulations.

    Further, there has been an increase in the workload in the areas of scam prevention, product safety, fair trading, metrology and petroleum. Unfortunately there has been surge in the number of Coronavirus scams circulating via email, Facebook and text messages. These scams are wide ranging and some examples include advising you are a priority group due to family genetics or that you need to confirm your NHS vaccine appointment, all of which involve clicking on a link which then asks for a payment and/or personal details. Working with the Corporate Communications team Trading Standards are posting regular warnings on social media to alert residents. Trading Standards also provided a talk to the tenant participation working group regarding Covid-19 related scams which are currently prevalent.

    Having now exited the EU, Trading Standards anticipate an increased workload in relation to the many changes which will impact on their remit.  Officers will continue to receive training regarding changes to Trading Standards legislation brought in by the withdrawal agreement. Officers are undertaking e-learning courses on the changes to Trading Standards legislation, including fair trading, e-commerce, metrology, product safety, animal health, and cross-border matters in advance of the changes which are now in place.

    The Team's Fair Trading Officers have continued to provide advice to consumers and traders in relation to contractual disputes.  Many of these instances have arisen as a consequence of the coronavirus restrictions impacting on performance of contracts, particularly home improvement complaints. The current situation presents additional challenges when mediating between businesses and consumers to satisfactorily resolve complaints.

    The Team's Licensing Advisor continues to deal with routine licensing consultations, complaints and enquiries.

    Community Safety Team

    The Community Safety Team continues to deliver a range of essential, emergency and ongoing work. Service delivery activities have been tailored and prioritised to coincide with the requirements of the level 4 Covid-19 restrictions which are currently in place across East Dunbartonshire. Investigation of instances of fly-tipping continue to feature heavily and officers have been working closely with colleagues in Police Scotland to take robust enforcement action in relation to a number of offences. Throughout the course of the pandemic the team has deployed a number of mobile CCTV cameras in known fly-tipping hotspots for the purposes of helping to tackle this on-going problematic issue. Additional camera deployment has been somewhat restricted in the last few months owing to recent lock down measures, but further additional deployment will be considered wherever relevant as soon as restrictions ease in order to assist with offence detection and support the valuable enforcement work being carried out by the Community Safety Officers in relation to fly-tipping issues.

    Control of Dog matters continue to be investigated and an essential pest control service has also been delivered for residents on an on-going basis since the start of the original lock down in March 2020. In terms of pest control, a number permanent bait visits have also recently been recommenced and carried out in instances where they have been necessary to support the Council's on-going public health response in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic (e.g. at the mass vaccination centres in Kirkintilloch and Milngavie).

    For Community Wardens on-street enforcement for parking offences recommenced in the middle of August 2020.  Charging and enforcement in off-street car parks then recommenced 14 September 2020. During the current period of Covid-19 restrictions, the focus for the Community Wardens in relation to Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) has largely been centred upon our town centre areas, but due to increasing complaints about parking issues at a number of our Primary Schools we will be ensuring that patrols are carried out at these locations during drop off and pick up times after the Easter holidays. Four new Parking Wardens have also recently joined the team to assist with DPE activity. 

    Essential patrols in relation to environmental incivility breaches as well as antisocial behaviour and youth disorder patrols in and around identified issue areas have also continued.  Complaints in relation to the issue of dog fouling have increased significantly in a number of areas throughout ED over recent months and an increased number of targeted patrols (including plain clothes patrols) have therefore been delivered in these areas in order to tackle the problem and Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued to a number of offenders. 

    The team continues to provide a remote service in terms of neighbour complaints/disputes, providing advice by phone and email and liaising regularly with colleagues in other services including Housing, Social Work and Police Scotland.  As part of this the team will continue to carry out antisocial behaviour visits in the most serious of cases in order to tackle the significant increase in the number of complaints that have been received in recent months - however, alternatives means are being utilised wherever possible with face to face visits only being carried out where absolutely essential.

    Community Planning

    The Grant Advisory Committee met in March and CPP Board approval provided for Round 2 of the Community Grants. The successful applicants and groups have been informed and provided with the money for their community benefit projects, totally £40,000.

    Officers continue to develop actions relating to outcomes in our Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), via online engagement with community groups and partners / individuals during lockdown. EDVA also works in the community and has strong links. The Council continues to develop the Place plans for Auchinairn; Lennoxtown; Twechar; and, Hillhead and Harestanes.  These are due to be reviewed in line with statutory guidance and to reflect changed circumstances due to the pandemic.

    In line with revised guidance for CLD planning in 2020 and further to the requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013, Council Officers are developing a plan for Community Leaning and Development for 2021-24.  The Community Learning and Development Partnership is meeting (online) and the group is collating data on evidence of need in order to formulate themes for the next three-year plan. Emerging priorities include combatting isolation, developing green spaces and financial / digital inclusion for priority groups. 

    Our Resettlement Officer continues to offer full-time support to our resettlement families e.g. providing access to essential services.  

    In line with statutory guidance officers are working on the update to the Equality Outcomes and Mainstreaming Report for 2021-2025.  As per the mandatory requirements issued to public bodies under the BSL Scotland Act 2015, EDC have produced a British Sign Language Plan with an update required in October 2021.

    Preparation is underway for a Best Value Audit that will include Community Planning and currently working with colleagues and partners to record case studies and information for the interviews and the focus groups anticipated to be part of the BV process.

    Roads & Environment

    Mugdock Country Park

    • Work at Walled Garden continues with new paving and refurbished bandstand steps;
    • Development of Action Plan to address issues around unauthorised access to Craigend Quarry;
    • Filming at Mugdock over 2 weeks for a fantasy film with an ogre and a witch residing in Pheasants Wood;
    • Pollinator friendly planting around the base of the security fencing at Craigend Castle;
    • Continuation of tree planting across the Park at locations where rhododendrons have been removed;
    • Overflow field has been opened due to high demand although the intention had been to give the grass time to grow through;
    • Liaising with the Astronomical Society of Glasgow in relation to their Observatory, which is currently going through Building Control;

    Streetscene Operations

    • Daily litter picking and emptying bins continues with the reintroduction of weekend working rota to address issues in high footfall areas i.e. Town centres and play areas.
    • The new Play Area at Peel Park is now open and attracting good number so is being added to the daily litter and bin maintenance schedule.
    • Sports pitch maintenance continues including grass cutting, rolling and lining pitches for play.
    • High School sports area are also been lined in anticipation of a return to school after the Easter holidays.
    • Mechanical sweeping continues
    • Notable increase in fly tipping being dealt with as and when reported
    • Excess materials being removed from public recycling centres

    Streetscene Technical Support Team

    • Conservation Architect appointed for the restoration of Peel Park bandstand, drinking fountain and historic lamp standards
    • Standard tree planting completed at Kilmardinny House
    • Allocation of new plot holders at Rosebank Allotments
    • Assistance provided to Lenzie Development Trust for path at Myrtle Ave. Path works are now complete.
    • Path upgrades at Cairnhill Wood and Kilmardinny Loch LNR ongoing
    • Contractor appointed for drainage works at Cadder Cemetery. Works to commence in summer.
    • Team responding to significant volume of tree and open space enquiries and correspondence with local communities.

