Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda. 

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 09 June 2020.

Members agreed the minutes of 9 June 2020 as an accurate record of the meeting.

To receive questions from the public in accordance with the Constitution.

Questions, of no longer than 50 words, can be submitted to the Democratic Support Unit, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ, or email to democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk. Any questions must be received at least five clear working days before the date of the meeting.

There were six questions from members of the public:

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There was no urgent business from the Chair.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader) highlighted the following in his announcements:

Ruth Harrell (Director of Public Health) gave an update on COVID-19 –

·         COVID-19 disease is still out there. Over 14,000 positive cases across the country, it has reduced but not gone away;

·         We were seeing a low number of cases in Plymouth – every week cases somewhere between 10 and 12;

·         Rates we have seen in comparison to other areas was lower;

·         Rates of cases of COVID-19 per 10, 000 – Plymouth was in the lowest 10%;

·         We are continuing to look for trends. In terms of testing we are privileged as we have a regional testing centre in Plymouth. Results to tests were coming back quickly, 55% back in a day;

·         NHS Test and Trace system – once someone had tested and become positive, what we do to break the spread of infection is to ask them to self-isolate;

·         Nationally around 20% positive cases were not being followed up as people not answering the phone. In Plymouth our figures are better than that. We have a small number of cases which aren’t engaging, so it is Important we identify those contacts;

·         Important that we think about how we are protecting each other as well as ourselves.

Cabinet noted the update.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader) provided members with an update on the economic recovery plan for Plymouth, called Resurgam – the aim of the programme was to create and retain jobs in the city for the benefit of the local community:

Anna Peachy, Holly Golden, Emma Hewitt and Matt Ward highlighted the following key points:

Tracey Lee (Chief Executive) highlighted the following key points:

Gary Walbridge (Head of Adult Social Care and Retained Functions) provided an update on Caring for Plymouth:

Councillor Pete Smith - Deputy Leader made announcements including:

·       as a Council we have received the Bronze Wellbeing at Work Award. The wellbeing of our workforce is important to us, as we continue to deliver a range of services to our diverse communities and work in partnership with others in these ever changing times

·       we are committed as an Employer to ensuring that the wellbeing of our employees is a priority and this journey will continue.

·       the library service has been doing really well throughout this pandemic, again issuing just under 2,000 e-books and e-Audiobooks in the last week. The services being offered through Facebook are proving really popular with Rhymetimes and Storytimes reaching just under 80,000.

·       launched the new “Select and Collect” service. In this first week we issued 339 customers with a selection of books, the feedback on this service had been overwhelmingly positive

Councillor Mark Lowry - Cabinet Member for Finance made announcements including:

·       public toilets had been opened and provided additional ones on Barbican and the Hoe. West Hoe toilets completely rebuilt. Works progressing well and forecast to complete on 6 August 2020.

Councillor Jemima Laing - Cabinet Member for Children and Young People made announcements including:

·       thanks to children’s services – want to thank foster carers and those who are on their way to be foster carers. Would like to remind anyone who has been thinking of becoming a foster carer at foster for Plymouth. Brief update on adolescent support team – commenced work in late March 2020. Work with 18 young people and families to prevent them coming into care. Programme designed to provide short term crisis support. Focus on providing support to under 5’s and those with send with other associated harm.

Councillor Kate Taylor - Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care made announcements including:

·       bid for new bungalows at Douglas House site in Efford. Will be used for older children and adults with complex needs. They will be a short term base government set out post Brexit immigration plan. Care workers won’t be able to ask for the visa and won’t be classed as skilled. This is a care visa in name only. We will do all we can to oppose that;

Councillor Chris Penberthy - Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development made announcements including:

·       cooperative unleashed from the grassroots. Funded to do the work from cooperative council’s innovation network. One of their special interest groups.

·       put more wealth in communities. Proud Plymouth national leader in this field. Thank Anna Peachy, Jane Hunt and Patrick Bowes. This council distributes funds on Crowd Funder UK. We introduced it the last time we were in administration – won national ad internal awards. Pledge nearly half million pounds of developer contributions. Full review of city change fund – through review been able to raise max we can pledge to a project from £20,000 to £30,000. Introducing a new climate emergency bonus of £15,000 to help climate emergency project. From today onwards.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Cabinet Members provided an update on Covid 19 related issues as follows:

Councillor Pete Smith, Deputy Leader, highlighted the following:

·         Plans were underway to start reopening the outdoor pools at Tinside and Mount Wise, this would take a lot of preparation to get them ready for the public to use and would involve having to put in a number of additional safety measures, so the 48 hours’ notice from the Government was simply an inadequate time to prepare. Further to this we would be asking the government to give adequate funding to open our Public Leisure Facilities. Due to the pandemic and the requirements of social distancing our provider was facing a massive loss of income and increased costs.

