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CORONAVIRUS
Community pharmacies lack capacity to deliver medicines
The County Councils Network (CCN) has raised concerns that local pharmacies do not have the capacity to deliver vital medicines to hundreds of ‘at risk’ people in rural areas.
Councils in county areas that border cities where coronavirus is prominent, such as London and Newcastle, are warning that they are hearing that their local pharmacies are having difficulty delivering some medicines to those who are being ‘shielded’, due to capacity, staffing, and distance issues.
THE LABOUR PARTY Starmer announced as new Labour leader
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to lead Labour ‘into a new era with confidence and hope’ after being named leader of the party in a ballot.
Comprehensively gaining more votes than both Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey in a ballot of party members and other supporters, the former lawyer said he has spoken to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and agreed to meet to discuss the coronavirus crisis.
Having become an MP in 2015 for Holborn and St Pancras, Starmer won on the first round of voting, with more than 50 per cent of ballots cast. Equating to 275,780 votes, the victory was the result of just over 490,000 votes. Rebecca Long-Bailey received 135,218 votes, while Lisa Nandy gained 79,597 votes.
Starmer has vowed to keep key policies from Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, such as nationalising rail, mail and water and repealing anti-union laws. Lisa Nandy has been appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary in Starmer’s new shadow cabinet, with Nick Thomas-Symonds named as Shadow Home Secretary and Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor
The Labour Party has also revealed that Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner has been elected deputy leader, replacing Tom Watson, who stood down as an MP before the election.
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The CCN fears that as the country heads towards the peak of the virus this issue will be exacerbated across other parts of the country and could potentially leave older and sick residents without medical supplies for an extended period of time.
Figures show that county areas, many of which have large rural and remote parts, have just one pharmacy per 766 people aged over 70, the most at-risk group and those most likely to require medicine. This compares to 366 people for every one pharmacy in From 7 April, hundreds of thousands of NHS Volunteer Responders will be able to report for duty and start helping the NHS in its fight against coronavirus.
Over 750,000 people signed up to the NHS’ call for volunteers in just four days when the scheme launched, which is three times the original target. It is believed that by the end of 7 April, the Royal Voluntary Service, the charity delivering the volunteer effort, will have completed checks for the three quarters of a million applications.
Approved volunteers will be offered tasks via the GoodSAM app and will start helping people safely, with more expected to get requests over the coming weeks as referrals ramp up. Volunteers show themselves as available when their app is switched to ‘on duty’.
Because of the response, the group of vulnerable people they will support in England has now been expanded and they will come to the aid of 2.5 million at risk people. This will be carried out by: delivering medicines from pharmacies; driving patients to appointments; bringing them home from hospital; making regular phone calls to check on people isolating London. Many community pharmacies are being affected by staff shortages due to the virus and panic-buying of medicines, but these issues will be felt most in county areas, with less pharmacies to serve residents.
Council leaders say that local government is ready to step in and support the efforts to ensure that no vulnerable ‘at risk’ person goes without these vital supplies, and the CCN has written to the government urging them to enable council volunteers to help with the effort.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently announced that community pharmacies will receive £300 million to help them carry out essential services amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, the CCN argues that this funding, while welcome, would not immediately solve some of the deeper practical and regulatory issues in terms of ensuring every person under enforced self-isolation gets their medicine.
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NHS NHS army of volunteers to start protecting the vulnerable
https://tinyurl.com/rm38qeq
at home; and transporting medical supplies and equipment for the NHS.
Sir Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “The number of people who came forward to help some of the most vulnerable in their communities is truly extraordinary. Today we begin to see the results of these tremendous acts of goodwill from the British public, with volunteers offering support to those who need it most. Tackling this unprecedented coronavirus challenge means all of us to pulling together, so on behalf of the NHS, thank you to everyone who is playing their part.”
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CORONAVIRUS
Most waste services continuing collections undeterred
The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) has revealed that all but a few councils are still managing providing collection services for domestic residual waste as normal.
Seeking to understand the status of waste services across England, and how they have been affected so far by coronavirus, the ADEPT survey will be repeated at least weekly to track any changes, but the initial findings are that most councils are continuing to deliver core recycling and residual waste services, largely unaffected. After receiving responses from over 200 councils, the emerging picture is mainly positive. Despite running at an average of over 20 per cent down on staff numbers, all but a few councils are still managing Libraries across some parts of the country have seen an increase in newly registered users of more than 600 per cent since lockdown measures were introduced.