    Roads Technical and Engineering Team

    Structures

    • Allander Bridge No.1 Glasgow Road Milngavie. Glasgow Road closed on 12 February following inspection by structures staff.  The bridge abutment has been washed away, and a void has formed behind this, putting the water mains at risk. Support to water mains now in place and work to concrete support to section of damaged abutment completed Friday 2 April. Further repairs required to section of damaged bridge abutment and downstream retaining wall which also provide support to water mains, and scoured area of bed to be reinstated.
    • Continuing with General Inspections, and reviewing Principal Inspection programme.

    Drainage and Flood Prevention

    • Bencloich Road Lennoxtown - Works completed.
    • CCTV addressing some localised drainage issues.
    • Scoring capital projects for coming year.

    Development

    • Attending sites to ensure compliance with construction consent approval.

    Traffic

    • Assisting with the design and implementation of an average speed camera system on Auchinairn Road.
    • Ongoing procurement of a traffic survey and lining contract.
    • Regular liaison with Police Scotland Traffic Management department.
    • Continuing with identifying and refurbishment of lining/signing on the road network, continuing to respond to Legal Services on licensing applications and processing dropped kerb and disabled bay applications.
    • Responding to customer services on applications for occasional licences for Beer Gardens.

    Roads Network Operations

    In line with current restrictions the Roads Network Team will continue, on a rota basis, to carry out essential road safety repairs where social distancing can be maintained. The Operations Team resources have been prioritised to the repair of road defects reported over the last few weeks to ensure the safe use of the network. We also continue with our planned gully maintenance operations, working to complete all secondary routes and respond to reports of blocked gullies. The Street Lighting Operations team are responding to any reported defects, dark lamps or dark areas, addressing all within the required time frames.

    Roads Network Operations

    In line with current restrictions the Roads Network Team will continue, on a rota basis, to carry out essential road safety repairs where social distancing can be maintained. The Operations Team resources have been prioritised to the repair of road defects reported over the last few weeks to ensure the safe use of the network. We also continue with our planned gully maintenance operations, working to complete all secondary routes and respond to reports of blocked gullies. The Street Lighting Operations team are responding to any reported defects, dark lamps or dark areas, addressing all within the required time frames.

    As we move into a period of drier weather the operations team have returned to our Road Marking and Relining operations as resources allow and are working to address any safety concerns raised over the winter period.

    The Roads Operations team have also provided 24 hour response to any issue reported on the network including road traffic accidents or emergency defects on a stand by rota basis including our annual Winter Maintenance programme.

    The team is continuing to weekend support colleagues in Waste with the operation of Mavis Valley Transfer Station, providing traffic management to assist with the control of vehicles accessing the site.

    With the opening of the Mass and Targeted COVID Vaccination Centres at Milngavie and Kirkintilloch Town Halls and the Asymptomatic Testing Facility and Auchinairn Early Learning Centre, roads operatives have been supporting with the supply of marshalling and additional gritting operations to ensure safe access is maintained to these centres. Through collaborations with Greenspace, additional gritting measures have been put in place to ensure those attending appointments can do so safely.

    Roads Inspectors continue to carry out all statutory safety inspection routes as well as investigating issues reported across the road network. As operations by utility companies have now increased the inspectors along with the Utility technician have commenced inspections of their operations as required. Inspectors and technician are now continuing to review and process and permit applications submitted to the Roads authority.

    The lighting technical team continues to work on ongoing tasks suited to home based working such as processing inventory records, updating and data cleansing. Officers have returned to site inspection duties and are liaising with developers to carry out site inspection and testing of new developments and progressing any new adoptions. The team is also responded to any planning applications which have been received.

    The Roads Network Team has reviewed and agreed all Risk Assessment for Roads related tasks with the Health and Safety Team in response to Government guidance and are amending our Safe Working Practises with the any additional control measures identified in this process. We are actively working towards increasing activities to allow a return to the Capital Resurfacing programme when welfare and vehicle issues are resolved. Through the use of specialist external contractors we have managed to resolve structural road issues on both Crow Road and Stockiemuir Road and managed to complete the resurfacing of several locations, including Manse Road, Whitehill Road, Eskdale Road, Tay Road and South Erskine Park. Works continue on Collylinn Road to upgrade both the carriageways, footways and street lighting.

    EDUCATION, PEOPLE & BUSINESS: SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 9 April 2021

    In this section, you will find information on:

    Education

    The next phase of the reopening of schools has been confirmed by Scottish Government.  Secondary schools will reopen for all pupils, except those who are shielded, after the Easter break on 19 April.   Revised guidance has been issued by Scottish Government and this has removed the requirement for physical distancing in secondary schools.    We will work with Health and Safety to update our guidance to schools.

    As previously detailed, secondary schools are under considerable pressure due to the requirements of the Alternative Certification Model which replaces the examinations for the National Qualifications.  When schools reopen after Easter, there will be a focus on assessment to build on the evidence that schools already have of pupils’ demonstrated attainment.  There are clear requirements by the SQA and schools and the local authority require to have a robust moderation and quality assurance process in place.  There is likely to be concerns raised by parents and pupils about the impact of this focus on assessments; with pupils having to complete assessments over a number of weeks.  There will be a review by Education Scotland as instructed by Scottish Government.

    The early years team continue to work towards the implementation of the expansion of early learning and childcare.  The new centre at Oakburn some minor issues to be addressed before it can open for children.  The centre at Lairdsland and Bearsden are due to be completed in the next few weeks.

    The Snack and Play programme for Easter is being delivered in conjunction with EDLCT.  The provision has been expanded into the Westergreens and Clober area of Milngavie.  Places are prioritised for children, who are entitled to free school meals and those who are vulnerable.  The places are then opened to other children who would benefit from the provision.   The Holiday Playscheme in Merkland for children with additional support needs is being organised with the appropriate risk assessment in place.

    Organisational Transformation

    Procurement Team

    The Procurement Team continues to support tender and contract requirements across all services with significant workstreams around major assets, Property Maintenance contracts and other needs across services such as Education, Housing, Business & Digital Change Projects, and Roads. Renewal and award of various contracts continue with various key ICT system requirements being progressed at this time.

    The team continues to monitor supply chains for PPE stocks and other critical supplies. The operating arrangements and support to services have been updated for all services to ensure sufficient supplies and emergency procedures where required. PPE demand is monitored from the Stores location, and is managed/facilitated by the Procurement team.  Work is currently in progress to prepare for election PPE stocks and purchases.

    Procurement is also currently supporting key work streams, these include Mass Vaccinations, Scottish Parliament Election, City Deal, the new Integrated Housing Management System, Transport Service arrangements, Remote Digital Solutions for Education and Supplier/Partner provider support in line with COSLA guidance.

    Care at Home and Supported Living Contract renewals have been aligned to support the Commissioning team and HSCP.

    Business Grants, School Clothing Grants, Education Trip repayments, Early Years grants, Care providers additional funding requests continue to be processed via the Procurement Support team to support Scottish Government payment requirements. 

    End of year processes for invoices and payments are currently in progress and resources aligned to support the increased demand on the Service.

    The team continues to process Free School Meal Payments for the period of School closures and are supporting ongoing applications in line with Scottish Government Guidance. Spring Hardship Payment (£100 per eligible child) and Free School Meal Payment at £4/day were paid on the 1st April 2021. (£144/eligible child) in line with legislative timescales.

    Financial tracking of costs for Free School Meals, Hardship and Isolation Payments is ongoing, and associated Grant claims to Scottish Government are being monitored.