Councillor Sally Haydon, Cabinet Member for Customer Focus and Community Safety highlighted the following:

·         Despite the lower levels of Covid 19 across the country there was still a risk of infection. There was an increase to the number of people attending funerals at crematorium. It was highlighted that funeral services can be followed online as webcast.

Councillor Kate Taylor, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care highlighted the following:

·         Details regarding the Infection Control Fund provided by the Government to increase infection control measures including alternative transport for staff to avoid public transport, specialist cleaning equipment, laptops to enable staff to socially distance;

·         The high number of vacancies currently in the social care industry;

Councillor Jon Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Transformation highlighted the following:

·         Thank people working in the schools and early years sectors. Many people working in education will have forgotten what a school holiday is like. Still a lot of preparation to be done to prepare for the return to school. Thanks to our staff that have been in amongst it. We are moving into the recovery phase. Overall attendance, 26% of primary aged children back at school. Secondary attendance is 4,5% mark. Year12, 13 %;

·         The Council was supporting schools for risk assessments and making sure children can get back safely in September. Physical space to accommodate children for social distancing. Establishing the social bubbles we have heard so much about. Whole year groups being a social bubble.

·         Moving on to transformation – important part of emergency response. Virtualising the contact centre. Supporting set up of Caring Plymouth. Delivered the MS Teams software programme;

Councillor Jemima Laing, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, highlighted the following:

·         Thanked Children’s Services and foster carers for their hard work during these difficult times; 

·         PCC had now delivered almost all of the 845 laptops we received from the DFE. 

Councillor Sue Dann, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene highlighted the following:

·         We are still playing catch up, would be a couple of months until we can catch up with  grass cutting;

·         Had opened our parks in the last month and are working hard to get playing pitches ready;

·         Thanked everyone for being patient during these difficult times.

Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Councillor Mark Lowry - Cabinet Member for Finance gave an update on the completion of Pledge 66 –

The administration continued with its four year programme to deliver against the 100 pledges, by March 22, for a better, greener and fairer Plymouth. Following the completion of the below pledge, the total number of pledges completed was 74 of the 100 -

Pledge 66: We support community policing and we will continue to oppose cuts to the number of police stations, police officers and PCSOs in Plymouth. We will fight any further cuts to Plymouth’s fire cover, the number of fire stations and firefighters in our city.

Cabinet noted the completion of pledge 66.

Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene) presented the Plan for Plastics report –

Updated the Cabinet on the progress made with partners towards delivering the first Plan for Plastics that was adopted by the Council in 2018 and to present the second Plan for Plastics that will drive forward further work between 2020 -2030.

The first plan which was adopted in 2018, was produced as a result of the Council’s commitment to work with partners from across the City in developing and delivering a single integrated and collaborative approach to reducing our use of single use plastic.

The Plan’s delivery had been driven by the Britain’s Ocean City Plastics Task Force, which includes representatives from public bodies, the environmental sector, the voluntary sector, the charity sector, academia, industry and businesses.

Following the success of the first edition of Plymouth’s Plan for Plastics, an updated version of the Plan had been produced by the Task Force. The updated second version of the Plan would continue to focus and drive a citywide effort to significantly reduce our use of single use and avoidable plastics and lead work to achieve our ambition of reducing plastic use to an absolute minimum by 2030. It had also evolved to align with and fully support the delivery of the Plymouth Climate Emergency Action Plan and the City’s ambitions for the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park.

Cabinet agreed to -

1. Note the progress and achievements of the first Plan for Plastics produced in 2018.

2. Support and endorse the Plymouth Plan for Plastics 2020 – 2030.

Chloe Hughes (Engagement Programme Manager) and David Draffan (Service Director for Economic Development) gave a presentation on The Box on The Box –

(A short video was played explaining the Box on the Box project)

After the decision was announced for the Box to not to open In May, we found ourselves in a new space and the Idea of the box in the box was born.

The Box on the Box allowed us to use our amazing film archive and stream into people’s homes through MS Teams.

Worked closely with Adult Social Care and with the Transformation team to roll this initiative out across care homes across the City.

One care home bought a Smart TV so they could participate in our live events.

The project has been received extremely well and this was an offer we would continue to develop to increase engagement.

Cabinet noted the presentation.