All council-owned libraries have closed because of the coronavirus outbreak but residents are still able to access digital library resources online. Councils are providing additional online access to resources under the hashtag #LibrariesFromHome, extending online memberships for no extra fee, and all fines incurred as a result of the closures will be waived.
As a result, the Local Government Association has revealed that there has been a boom in new digital users. For example, Hampshire County Council has seen a 770 per cent increase in new digital users, Cornwall Council a 630 per cent increase and Hertfordshire County Council an increase of 332 per cent.
However, many libraries are restricted in the number of e-books and audio books they can provide for their residents because of licensing limits with publishers. The LGA is calling on the government and publishers to work together to unlock an additional £5 million in investment to enable libraries to increase their capacity in loaning more e-books and audiobooks. providing collection services for domestic residual waste as normal, and over 90 per cent of responding councils are maintaining their recycling services as normal or with only minor disruption. Encouragingly, no councils report any significant disruption to waste disposal and treatment services such as energy from waste incineration and landfill.
However, in order to maintain these levels of service, about a third of councils have temporarily suspended collections of garden waste, and about two thirds have suspended bulky waste collections. Almost all council have closed household waste recycling centres in order to protect staff and customers and to help enforce social distancing.
Ian Fielding, chair of ADEPT’s Waste Group, said: “I would like to thank all those who In the short term, publishers could also offer increased flexibilities on the price of e-materials to increase choice for customers and reflect the current need and demand from communities for reading material.
Council leaders says the extra funding and flexibility would increase access to reading materials and will help to improve residents’ wellbeing and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety during this difficult time.
Gerald Vernon-Jackson, chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: “The number of people registering to use digital library services across some parts of the country has rocketed. Council libraries provide a vital service for residents and act as community hubs in normal times. Their online digital contribution has now become equally important as people turn to them as a way to help pass the time at home. “Councils are doing everything they can to protect their residents’ well-being during this difficult time. Extra funding would help libraries extend their licences and meet this growing demand.” READ MORE took time to respond and ask them to keep providing us with weekly updates. Their input is invaluable in enabling us to keep up with the rapidly changing developments across the country. So far, the picture is good. Although there has been some disruption but it seems to be business as usual for most councils on core services like residual waste and recycling collections. I’d like to pay tribute to our frontline workers who are providing an essential service. It is because of them and our officers that we are continuing to provide collections for our communities.”
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LIBRARIES
Library memberships rise by 600 per cent
https://tinyurl.com/v3ca8xu LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local authorities across the country have been handed new powers to hold public meetings virtually by using video or telephone conferencing technology.
The government has temporarily removed the legal requirement for local authorities to hold public meetings in person during the coronavirus pandemic, thereby enabling them to make effective and transparent decisions on the delivery of services for residents and ensure that local democracy continues to thrive.
Meetings will remain accessible whilst ensuring that councillors, staff and the wider public are able to follow government advice by staying at home to stop the spread of coronavirus to protect the NHS and save lives.
Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Local authorities are the backbone of our democracy and they are playing a vital role in the national effort to keep people safe. This change will support them to do that while maintaining the transparency we expect in local decision making.
“Councillors and staff are already doing the right thing by following our advice to stay home, protect the NHS and save lives. This includes working from home wherever possible, and the new powers to hold meetings virtually will make that easier.
It’s critical that they continue to provide essential services and find innovative ways to maintain important economic functions they perform like the planning system and they will now be able to do so. We’ve given local authorities across England an additional £1.6 billion to help their crucial work in the national effort against coronavirus, and we are continuing to ensure they get all of the support that they need at this time.”
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PUBLIC TRANSPORT
£400 million to keep England’s buses running
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that England’s buses will receive a funding boost totalling £397 million to help them continue serving those who rely on them.
The package, agreed jointly with the bus industry, will keep key routes running to provide a lifeline for those who cannot work from home, including those travelling to jobs on the frontline of the UK’s fight against COVID-19, such as NHS staff.
New funding of up to £167 million will be paid over the next 12 weeks under the new COVID-19 Bus Services Support Grant.
