Agenda item
COVID-19 COMMUNITY INSIGHT
- Meeting of COVID-19: Community Insight, Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Monday, 22nd June, 2020 6.30 p.m. (Item 5.)
- View the background to item 5.
Minutes:
The Committee continued its review of the Borough’s response to COVID-19 with the aim of supporting Tower Hamlets efforts by:
1. Offering recommendations for areas to be improved.
2. Learning about the work being undertaken to respond to the pandemic; and
3. Reflecting upon local feedback received regarding the plans that have been put in place to support the Borough’s residents.
The outcome of this review being to capture the response in Tower Hamlets (not just the Council’s) and to identify learning and appropriate actions to be taken forward should there be subsequent waves of the pandemic.
The report is intended to cover three key areas:
a. An assessment of how the Council has handled the response.
b. An assessment of recovery phase; and
c. What key challenges remain and how the Council can improve its future Pandemic Plan.
In addition, it will capture the work across all the scrutiny committees and the aim is to agree the report at September’s OSC meeting.
The Committee then heard from the following members from the community and in partner organisations to help provide an insight and to help the Committee get a better understanding of the impact of the Council’s response to COVID-19 on the community. The discussions on these presentations may be summarised as follows:
Pam Bhamra, Chair of Tower Hamlets Housing Forum and Director of Operations at Tower Hamlets Community Housing.
The Committee noted that Ms. Bhamra welcomed the partnership approach which has been delivered and valued involvement in the Pandemic Committee and Community Mobilisation Silver Group. She highlighted the importance of replacing and reinventing community centres with online activities and identified overcrowding in households as a key issue which has had a knock-on effect on people not isolating effectively, allowed the virus to spread more easily, and put a strain on home schooling. She also identified isolation and loneliness as key issues.
The Committee:
1. Indicated that it would wish to see how the Council and housing partners intended to provide long term support for homeless/rough sleepers residents who have been supported into hostels and temporary accommodation.
2. Wanted the Council to review the quality of its short-term accommodation, especially in instances where families with children have been placed in accommodation with shared facilities and amenities; and
3. Noted that the Housing and Regeneration Sub-Committee would be exploring some of these issues further at their meeting on the 13 July 2020.
Ian Parkes, Chief Executive of East London Business Alliance (ELBA)
Mr Parkes provided his feedback on the impact on businesses and the economy. He praised the strong partnership approach and the robust leadership role that the Council has taken. The Committee was pleased to note that ELBA have had no notifications of business closures or insolvency. However, it was noted that the key challenges for businesses are impending as most small businesses will not be able to keep running beyond 3 months if lockdown does not end reasonably quickly. Also, while there has been relatively little feedback from firms in high distress, this it was noted may change in the months ahead as businesses reopen and begin to incur costs whilst their revenues are slower to recover.
The Committee questioned the fairness of the discretionary grant for market traders and indicated that it would like the Council to review this and provide further information on how this grant has been apportioned. Mr Parkes also identified a number of other issues which will be explored further in (a) the Sub Committee meetings; and (b) the report including support for VCS organisations, employment support for education leavers in 2021 and support for school and college students who have lost out on significant time in their education.
Dr Jackie Applebee and Dr Naureen Bhatti, Chair and Vice Chair of Tower Hamlets LMC
The Committee received a summary of the key health challenges that Tower hamlets is facing. With the high levels of deprivation and residents of BAME origin, Bangladeshi residents, Tower Hamlets it was noted has particularly difficult challenges in protecting its population from COVID 19. It is therefore imperative in the fight to drive to bring down the infection and hence death rate that there is the introduction of a (i) robust; (ii) locally organised, community test, track, isolate and support programme. It was noted that mortality in care homes has been significant, with some care homes in Tower Hamlets having nearly thirty deaths.
The Committee was concerned to note that the lack of community testing and PPE for care home staff and for key workers in general is likely to have led to unnecessary transmission of the virus. The Committee noted with satisfaction that whilst this has improved as the pandemic has progressed, there is a need to see a sustained focus and improvement in this area. Two other key challenges the Committee noted were the assessment and treatment of other conditions being put on hold, and the worsening of pre-existing mental health issues or suffering mental illness for the first time due to anxieties regarding COVID 19. It was noted that the Health Sub-Committee would be exploring these plans in this area in further detail at their meeting on 20 July 2020.
Sister Christine from Neighbours in Poplar
Sister Christinefed back her experiences and findings. Significantly, she felt that many of the issues which have presented themselves were not a result of COVID-19 but were pre-existing and exposed by the pandemic. The lack of internet access it was noted has made the issue of isolation more acute and the reliance of the Council to communicate via digital methods has excluded many older and younger residents. Similarly, the vast scale of mental health issues has been highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic. Moreover, this pandemic has revealed the necessity to support the Boroughs most vulnerable residents with access to hot meals. The Committee understood the Meals on Wheels service was removed and the Committee asks that the Council consider how they can work with community organisations to ensure residents are provided with a hot meal. The Committee therefore wanted to see the Council review its provision in this area, especially as we enter the winter months when a second wave could emerge. The Committee identified that during this pandemic many people who have not historically been involved in community activism have engaged, volunteered, and helped to set up mutual aid groups. The Committee felt that the Council needs to ensure it does all it can to support and sustain the interests and participation of these individuals as we move further into the recovery and many of these people will have to return to work and may not have as much time to offer.
Accordingly, the Chair moved and it was agreed the following key themes from this discussion were as follows:
The Council needs to:
A. Do more with partners and residents to support those residents without internet access.
B. Build on supporting rough sleepers we accommodated to ensure they do not end up in streets.
C. Build on health response to ensure we capture learning for any second wave; and
D. Consider how the Council can better mobilise in future pandemic/ emergency, ensuring learning from this is utilised and working with VCS organisations and building on the unprecedented community response.
Supporting documents:
- Key health issues for residents, item 5. PDF 134 KB
- Appendix 1 - Tower Hamlets COVID, item 5. PDF 3 MB
- Appendix 2 - TH proposal re testing and tracing 26 5, item 5. PDF 3 MB
- Appendix 3, item 5. PDF 233 KB