Councillor Peter Smith (Deputy Leader) made the following announcements –

·         The city of Plymouth was unable to commemorate this event outside at the Hoe this year due to the need to limit the spread of COVID19. Whilst this year was different to usual, they were able to remember from home. Remembering from Home came from two civic officers, one of whom based in Plymouth. A unique service was streamed online from St Andrews for people to watch from home, which is still available on the Council website;

·         The Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Naval Base Commander and representatives from the Tenancy and Commonwealth War Graves Commission privately laid wreaths at the Naval Memorial on the morning of Remembrance Sunday. They also laid wreaths at the Belvedere. The Deputy Lord Mayor led organisations in privately laying wreaths at the Civilian Memorial. 6,000 people have watched the live stream so far. Comments online have been really positive;

·         Plymouth was one of 4 locations chosen by Commonwealth War Graves Commission to take part in a unique act of remembrance. A searchlight would be shone into the sky from the Naval War Memorial to remember and pay tribute to the 1.7 million Commonwealth ward dead. The light will be visible from miles around and best viewed from a distance to everyone is asked to enjoy this from their homes and also asked to take a moment to step outside to look at the stars and remember the fallen;

Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families) made the following announcements –

·        
Care Leavers Week - A number of care leavers shared their stories and they were really touching and I want to thank them for sharing these stories which young people face due to adverse child experiences they live with. We hear how they overcome these experiences and the importance of trusted relationships and support so they can achieve. These stories would also format the basis of a report being put together by the participation team;

·         We have asked our 236 care leavers what was important to them for the Bright Sports survey which was important to help us understand the service and provide the right support. I have also attended the unveiling of a new graffiti wall created by our care leavers as part of Care Leavers Week. We know over 21’s asking for support increased over this week.

Councillor Kate Taylor (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) made the following announcements –

·         There were currently 11 care homes are in outbreak status and 1 with a single case, which affects 15 residents and 26 members of staff. We were staying in touch with all care homes and providing support. We are supporting care homes with making decisions around visitors to try and encourage safe visits where possible;

·         Workshops with the Health and Wellbeing board – COVID-19 and Mental Health;

·         We understand that the pandemic is affecting people’s mental health and this would continue until after the pandemic. We are taking this seriously and have written some clear actions to ensure that people can access the help they need, formal or informal, in a timely manner. Everyone was in the same ocean, but we aren’t all in the same boat; everyone is experiencing different challenges due to the pandemic;

·         To support the clinically most vulnerable who don’t have established support networks in this second lockdown. Some people have now established support networks from the last lockdown, and we hope people will be able to call on these groups for this lockdown but we will be focusing on those residents who don’t have this support. I would like to thank our partners and PCC staff for making this happen again so quickly and efficiently;

·         Proud to Care - recruitment drive launched at the end of October 2020 which was being delivered through a virtual health careers fair this week. We were working with our partners in the city to make care a career that people want to come into and to increase their skills.

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development) made the following announcements –

·         Thanked everyone who was helping in Plymouth and the good neighbour scheme which hasn’t stopped since the last lockdown, but was ramping up again and we are asking everyone to look out for their neighbours and people in their community that might be lonely;

·         Would be meeting with food aid groups about the situation in Plymouth and to discuss how we are going to work together to ensure we were meeting the needs of those in Plymouth;

·         pleased to announce we were giving our first round of COVID-19 related emergency food aid grants to 16 Plymouth based food aid organisations of £64,000 between them. This would allow them to provide longer opening hours and more food. We would be announcing a second round shortly;

·         working with FairShares based in Bristol to bring a warehouse operation to Plymouth to ensure there was a pipeline of affordable surplus supermarket food in Plymouth;

·         Self-Isolation Support Payments- similar to other parts of the country, the demand for the discretionary scheme was outstripping demand from eligible applications for the mandatory scheme, contrary to the way the government allocated the funding and thought it would be needed. Plymouth does not have enough funding to keep the discretionary fund going until the end of January which was concerning as low paid local residents who have been asked to self-isolate would lose vital funds if they do the right thing to protect others. We need Government to expand the offering for the discretionary scheme;

·         Annual Social Enterprise Festival - our Social Enterprises have continued to support each other and their communities throughout the pandemic and created an ethical business model here in Plymouth. It was 7 years since we became the first social enterprise city in the country. There were now 200 social enterprises across the city in a variety of different sectors, collectively employing 9000 people and bring income of over £580million. The festival would be online this year but as interesting and fun as ever and their theme is education the economy.

Councillor Dann (Cabinet Member for Environment and Streetscene) made the following announcements –

·         £1.3 million from PCC and Foreign Commission to plant new trees and be able to have an action plan to manage ash die back across the city;

·         had received a £3.3 million grant to improve energy efficiency in hundreds of Plymouth homes;

·         Garden Waste and Streets and Waste Team - 20,000 residents have already registered for a new garden waste wheelie bin;

·         thanked the Streets and Waste team for stepping up this year, and for continuing their work through this second lockdown. I would also like thanked residents for supporting our public service workers who are out on the front line.

Councillor Coker (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure) made the following announcements –

·         In the last week we have launched our green grants to local businesses which was a capital grant of up to £25,000 for sustainable transport improvements for their workforce. These grants form part of the PCC productive Plymouth programme. We know that business are stretched at the moment, but these grants would help them to deliver a sustainable transport initiative going forward. We would ask that any businesses that are interested to apply, the closing date is 15Jan 2021 and more details can be found on the PCC website;

·         Wished Penny Cross school the best of luck with the national award they were up for, the Plymotion Bike it to School scheme and the changes they have made.

Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Customer Focus and Community Safety) made the following announcements –

·         special thanks to our registration team. When the government announced the second lockdown it stopped many couples from being able to go ahead with getting married as planned. The team rang round and married 2 couples in 2 days and worked later in the evenings to fit all of this in. Our staff go above and beyond to help people. The Contact Centre have been fantastic in providing extra support during this second lockdown as well.

·         Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Transformation) made the following announcements –

·         In October, there was an increase in schools reporting cases of COVID-19 but we didn’t have any full school closures and they were all using their risk management strategies well. In November, following risk assessment and contact tracing, one school has had to close for a full clean. Given the numbers of schools that are affected, we have round 400 students at any one time self-isolating and this number has remained consistent, but of course it was very disruptive for those students and their families.

·         Special schools had been most affected by partial closures. All were following Public Health advice and their risk assessments;

·         I would like to thank all the school staff for the fantastic work they are doing to keep schools open. Attendance remains relatively high across schools despite the pandemic, and Primary Schools were at 93%-95% and are above the regional and national average. 

·         There were more children leaving school to be home educated, which was a concern and something we need to watch closely, although they could return after the pandemic.

The Leader, Councillor Tudor Evans OBE thanked Cabinet for their updates.