    Additional specialist workstreams from City Deal and increased payment requirements from Business Grants, had informed resourcing with additional recruitment required. A Procurement Project Lead for City Deal and Payment Support Assistants have recently been appointed.

    Health & Safety

    The Health and Safety team continues to prioritise areas for support based on identified requirements and prioritisation across all Council. EDLCT and HSCP services.

    Support continues to be provided to:

    • Education with COVID-19 guidelines, updating and reviewing measures in place as well as outbreak case management alongside Environmental Health and Education officers.
    • various services such Legal and Democratic services in the run up to the Scottish Parliamentary elections, its arrangements, risk assessments and supporting procurement in the selection of items required for safe elections. Waste and Roads teams continue to engage with the manager to address H&S requirements for upcoming operations.
    • HSCP Adult services in the preparations for re-start of services.
    • the Asymptomatic Testing Site with participation in ‘train the trainer’ programme with the British Army to support ongoing delivery and future requirements. 

    Health and Safety team continues to develop and carry out training for duty holders. Fire safety training and Toolbox talks coverage and scope continues to grow as training needs are recognised throughout services.

    The Team continues to engage with our Health Surveillance providers and the management of the health surveillance records. It will be supporting on site clinics starting next week. Review of individual vibration risk assessments are being progressed with the review of HAVS REACTEC system to improve recording.

    The team has attended sites to support Assets & Estates and contractors relating to statutory Health & Safety requirements and has continued to carry out Fire risk assessments of all operational and non-operational buildings.

    Health and Safety inbox queries, accident and incident recording and RIDDOR, investigations, task based and DSE risk assessments continue to support all services throughout the council. The team continues to work alongside HR with Individual Risk Assessments and support at meetings to assist in the return to work of staff in vulnerable categories.

    Social Work Commissioning Team

    Planning & Development team continues to support the HSCP and commissioned services including Care Homes, Care at Home and Third Sector organisations to ensure services continue, resume safely, remain flexible and responsive to changing needs and are sustainable in the longer term.  

    Planning & Development continues to have an integral role in the HSCP’s daily Adult Services Oversight Group – which has recently been extended to 2022.  The group, whose membership includes Public Health and Care Inspectorate, has responsibility for providing assurance across key service areas including care homes, care at home, supported living and day care.  Planning & Development responsibilities includes monitoring (daily analysis/reporting, service & financial monitoring, compliance, risk management) and supporting providers/market management/facilitation.  Monitoring the impact of C-19 vaccination and weekly testing across care homes, community based services and the recently introduced testing across non-registered services remains a priority for P&D.

    Planning & Development continues to support the closure of Campsie Neuro care home and is liaising with providers and commissioners to identify suitable alternative placements for local residents who require 24hr support with accommodation.  

    Planning & Development monitors providers Business Continuity Plans and intervenes if/where required to help mitigate service continuity risks.  Provider’s business continuity plans are reviewed and updated regularly, and aligned to the HSCP’s overarching Business Continuity Plan.  The HSCP’s Local Resilience Management Team (LRMT) continues to meet fortnightly to review resilience planning, surveillance and reporting across all HSCP / commissioned services

    Assurance visits to care homes are ongoing and to date have been positive with few recommendations required.  Planning & Development progress any related compliance issues with care home managers/owners and report / update the Oversight Group on progress, actions required and outcomes.

    Planning & Development continues to support Social Care Sustainability Payments & Care Home Occupancy payments for providers who, as a direct result of Covid-19, have incurred additional costs relating to infection control, PPE and/or losses due to reduced occupancy.  Claims and payments are aligned to the Scottish Government’s guidance published in December 2020.  Approved claims are routinely captured within the HSCP’s Mobilisation Plan and providers submit invoices to P&D for recording and progressing/payment purposes. 

    Planning & Development has been instrumental in supporting the transfer of Care at Home business to Scotland Excel’s National Flexible Framework.  Planning & Development is liaising with providers and finance regarding any outstanding issues / concerns relating to the services and / or applicable rates – which include the recently approved Scottish Living Wage uplift

    Human Resources & Organisational Development

    Following the announcement by the Scottish Government that all Health and Social Care workers will receive a ‘£500 Thank You’, the HR&OD team has been working through the guidance. Trades Union engagement, communications and leadership updates have been completed. 

    Trades Unions engagement continues on a weekly basis and has been focused on strategic issues such as election planning, targeted vaccination updates, workforce vaccine programme, weekly testing processes as well as risk assessment and required actions to respond to strategic issues in the Stay At Home/Stay Local regulations. 

    Engagement with Trades Unions in relation to the progression of Service reviews within Facilities Management and Planning & Development Team.  Engagement sessions will take place with teams included within the scope of the reviews and established policies implemented for revised service delivery models.

    Engagement continues with Managers on the support for Individual Risk Assessments and Occupational Health Assessments based on Stay At Home/Stay Local regulations and Scottish Government advice. 

    The HR Case Team continues to work on concluding cases as timely as possible whilst always ensuring early intervention and informal resolution principles apply. 

    Absence analysis and support continues with priority focus within the HSCP.  Detailed scrutiny of the absence performance across all services continues with engagement taking place to understand required support and actions for improvement. The team continues to receive daily calls on COVID reporting for various circumstances.  The implementation of a 7 day cover rota remains in place.  Advice and guidance to employees and managers on COVID related issues and absences continue to be supported by the HR & OD teams.

    Work continues to enhance the Employee Zone pages with updates and additions to the Wellbeing page to reflect Healthy Working Lives campaigns going forward. 

    Work continues to provide support and advice in relation to resourcing and recruitment campaign as well as safe recruitment practices during this time. Work is ongoing on the implementation of revised contract of employment templates and streamlining of process in line with the Good Work Plan requirements.

    Wellbeing campaigns are being highlighted through employee communications and publication on the Employee Zone.  The teams are involved in Trauma awareness training at this time.

    Business & Digital Change Team

    The Business & Digital Change Team continues to lead the delivery of a range of multi-disciplinary projects across the Council.

    Work continues to develop a business case for a new Web Content Management System (CMS) and integrated Customer Relations Management (CMS) system.  These are part of a future enhancement to the digital customer interaction and customer journey.  

    Phase 2 of the Smart Working M365 project will shortly be commencing.  A Microsoft Gold Partner has been engaged to support the Council in developing our Smart Working capability. This phase of the project will focus on business and technical readiness and will be concluded by June 2021. 

    Work has concluded on the upgrade to iTrent, the Council’s HR and Payroll system. This work will underpin the planned improvements to processing times and self-service offerings. 

    The Business Systems team continues to work with Procurement and Legal to establish contracts which will support a number of system upgrades including; New Council Tax Modules bringing additional online services, Servitor Property Maintenance System upgrades and the Planning & Building Control IDOX system upgrade.  The team are also supporting a number of transformational projects including the SEEMIS Financial & Budgeting module replacement for which the first of a suite of interim Educational financial reports have been developed. 

    Work continues on the delivery of new solutions for the replacement of legacy Education systems with a wide range of new solutions being developed to allow the delivery of essential functions across the Education sector.   

    The team continues to lead the administration of the Temporary Restrictions Fund for children’s services, out of school care providers and childminders registered as caring for 12 or more children at a time. To date £59,185 of grants have been awarded.  This round of funding ended on the 1st April. 

    Legal & Democratic Services

    Democratic Services

    The team continues to support the Council’s COVID-19 civil contingencies response, supporting command structures at Council, local, regional and national level as previously reported.  .

