Agenda and minutes

To confirm as a true record the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 December 2020.

RESOLVED:

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 10 December 2020 be confirmed.

To invite Members to declare any interest they might have in the matters on the agenda.

There were no declarations declared at this stage.

Questions must be delivered in writing or by electronic mail to democratic.services@iow.gov.uk no later than 12pm on Tuesday, 12 January 2021. Each question must give the name and address of the questioner.

Sam McLuckie of Cowes submitted a written question regarding the safe working conditions for Special Education Needs teachers. (PQ 08/21)

Dominic Coughlin of Ryde submitted a written question regarding the number of positive cases resulting from testing. (PQ 09/21)

IOW Public Health Data

The Director for Public Health (DPH) provided the Board with a presentation, based on the data provided that morning.

A map of where we were across the county was shown, for week 52, the week just prior to Christmas, and then moving into week 53 there was a dramatic change and increase in rates across the whole country, the South East was where a large increase was seen moving west and north.

Across Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight, rates were higher than when looking at the more local area it had a rate of 1,171 per 100,000 which had dramatically risen, although it was stabilising a little bit and the rate of increase was slowing down. Rates across ceremonial Hampshire, the 4 upper tier local authorities in our local resilience area (Portsmouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight and Hampshire) the rates across the whole of the pandemic where we are, the Isle of Wight still had low rates per 100,000, although increasing rapidly, the Isle of Wight was still in a positive position overall.

The board were advised that comparing the seven day rates around the region the first wave on the Isle of Wight was quite small compared to now, there was an increase in the spread of the virus, however it seemed to be slowing down slightly which was really positive.

The over 60’s rates were closely monitored as that age group were known to be more seriously ill, and end up in hospital, all age bands were monitored across the Isle of Wight. Also the rate in working age population was monitored as they were more likely to catch covid-19.

The trend was going up again with ventilator beds we know that the numbers are smaller so they fluctuate but we know we have seen a huge increase since the beginning of October. An increase in cases across our systems with people requiring mechanical ventilation for Covid. It’s a busy position but we want to protect our population and our hospitals, and nationally that’s why a lot of work was going on around lockdown as there had been an increase in patients across the country requiring urgent action to be taken.

we know that 96-97% of the new variant and this showed that it doesn’t have increased disease severity, the board were asked to remember that it was quite a new variant. the South African variant was also being monitored, with a higher viral load, which may impact on the body and give worse outcomes. Work to prevent that coming into the country was ongoing.

The board were incredibly concerned about the huge spikes seen here on the island and knew previous speculation about the very rapid changes that from when we were in tier one and they understood that at a number of reasons  that might have caused that for example:

·       commuter density on ferries,

·       that fact that we were in tier one,

·       perhaps everyone was more relaxed than they should have been, because they felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21a

To receive an update from the Director of Public Health.

The Director of Public Health (DPH) advised that activities being undertaken, as a health protection board, council and partners, a number of outbreaks in different settings were being managed, these included care homes, individuals and schools. Support in these settings to further manage prevention of the spread of infection is being undertaken.

The board were advised that there were lots of things going on with testing, a new local testing unit was now in place at the Medina leisure centre car park, this was to ensure that there was the right amount of testing for the Island, due to an increase in cases there was a need to make testing more available to residents, which had been successful.

A programme was being developed with colleagues to look at community testing over a 6-week period. We were working closely with the department of health and social care and they had provided military planners to assist. We will look at how we do that to ensure that our front facing workers can be tested to make sure that those people who were required to go out to work can get tested.

The board were informed that there was a lot of work going into reviewing the guidance and working with supermarkets and other places to help them embed behaviours that they needed within their organisations.

The vaccination was in the first phase, vulnerable people, the over 80’s, health and social care settings and staff were included to prevent death and protect health and social care staff. The vaccination programme had changed, to administer the two doses further apart, to ensure as much immunity in our population as possible, it was noted that the first dose does not give full immunity. The Oxford vaccine is being rolled out on the Island and that doesn’t require these really low temperatures and makes it much easier to roll out in our community.

The Leader provided an update from a Local Government meeting, gambling regulations were being reviewed, especially online gambling as there had been an increase since lockdown and the mental pressures that was reflecting. Domestic abuse was also discussed and he urged all people suffering any level of domestic abuse to get support.

To receive an update from the Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Strategy Officer.

The Assistant Chief Executive provided the board with a brief update on the activity around communications and engagement. The council continued to provide bespoke advice and guidance to businesses and stakeholders through the work of our regulatory services and other services within the council not least of which our commissioning services working with our care providers on the Island, who had a very good and strong working relationship in terms of providing advice and support to that sector of the market.

Regulatory services and environmental health covid support officers had been visiting businesses and providing advice and guidance, Communication and engagement activity occurred across a range of channels that the council had available and where appropriate we continue to work with partner agencies to support communication.  In particular our partners within the IW NHS trust, the CCG and Police across the Island.

The approach as a council had been one of providing factual content and updated information linked to Government announcements and supplemented with more emotive content about the impact that covid is having on the Island, work was being developed to enable people to describe and explain personal experiences of Covid and the impact it had on families and individuals.

Currently we had a single clear message which was stay at home, and only undertake essential journeys. If we do have to go out then hands-space-face is behaviour should be observed, and the importance of making space for one another was stressed. This remained the most critical message that we needed to make, our behaviours as individuals was most important.

We continued to provide information on the availability of our helpline, community support and the really good work that is undertaken in the community in terms of local community hubs and volunteers providing support to individuals. Access to testing had increased recently, and we continue to provide the message that if anybody had any symptoms, however low level they may feel that is, it is important to self-isolate and get a test.

The business grant process and availability went live earlier in the week and there had already been a huge response to that in terms of applications for business grants.

Advice and guidance to signpost mental health support services, domestic abuse support services as well as promoting online activities that individuals can access were being provided. The self-isolation toolkit was available and continued to be developed this may include things you might like to have in your cupboard, or have available for you at home, so that if the worse comes to the worse and you do contract covid you can get some low level support for yourself at home by being prepared.

Concern was raised regarding the number of businesses that had to stay open who are providing services, although not technically classed as key workers. It was understood that some of the businesses on the Island that have stayed open in manufacturing were doing essential work to keep different parts of the world open, everything needs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21c

A question must be submitted in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services no later than 12pm on Tuesday, 12 January 2021.

There were no members questions raised.