As a condition of the funding, bus operators will be required to maintain necessary services at a level which is sufficient to meet much reduced demand, but also to allow adequate space between passengers on board. This is expected to be up to 50 per cent of normal service levels.
Operators will also be required to keep passengers properly informed about revised timetables to ensure that people know which services are running and when. A further £200 million of existing funding under the Bus Services Operators Grant BENEFITS As the coronavirus pandemic has worsened, nearly a million people have applied for universal credit benefits in the past fortnight.
The Department for Work and Pensions, which would normally expect 100,000 claims in a two week period, said that 950,000 successful applications for the payment were made between 16 March, when people were advised to work from home, and the end of the month.
The figures have been labelled as ‘truly shocking’ by the Labour Party, who stressed that the government ‘must wake up and take action’ to help the millions of those at risk of The Geospatial Commission has announced that it is increasing the location data available to the public sector across England and Wales.
Geospatial data, which is data linked to location, underpins Britain’s public services such as emergency planning, building our homes, protecting our environment, supporting our transport and helping our security services to keep us safe. Any public sector organisations ranging from health and emergency services, town, parish, and community councils through to central government departments can sign up via Ordnance Survey to use the data, free at the point of use. Known as the Public Sector Geospatial will continue to be paid as normal even though not all services may run during this time. This funding is usually paid according to fuel consumption, and so the government’s commitment to pay this on pre-COVID-19 levels will help ensure that bus companies are able to benefit despite fewer fare-paying passengers travelling.
The remaining £30 million was originally earmarked for starting new services, which will instead be paid to local authorities to maintain existing services.
Shapps said: “We have been very clear during the outbreak that the best way to stop the spread of the virus and protect the NHS, is to stay at home if possible. Our buses are a lifeline for people who need to travel for work or to buy food – including our emergency services and NHS staff – and it’s absolutely vital we do all we can to keep the sector running. This multi-million-pound investment will protect crucial local transport links across England, bolstering the sector and minimising disruption for passengers in the long term.”
David Renard, the Local Government Association’s transport spokesman, said: losing their jobs and the self-employed not covered by government hardship schemes. Universal credit is a consolidated monthly payment for those of workingage. In October 2019, there were 2.6 million universal credit claimants - just over a third of whom were in work.
The government maintains that the benefit system is still ‘delivering’ despite the massive increase in demand. READ MORE
https://tinyurl.com/sx6dkde
Agreement, it will be delivered by the national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey and will start from 1 April 2020.
Thalia Baldwin, director of the Geospatial Commission, said: “The Geospatial Commission was created in 2018 to make sure the UK maximises the opportunity location data presents for society, the economy and the environment. The new agreement meets our commitment to improve access to Ordnance Survey’s core data to start-ups, businesses and innovators.” READ MORE “Many key workers rely on local buses to get to and from work, whether that is nurses needing to get to hospital or social care staff to look after the most vulnerable. We are pleased the government has acted on our call and announced emergency funding to help make sure vital bus services can continue to transport key workers to the frontline during the coronavirus crisis.
“Bus operators must work with local authorities to ensure that this public subsidy is targeted at the people and places that depend on it the most. Councils now want to also work with government to provide financial support to those places which depend on other publicly-run mass transit systems, such as ferries, trams, light railway networks. These also provide key workers with access to their workplaces, and are faced with unprecedented hits on their revenues, impacting on their future viability and ability to help people and business recover when this pandemic is over.”
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Nearly a million universal credit claims in past fortnight
LOCATION DATA
10 year Public Sector Geospatial Agreement signed
https://tinyurl.com/tax72ew
AUTISM
Review launched to make Bristol autism-friendly
Bristol City Council and the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership have commissioned a nonstatutory review of services to help Bristol become a more autism-friendly city.
The aim of the review is to establish how autism aware local agencies across Bristol are, and will include national recommendations for making Bristol and other cities more user-friendly for people with a learning disability and/or autism.
Helen Holland, cabinet lead for Adult Social Care, said: “It is really important that our services in Bristol, who often work with very vulnerable people, have a good understanding of autism, can recognise the signs of someone who may be autistic and know how to respond. In Bristol we want people with autism to have the same opportunities as everyone else and the recommendations from this review will enable us to understand how we can do this effectively.”
It is estimated that around 700,000 are living with autism in the UK.
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