    In addition to the above, work is continuing on support for the most recent recurrence of COVID.  Regular meetings are taking place both locally and at a Greater Glasgow & Clyde LRP level to look at current issues and also future planning e.g. dealing with additional deaths so that there robust plans in place which can be activated if necessary. 

    The Team continues to lead in planning and oversight of the Council’s involvement for both mass vaccinations and community testing within East Dunbartonshire.  Members will recall that both centres (Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre and Allander Leisure Centre were structured to allow both the hours of operation and number of vaccinators to be scaled up as required.  Activity slowed slightly over the last couple of weeks due to vaccine supply, however new schedules show this increasing again over the coming weeks and the centres will be closer to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week operation.  Whilst it is likely that volume and hours will ebb and flow as new cohorts are introduced and supplies increase, it is anticipated that commencement second jags will see the Centres running at close to capacity for several weeks.   Discussions with colleagues in NHS GG&C and other local authorities continue to take place in order that centres are able to provide vaccinations as planned and the EDLCT workforce continues to provide excellent support to the clinical operation, in a manner which is flexible and responds to the ever changing supply chain.  Feedback from attendees continues to be positive and colleagues in the Leisure Trust are managing the throughput of vaccines efficiently and without any significant queues or delays.  The latest roadmap for easing restrictions is such that work is not progressing to look at how some activities might be reintroduced at the leisure centres in a way which does not impact on the vaccination programme.

    Similarly, the Team is leading on planning for community asymptomatic testing across East Dunbartonshire.  This is where the Council is required to set up a testing facility in communities where there is a significant spike in infection rates and/or where there are persistently higher than average rates.  These centres will be used to test those who are asymptomatic and are intended to identify where individuals have COVID-19 in order that they can quickly self-isolate and contact tracing can be triggered.  Members will be aware that an ATS has been established at the Auchinairn Community & Early Years Centre.  This site has seen a reasonable footfall to date.  The MACA, which resulted in military support, has now ended and we are being assisted by colleagues from NHS GG&C in staffing the centre at present.  Planning for the medium to longer term is in hand and Members will be updated once this is developed further.   In addition to regular comms, the Team is liaising with colleagues in Community Planning & Place to engage with local community groups and also colleagues in Education with a view to encouraging testing via the various local schools. 

    In the last few week, the team has been engaging with Scottish Government in relation to the identification of sites for walk in symptomatic testing in East Dunbartonshire.  These discussions are ongoing and a separate Technical Note will be issued shortly detailing proposed venues and the manner in which the facilities will operate.

    The Team continues to be involved in the strategic management of Registration Services at a local and regional level to inform the national picture regarding the management of additional deaths during this pandemic and working with partners to support a Greater Glasgow & Clyde-wide response.  The registration of births and marriages/civil partnerships continues to be supported by colleagues in Legal Services and significant progress has been made to address the backlog of birth registrations.  In addition, the Team is feeding into discussions at a regional and national level, which seek to embed some aspects of the move to remote/online registration where possible and practical to do so.  The Team continues to monitor the national position and infection rates so that additional resources can be deployed if necessary and plans for cover over the holidays are being finalised.

    Wedding and Civil Partnership ceremonies continue to take place at 21 Southbank Road for now.  In addition, the Team continues to closely monitor the ever developing situation around restrictions and what they mean for ceremonies and receptions.  This will be continuously under review in light of changing restrictions. 

    Between 25 March – 7 April 25 Births, 53 deaths and 2 Civil Marriages were registered by Customer Services. 

    Notwithstanding the pause in some of the workstreams around Care for People and Shielding, the Team continues to work to support governance matters and civil contingencies input in relation to Outbreak Management & concurrency issues and will continue to do so as more services are “switched back on”, and restrictions are eased.

    On top of the above, there are other emerging civil contingency concerns in relation to which the Team continues to participate in various local and regional awareness and planning meetings including the review of strategic infrastructure and fulfilment of the “All Risks” approach to the various concurrent risks across the country. 

    Preparations for the Scottish Parliament Election scheduled for May 2021 are continuing.  This planning requires additional attention as a “COVID-lens” is applied to conventional election workstreams on a local and national basis.  Preparations are developing on a “safety first” approach so as to ensure the safety of all involved (staff, candidates and voters) and to provide assurance that the arrangements are safe for all.  A communications plan is being developed and other additional briefings are planned for both staff and prospective candidates.  The layout of all polling places has been reviewed and the arrangements for counting votes are progressing.  A small multi service team continues to work on the detailed planning.  Contingency plans will be prepared which anticipate a resurgence in the virus and measures put in place to secure the availability of the core election team.  All aspects of the process and arrangements will be subject to robust risk assessments in order to protect employees, voters and candidates.  On 8th March a Pre-Nomination session was arranged for potential candidates and focussed on arrangements for the safety of the election and those participating, along with details of the nomination process.  The Team has moved into the Election Office which for the duration of this campaign will be based on the top floor at Southbank House.  In addition, postal votes will be verified at Southbank House.  These offices are not open to the public and access is restricted to those working on the election and those entitled to attend postal vote verification.  Strict access control arrangements are in place to ensure security and also protect those working on site.

    The nomination period is now closed and the Notice of Poll is published and available on the Elections section of the Council’s website

    There are 5 candidates for the Strathkelvin & Bearsden constituency, 5 for the Clydebank & Milngavie constituency and 19 on the West of Scotland Regional List. 

    In terms of the election timetable to date, then the key milestones are as follows:-

    • Candidates & Agents Briefing – 9th April
    • 1st Issue Postal Votes – 14 April
    • Postal Vote Opening will commence week beginning 19 April
    • Polling Day – 6th May
    • Constituency Count – 7th May @ 10am
    • Regional List Count – 8th May @ 9am

    Information Management

    The team continues to support to services in relation to information management, data protection and data sharing, which are critical in these circumstances and has supported various services in the ongoing development and amendment of Privacy Notices and Privacy Impact Assessments for new workstreams and the establishment of information sharing agreements and protocols which assist the Council in its work to protect some of the most vulnerable residents.  In addition to supporting the Council’s postal mail services, the Team remains busy with print activity in support of schools and Committee cycles.  In addition to the foregoing, the Team is working with in relation to the classification and preservation of information generated by the Council’s response to the COVID pandemic.

    SMT Support & Members Support Teams

    The SMT Support team is working with the CMT and SMT to assist in the re-introduction of services across portfolios and continue to support other areas of the wider service and beyond as required.  The Team continues to support the CMT, SMT and Departmental Management Teams with processes for remote meetings, production of Committee Reports and Elected Member Technical Notes.  The Members Support Team also continues to support Elected Members. 

    Legal Services

    Legal Services continue to guide Major Assets in the negotiation and conclusion of the Council’s capital projects and agreements are now at signing stage in respect of Allander and Boclair Academy with negotiations well underway for the Kirkintilloch Community Sports Hub project, including the complex leasing structure that underpins the project.  Due to the nature of these contracts (in terms of complexity, scale and value) these are particularly time and resource intensive.  Separately, whilst full details of the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU upon labour, materials and exchange rates emerge, delicate drafting is required to future-proof the Council’s interests in these projects. 

    In tandem with this, the team is also guiding the Housing Service in respect of delivery of its many capital projects and in the recommencement of open market purchases and shared equity buy-backs to increase the provision of affordable housing within East Dunbartonshire. 

    The team is also assisting with the initial contracts required for the City Region City Deal project with the recruitment of a team to support this well underway.

    Further resource continues to be dedicated to interpreting, assessing and, where necessary, protecting the Council from the impact of the pandemic and the EU exit on its legal interests.  In tandem with this the team endeavours to ensure that any potential benefits to the Council are optimised.  One particularly busy area of work continues to be in relation to the many grant offers which the Council is receiving.  Each grant comes with its own terms and conditions which the team assesses and then advises the relevant service in relation to any potential risks or performance/reporting requirements.  This work can often be challenging - whilst the terms and conditions are not overly complex, the volume and increasingly short turnaround times within which the grant has to be accepted in order for the Council to access funds can at times impact on other work.

    The team also works closely with the procurement team in ensuring procurement processes are complying with the changing law in this area and that the flexibilities offered by Government guidance are appropriately used.  This also involves the drafting and documentation of contracts with suppliers of goods, works and services to the Council and the contractual clauses on the risk to the delivery of contracts caused by Covid-19 and the EU exit have to be tailored to fit the individual nature and circumstances of each contract.  At the moment the team is assisting with some urgent procurements which have some complicated features and, as such, need detailed legal advice to ensure compliance and minimisation of risk. 

    The team is also playing a key role in the project team appointed to deliver a new Integrated Housing Management System for the Housing Service.  The market for such systems is such that procurement of this project is complex and requires a high degree of legal project management and support.  Coupled with this is the drafting and negotiation of bespoke IT terms and conditions to ensure that the system delivers as required.

    The team negotiates, drafts and concludes the majority of contracts that the Council enters into for supplies, goods and services.  A particular highlight at the moment is the contract for the new Committee Management system. 

    On top of this, the Commercial team is endeavouring to carrying out its “business as usual” activities where required in support of a Council priority.  These include land transactions and commercial agreements, which seek to improve the Council’s commercial position.    The team has also been involved in many data sharing and IT agreements, including licences to other partnering local authorities in respect of applications developed by the ICT team for education purposes.

    In respect of litigation, at present the team is usually representing the Council’s interests by way of virtual hearings.   There are, however, some matters which necessitate team members physically appearing in court.  Current ongoing actions in court relate to housing, social work, licensing and employment matters.  The team also continues to support the Council’s services in the management of various complex matters, which are currently at the pre-litigation stage, in an effort to mitigate effects on the Council.  In addition, the team is currently preparing for a public inquiry in relation to a compulsory purchase order.  This is the first compulsory purchase order that has been promoted by the Council in some time and the team, having limited previous experience of the process, is navigating it ably. 

    A significant amount of work is dedicated to the running of quasi judicial boards.  In conjunction with colleagues in Democratic Services, virtual meetings of the Planning Local Review Body, the Licensing Boards and the Civic Government Appeals Board are now talking place, albeit that some  are temporarily paused.  However, during this period the team is still busy with dealing with applications, renewals and queries from application/agents.  Despite the pause in meetings, meetings of the Special Civic Government Appeals Board, the Planning Local Review Body and the Licensing Board have all taken place in recent weeks to deal with pressing business. 

    Both Legal & Democratic Services were  heavily involved in the Pre Determination Hearing and special meeting of Council which took place last week  In addition to the usual arrangements supporting virtual meetings, the Teams  met with objectors and supporters to assist them in preparing for the pre determination hearing and briefing sessions were held for elected members to run through the procedure for these hearings.

    Following the announcement on expected relaxation of restrictions from the First Minister, the Team is reviewing previous arrangements for licensed premises to ensure that these are up to date and reflect any changes.  This work will be carried out in conjunction with colleagues in Environmental Health, Customer Services and Planning and will ensure that up to date advice is available to the licensed trade.  Importantly, procedures will be as pragmatic as possible so as to facilitate reopening, whilst still ensuring public safety.  In addition, procedures to support the processing of public entertainment licensing are also under review.

    The team continues to provide close support to colleagues in social work in respect of sensitive and important matters involving children, families and vulnerable adults some of which are particularly pressing at the current time.  These often require court appearances with very short notice.  The number of referrals and matters requiring legal support has significantly increased during the pandemic and is requiring increased support from the Litigation & Licensing Team.  In addition, the Service has supported social work colleagues in collating and assessing information in respect of a major Inquiry. 

    The team is gearing up for the return of heritable court business in terms of actions suspended at the point of the initial lockdown and other matters which have arisen since.  There is, however, one complex and important heritable court matter that is being allowed to proceed due to its serious nature and the team are acting on the Council’s behalf to ensure the best outcome for the many different parties involved. 

    In addition to the above, the Team is now turning attention to this year’s placing requests.  The extended timescales of last year (to accommodate the work of the pandemic and home working) are no longer available and so preparations are commencing for this year’s anticipated appeals.  Members will be aware that the Council normally receives a significant number of placing request appeals which result in several weeks of Appeal Hearings.  This is time consuming and labour-intensive for both the Litigation & Licensing Team and also the Democratic Team  Accordingly, the Team, along with colleagues in Democratic Services will shortly meet with Education to agree a time line and process for dealing with these appeals.

    The team is also representing the Council’s interests in respect of various employment issues, including disputes that have made their way to tribunal.

    As always, the team provides strategic advice and support to its colleagues in other services on the full range of legal issues currently and normally facing the Council.  At the moment, that is particularly complex and resource intensive. 

    As always and due to the nature of the work of the team, there are many matters which the team is working on which are confidential and sensitive and further detailed information cannot be given on these.

    Resources in Legal Services have been depleted recently and the sharp increase in demand for its services has put significant pressure on the team.  In addition to existing projects, the team will be required to support the delivery of the City Region City Deal project.   This has necessitated investment in the team in the form of a substantial recruitment exercise to fill a variety of new and existing roles.  That process is well underway and the first three new members of the team have now joined, including a new Team Leader for the Litigation and Licensing team, with others to join in the coming weeks.  The intention is that by Spring/Summer 2021 the team will be much better resourced to be able to continue to support the Council through the projects and challenges which lie ahead. 

    Customer & Business Support Services

    Corporate Performance & Research

    The Corporate Performance & Research Team continues to support data collation and quality assurance for performance reporting including the preparation and submission of statutory returns and local performance indicators as well as wider data analysis across Council services and HSCP social care services and ongoing reporting requirements. Quality assurance improvements and data cleansing activity are ongoing to ensure accurate data and confidence in data returns. 

    Work is continuing to support performance reporting for 2020/21 and agree timescales for committee consideration at the Council meeting on 17 June ahead of recess.   Work will also continue in the coming months to develop the corporate performance aspirations highlighted in the strategic review of strategic planning and performance that was presented to Council on 17 December, and reinforced in the Council Budget papers on 25 February.  Work is also continuing with all service areas on the Council’s insurance renewals.

    Communications & Engagement

    The Communications Team continues to provide 24/7 communications support for emergencies and essential out of hours messaging.  Communications support and advice is provided across all Council services the East Dunbartonshire HSCP and EDLC Trust to ensure customers are aware of service delivery arrangements, highlighting changes if required across all channels to ensure maximum reach of message.  Internal communications continue to focus on ensuring the workforce is aware of the latest Public Health and Scottish Government guidance and the continuing review of risk assessments and workplace Covid-19 measures to ensure the safety of all employees.

    The website continues to be updated daily and new pages created to meet service and messaging requirements, in line with latest guidance and Covid-19 support initiatives. A new section has been developed for the publication of Technical Notes on the Council website so that these are publicly available where relevant. 

    Delivery of the Scottish Parliamentary Election communication plan continues as well as the development of arrangements for media attendance ant the counts and arrangements for the publication of results once declared. The focus moves from advising about postal votes to reassuring people of the safety of the poll in relation to Covid-19 mitigation measures.  A suite of signage has been prepared for Polling Places and the Count Venue to advise all those attending of the measures in place. For more information, visit the Elections and voting section.
     

    The Employee Zone, which can be accessed by all Council employees whether they are office-based or on the frontline, continues to be regularly updated with key information, including Health and Safety updates and Wellbeing support.  The April programme of Healthy Working Lives initiatives has been published to this section.

    Communications support for community asymptomatic testing centre in Auchinairn continues.  In addition to the dedicated community testing webpage with a ‘what to expect’ video, promotional materials have been updated to advise that the centre has been extended to the wider Bishopbriggs area.  Further messaging in relation to the centre will be issued ahead of the full time return to school on 19 April and as further outdoor activities are permitted.  Information and flyers have been provided for distribution to hairdressers and barbers in the area now that these too have reopened for business. Information has also been collated on all the support available should an individual or someone in their household test positive.  An exit survey has been established and to date, all respondents are continuing to confirm that they find the testing centre extremely safe with clear messaging on the process.   

    In the past fortnight, a total of 17 media enquiries were received and responded to on deadline, and 7 media releases have been issued, resulting in positive coverage online and print media for the Council. Media releases over the past fortnight have included: work starting to build houses at Blackthorn Grove in Lenzie,  extending the Community Testing Centre to the wider Bishopbriggs area, transformation of the Lennox Park play area in Milngavie, and the outcome of Planning Board that considered the planning application for the new ASN School in Kirkintilloch.  All media releases are available in the News Section of the Council website.

    Social Media messaging remains a key focus and effective channel for engaging with East Dunbartonshire communities.  On twitter there were 99 posts in the last period with a reach of 1.99 million, similar to the previous fortnight and there are currently 18.833k followers of the Council Twitter account.  The highest reaching posts on twitter this past fortnight were Guidance on hairdressers and barbers reopening (31.2k), the Climate Conversation climate consultation post (28.6k) and the Safety camera works on Auchinairn Road (23.3k):

    Top Twitter Posts for interaction:

    top twitter posts

    On Facebook there were 117 posts this fortnight with a 478.1k reach over the past fortnight and the number of Facebook fans that like the Council page has increased slightly to 17,794k, with 19.756k following the page.  The highest reaching posts were in relation to the lights being installed at the Allander junction and the installation of average speed safety cameras on Auchinairn Road.

    Top Facebook Posts for interactions:

    top facebook posts

    Customer Services

    The Emergency Response Centre continues to provide customer support 24/7 for the hour care alarm service, CCTV monitoring and emergency communication across services out of hours as required.

    The wider Customer Services team continues to respond to changing priorities and fluctuating numbers of daily enquiries, predominantly in response to local and national measures in relation to Covid-19 including vaccination and testing and also in relation to support grants and applications for these.  Call volumes remain stable with calls in relation to vaccination being signposted to the national helpline, NHS Inform and the dedicated Council webpage with details on transport and travel to centres.  Customer service resources continue to be deployed flexibly across the channels with greatest demand and call waiting times are continually monitored. 

    Customer Service delivery continues primarily through digital and phone channels in line with current guidance.  A strict appointment-only based approach is in place for the necessary face to face elements required for licensing applications at Bearsden Community Hub, which continues to work effectively for the final checking of original documents ahead of issuing of plates/licences.  Registration services (delivered by Customer Services Agents/Assistant Registrars) continue to provide 5-day service delivery during the Covid-19 Recovery phase, in line with current guidance.  Death registrations are delivered remotely through telephone appointments from Kirkintilloch Community Hub where documentation can be issued.  Birth registrations are being undertaken in real time with a preliminary telephone appointment prior to a face to face appointment for the final stage and signing of the register.  A strict appointment system also remains in place for marriage paperwork submission.  Ceremonies are being delivered at the former Registration Office on Southbank Road which has been risk assessed and appropriately signed for those attending.  Ceremonies are in strict compliance with current stay at home guidance and maximum numbers permitted. Guidance and advice for ceremonies is provided in line with current guidance and the road map out of lockdown.

    Shared Services

    The School Support Co-ordinators continue to support the primary, nursery and education units with the return of pupils and teachers to school.  The replacement of the SEEMIS codes for department codes came into effect on 1 April 2021 and the schools will need the ongoing support of the SSC's to ensure any purchases that are made in the new financial year are coded through the correct codes and to understand their budgets.

    The Transport team continue preparations for the transport provision for academic year 2021/22 with the first round published on Public Contracts Scotland website and the team collating the paperwork for round 2.  The team are liaising with Education colleagues and suppliers to ensure that all mainstream transport is in place for schools returning full time after the Easter break.  

    The Homecare and Residential teams are busy completing rate uplifts for the new financial year while continuing to process paperwork for all services for the more vulnerable people within EDC to ensure providers receive their payments at the new rates. 

    The General Team continue to provide the National Assistance Helpline facility for the Council, providing support to shielders, vulnerable and self-isolating residents.   The Education team continue the preparations for new SEEMIS Early Years system implementation in conjunction with Business and Digital Change colleagues and the School placing request process with support from GIS colleagues to determine distances from the requested school to the home.  The Letting team are making plans for the return of letting for the different levels of the Scottish Government COVID Route Map in anticipation of finalised dates for each level.

    Revenues & Benefits
    The team have carried out the year end processes for Council Tax and confirm the Council Tax Collection rate for 20/21 was 96.7% only slightly down on the previous year (97.0%), but matches the 10-year average of 96.7%.  We are still experiencing high volumes of correspondence regarding the 2021/22 Council tax bills and the second summary warrants.  We continue with the review of some of the council tax discounts.

    The Scottish Welfare Fund is still experiencing much higher demands than normal, while we have seen a reduction in Self-Isolation Support Grant applications, Crisis grants remain at the high levels and we are now seeing an increase in the Community Care Grants as housing rental market activity rises. 

    Non Domestic rates casework remains higher than normal due to effects of the pandemic on businesses. The team are processing Retail Hospitality Leisure & Aviation applications which have been returned in preparation for annual NDR billing taking place week commencing 12th April.   We are continuing preparations for the first summary warrant for 20/21 rates.

    The team continue to support Business Gateway colleagues on the various Scottish Government grants available to support businesses during the pandemic.

    The Benefits team continue to see higher than normal applications, particularly for Council Tax Reduction, however, the team continue to meet performance target through effective resource planning.

    ICT

    The Corporate and Education support teams continue to provide support to customers across both estates within the agreed SLAs.  The Education team have been supporting the pupils’ return to school and the deployment of additional devices purchased by the schools.  The corporate team continue to address Cyber Security through the deployment of security updates to all corporate devices.

    The Infrastructure team have completed the migration of the control of public PC software to a cloud based solution allowing greater control for both the libraries and for ICT to support them.  The team continue supporting major asset projects and the delivery of further devices for pupils. 

    Finance & Audit

    Work continues on a number of business as usual activities as previously reported to Elected Members.  These efforts continuing throughout our teams.  Significant work is ongoing to support payments, new grants and systems developments to support the ongoing Council efforts.  Work is increasingly concentrating on year-end routines, reporting and external audit.

    Work is ongoing e to establish whether there are any residual implications for the Council as the Scottish Government’s Budget Bill passed through Parliamentary Processes including notifications of additional grants, distributions to either the Council, HSCP or implications for our wider group.  Redistributions have now been notified and this is likely to have a significant bearing on the Council’s year end position.

    The Council’s Chief Finance Officers continues to support the coordination of the ongoing Best Value Audit due for reporting later in the financial year.  Meetings with Officers have now been concluded with Political Engagement occurring at the time of writing.  More detailed work is being planned within Community Planning and Partnerships with this being the residual area not previously covered with External Auditors as part of their more recent Annual Audit Reports.  This work will be specified following the Easter holiday.

    The Finance Team continues to engage with services to track the impact of Service arrangements and the attributable costs of Covid; this work will be gathered up for further reporting at the year end.  This work will inform future discussions about services with new announcement on funding occurring on a regular basis.  Otherwise the process of business grants administrations continues to be challenging to manage with new forms of funding requiring administration and the development of guidance.  This continues to increase the workload of all supporting teams with enhanced financial monitoring being required; Period 10 reports have now been issued via technical note.  With work ongoing in relation to a number of additional grants it will be necessary for the Council’s internal audit team to validate and consult on new control processes. 

    The Council’s Chief Finance Officer continues to work with COSLA and the Directors of Finance to represent the best interests of Local Government and the Council as efforts increasingly turn to budget setting and year end outturn.  Work is also ongoing to review the requirements, guidance and notifications required to put in place a number of additional fiscal flexibilities to assist the Council as part of its future financial planning.  The team is actively working with COSLA to inform the Scottish Government budget process making representations in a number of core areas for future funding.

    Technical Accounting

    The team continues to work on maintaining and improving the Council's financial systems and controls, including alterations required to the Oracle ledger system and preparations for the financial year end. The team continue to provide support the discharging of 4,815 grants to businesses totalling £21.478 million and reclaiming that from the Scottish Government. Current VAT issues including adapting the Council's VAT return to meet HMRC's requirements under Making Tax Digital and the construction reverse charge have been implemented.  The scale and timing of developments in these areas ensure that the work of the team to support other teams in the Council continues at pace.

    The compliance and systems team continues to work with the Business and Digital change team to improve the Council's income systems to provide a better service to customers and to secure the Council's income streams against the effects of Covid. The team continues to ensure all income transactions and the school meals payments are ledgered timeously and assist other services as required.

    Revenue Team

    The team continue to support the development of expenditure expectations in relation to Covid and tracking the various income streams to establish whether this funding is additional to support the anticipated financial gap or in the form of a grant to offset new, additional and required expenditure.  This is being constantly reviewed and will be required for year end analysis and reporting.  This work has now been consolidated into a single tracker and circulated to Executive Officers to ensure good governance and to aid reporting.  In addition the team is starting to compile more detailed expectations and documentation in relation to the 2021/22 budget with benchmarking information being collated between all 32 Councils as well as through external economic advice.  This is being applied within the Council’s financial model to provide initial expectations of future financial gaps albeit this remains at a very high level given the variability within the economy.

    Period 10 monitoring has now been finalised and will be reported via a technical note in the near future.  The team is also now phasing the agreed budget to allow for upload for next years monitoring.  The team is also planning and working towards the financial year end including year end instructions and review of baseline papers. As well as working on the Government return (POBE).  The Teams is also supporting the development of solutions to manage Seemis retirement of budgeting functions for schools.  This is a technically challenging task lead by Organisational Transformation teams.

    Treasury, Capital & Housing

    The team continues to track Lockdown restrictions on the Council’s cash flow including the impact of any intended borrowing decisions with Capital works remaining slower than planned.  The treasury team continue to monitor cash flow closely due to the increased financial transactions due to Covid ensuring that there is liquidity for all Council activities.  This including putting in place the new controls and procedures for paying the daily isolation grants and also the opening of our new bank account to enable enhanced cashless catering processes at our schools.  The team are engaging with Treasury advisors to determine the impact of potential fiscal flexibilities and the application of these in future years.

    The Capital & Housing Team have now completed all P10 monitoring and are now working on completing all POBE information required and preparing for our financial year end tasks.

    Internal Audit and Fraud

    Internal Audit have continued to work on audits included in the original audit plan for the year including VAT, Corporate Health and Safety, Buildings Regulatory Compliance, the Highways Code, and School Funds (Education). Follow up work on previously raised internal audit findings continues on a limited basis, focusing primarily on high risk issues at present. The Education Control Self Assessment report and action plan has been finalised, with management actions agreed to five minor issues raised, of which three have already been actioned by management and target dates have been agreed for the remaining two actions. The Team also  continues to provide advice in relation to new or revised processes. Further work has included an update report for the HSCP's Performance, Audit and Risk (PAR) Committee, which detailed that since the last PAR Internal Audit have focussed on the handover of the HSCP provider payment claims process in terms of HSCP support.

    In addition, Internal Audit continues to provide a business grants appeals service including reviewing appeals from some businesses whose applications for the Strategic Framework Business Fund were rejected. The majority of these appeals are from businesses that are affected directly or indirectly by the current restrictions. However, as their business types were not listed in legislation as being required to close under Tier 4 or as a hospitality business to modify their services under Tier 3 through early closure or by ceasing to serve alcohol they are not entitled to this grant. The Council has no discretion regarding the eligibility criteria and must apply the Scottish Government's guidance in this regard.  Of the 41 appeals received to date for this fund, the rejection has been upheld for 38, whilst three were passed back to the Business Support Team for further assessment. The Internal Audit Team has also commenced providing an appeals process for Discretionary Grants. Six appeals have been received and the original decision to reject has been upheld in all cases to date as the applications were deemed to have been assessed in accordance with the Council's criteria and guidance.

    The Corporate Fraud Team is continuing to focus on vetting applications received for business grants and school places. Corporate Fraud has also received National Fraud Initiative data matches for review and investigation. The Team has continued assessing the matches and commencing investigations, focussing on the high priority matches and those that are most likely to yield results. Further data matches, relating to Covid Business Grants distributed in the year, are expected by the end of March.

    In 2019 East Dunbartonshire Council participated in a successful Non Domestic Rates Small Business Bonus pilot data match which resulted in £412,974 in incorrect awards being identified across the seven authorities that took part. Audit Scotland is now progressing extending this data match across all 32 Scottish Local Authorities. Local preparation has begun to ensure that the relevant data will be submitted by the end of April. Matches are expected to be received by the Council in June and following this investigations will commence.

    HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PARTNERSHIP (COUNCIL DELEGATED SERVICES): SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 9 April 2021

    In this section you will find information on:

    HSCP Business Continuity & Recovery / Transition Planning

    All departmental and overarching Business Continuity Plans continue to be in place.  A Covid-19 annex to the HSCP Business Continuity Plan provides more detailed information on essential service prioritisation approach, team consolidation plans, public protection arrangements, arrangements to support and sustain commissioned services, arrangement for sustaining staff capacity and communications.  These business continuity frameworks will continue to be updated in response to presenting and projected pressures and developing guidance. Virtual management team meetings are also well established.  In response to Scottish Government correspondence on the matter, the HSCP Board has established temporary revisions to normal business processes from its meeting on 21 January, in order to reduce the duration of meetings, with a sharpened focus.  

    Performance and activity reports continue to be prepared for consideration by the HSCP Board as normal.  These provide indications of service activity and outcome impacts as a result of Covid-19 across HSCP functions and services, as well as reporting on normal business activity and performance.  A Quarter 3 performance (Sept to Dec 2020) report was considered by the HSCP Board at its meeting on 25 March 2021.    

    In line with the Council’s COVID-19 Strategic & Operational Planning, an HSCP Transition and Recovery Plan has also been developed, with a focus on service remobilisation wherever safe and possible to do so.  This will be updated iteratively in line with Scotland’s updated routemap.  The HSCP is also linking with the Council and NHSGGC on ensuring consistent decision-making and communication on service prioritisation and transition planning.  It is planned that some business continuity response and tracking arrangements will be de-escalated to partial standby in April in order to re-direct resources to recovery planning, with the proviso that these arrangements may be re-escalate immediately if necessary.

    The targeted Covid-19 vaccination arrangements for high risk groups (including care home residents) is now well advanced.  All care home residents have now had two vaccinations.  The HSCP has supported GP practices in the delivery of vaccinations to the over 80s, those aged 75 to 79 and the clinically vulnerable (shielding).  These were delivered across two main sites at Kirkintilloch and Milngavie Town Halls, in addition to GP surgeries, with the aim to complete second vaccinations by the end of April.   Vaccination uptake rates for these groups were very high, ranging from 93%-97%.  Vaccination opportunities also continue to be offered to all health and social care staff, and those in supporting roles, who are front facing, or in a priority group in line with Scottish Government guidance. This includes Personal Assistants employed through a self-directed support option.

    Arrangements for personal protective equipment (PPE) continue to be in place for all services that require it.

    Public Protection

    Public protection work, which includes child and adult protection, drug and alcohol services, metal health, and a range of justice services, continues to be prioritised.

    The Public Protection Chief Officers Group (COG) continues its more frequent meetings, with an agenda focussed primarily on key areas of risk, but with an increasing return to business items.  The Public Protection Leadership Group established at the outset of our Covid-19 response has continued to meet fortnightly and reports directly to this COG.  This ensures management oversight of all operational matters and statistics relating to Public Protection. 

    Practices and processes for protection functions are updated in line with revised national guidance and the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020. A specific public protection covid-19 risk register has also been developed to support ongoing work.  Items of concern are noted and escalated to COG. 

    Service Delivery Impacts

    Most social care services continue to be delivered on a business as usual basis e.g. statutory assessment and supervision services, care at home and residential care. Building based day and respite services are now resuming, or have already resumed, working on a revised and much reduced capacity basis, including Kelvinbank Resource Centre. The service has been working to provide alternative forms of support where possible.   

    A fortnightly business continuity report is prepared to highlight delivery status across all HSCP essential services, staff availability levels and operational team contingency arrangements. 

    Assessment and Care Management

    Social Work assessment and care management referrals which had reduced sharply during the early stages of the pandemic have now returned to and in most cases exceeded pre-pandemic levels with notable upturns in drug and alcohol, mental health, community care and community nursing service requirements. Numbers of East Dunbartonshire residents going to and being admitted to hospital are currently high with a resulting pressure around people’s whose discharge from hospital is delayed. The main Social Work Assessment and Care Management Teams continue to deliver their statutory services, mostly working from home, with physically distant customer contact wherever possible. 

    Contact and monitoring is being maintained through digital mechanisms and phone calls wherever possible, whilst fulfilling the requirements of statutory orders and public protection requirements, although in line with Scottish Government guidance face to face contacts for the most vulnerable and at risk has been increased.

    The Persons at Risk Database (PARD) that was been established to identify HSCP service users requiring ongoing contact during the Covid-19 response time period continues to be actively used. Numbers on the PARD remains fairly static at close to 6000. Those who do not receive a direct and ongoing care package e.g. home care, are contacted on a frequency that is defined by the assessed level of risk to their welfare and levels of need.

    Direct Services

    All of the Council’s in-house social care services continue to operate.  Our day services are operating on a very limited basis only, for a small number of individuals with particularly complex needs.  The Outlook and Outreach services operate an emergency response to families and individuals in crisis.  The oversight of all day services, including those delivered by 3rd and independent sector partners is monitored via the HSCP Registered Care Services Oversight Group which has input from public health and the Care Inspectorate.

    After a period of Covid-related staffing pressure during December and January across a number of direct services (most particularly the Care at Home service and learning disability supported living services) pressure have now reduced with contingency arrangements de-escalated, but monitoring continues.  Joint working with trade union colleagues has been very positive in responding to issues on the ground.

    The ED Interim CO continues to lead pan NHSGGC on shared work on care at home and day care services.

    Testing for Social Care Staff

    There continues to be access to testing for all social care staff who are symptomatic and regular weekly testing has also been rolled out to all social care and social work services who support at risk adults and children. This is in addition to the testing that has been rolled out to all care home residents and staff where an outbreak is confirmed or suspected. The national testing strategy continues to develop and we continue to respond to any new requirements this brings. 

    Support to Care Homes

    A high level of support continues to be provided to care homes. Enhanced clinical support from the HSCP is routinely provided 5 days a week and over the weekend where this is required. In line with Scottish Government requirements the HSCP has in place a daily safety ‘huddle’ to oversee the position of each local care home. Following publication of the national social care winter plan this group’s remit has expanded to cover all registered care services as described above, with an action plan in place to take forward these provisions. Scottish Government have confirmed that the additional scrutiny and assurance is required to remain in place until March 2022.

    A care home provider operating in East Dunbartonshire has informed the Care Inspectorate of their intention to offer a 12 week notice period to close a specialist care home facility, terminating on 26 May 2021.  The provider has intimated ongoing commitment to the care of people living in the facility during this 12 week period.  East Dunbartonshire has placed a number of residents within this service.  Each placing authority is now scoping the needs of the individuals that they are responsible for supporting and liaising with potential providers of care to establish how best needs can be met, in conjunction with the Care Inspectorate. 

    Covid outbreaks in care homes have reduced significantly since December and the impact of the vaccine programme is being positively felt. There have been no outbreaks now since February.

    Support to Home Care

    The Care at Home service continues to be increasingly busy, with a noticeable trend towards referrals for more complex and staff intensive care support.  Challenges of caring for Covid-positive customers has been a feature recently but all required PPE and support for safe use of this continues to be in place.  Weekly testing for our care at home workfare is now in place.

    Other

    The Civil Contingencies Act 2004, has been extended to include Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) as Category 1 responders, and will come into force on Wednesday 17 March 2021.  Whilst Chief Officers have already been contributing to local emergency and resilience planning, they will now be formally contributing through their role as the accountable officer within the IJB. Requirements of Category 1 responders are set out in the Civil Contingencies Act and guidance is available to support Category 1 responders in carrying out their statutory duties.

    The HSCP Board (IJB) has agreed for the HSCP Strategic Plan 2018-21 to be rolled forward for an additional 12 months, with the addition of Covid-19 critical response, transition and recovery to be added as an additional strategic priority for 2021-22.  This arrangement was agreed with the Scottish Government through the provisions of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020.  A review of the 2018-21 Strategic Plan has been completed and preparatory work has now commenced on the new substantive HSCP Strategic Plan 2022-25.