(a)

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

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Plymouth’s visitor economy -

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it was estimated that Plymouth had lost £169.5m in visitor spend over the past nine months (53% of spend); it was therefore crucial that when restrictions were lifted, as much as possible was done to stimulate demand and drive bookings to support businesses;

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to date there had been 10 cruise bookings for 2021 and a further 10 for 2022; these would be subject to the cruise sector re-opening but it was testament to the hard work of Destination Plymouth and the Council’s marketing team, that demand remained high;

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the initial feedback from working with Visit Britain in the US and Canada markets had been that many bookings would be rolled over to 2021 (there was still much interest in the delayed Mayflower 400 events);

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the UK domestic market was also buoyant with high demand for summer bookings; Destination Plymouth had secured £158,000 of Discover England Funding, some of which would be used to promote UK marketing activity in late March 2021, to encourage summer and autumn bookings this year;

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there were three new Mayflower heritage trails and in particular the new Hoe Trail which should be commissioned in late spring; in addition, the Elizabethan House restoration was nearly complete and was still on target to be opened this summer;

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Elections -

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some postal and proxy voters would receive letters this week asking for a fresh signature (this was required by law every five years);

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currently waiting for confirmation on whether the May elections would be postponed;

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Mayflower -

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despite the pandemic, the Mayflower 400 sports programme, led by Plymouth Argyle Community Trust, had engaged impressive numbers of residents during 2020 which included 3024 primary school children through the ‘Sporting Voyage’ programme;

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the Mayflower 400 cultural project called ‘Settlement’, by Plymouth based Conscious Sisters and Native American artist Cannupa Luger was included in the ‘Top Ten Native Art Events of 2020’ by First American Art Magazine;

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HR -

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all clinically vulnerable employees had been instructed to work from home; if they were in a community facing role they had been reallocated work suitable to their skillset;

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Civic Events -

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Holocaust Memorial Day was on 27 January 2021; the  Council would be marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp and remembering the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust;  the theme for the day was ‘be the light in the darkness’;

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Sport and Leisure -

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all the Council’s parks, nature reserves and play parks remained open, including the skate parks; in line with Government guidance the Council’s tennis courts and multi-use game areas were closed;

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libraries -

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following Government guidance, the library service was offering select and collect and also essential PC use and printing; all customers could also reserve books for collection at a nominated library.

(b)

Councillor Jemima Laing (Cabinet Member for Children and Young People) made the following announcements -

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the Christmas Present Project for care leavers had been a great success; an ex member of the Care Leavers Team, Kat Gifford (independent social worker/worked at Adopt South West) had made a request across her Facebook friends and colleagues to raise funds which had received an incredible response in raising £950; Jean Kelly (Service Director for Children, Young People and Families) had matched funded this sum;

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thanked Emma Hill, Jan Forshaw, Queen Mhlanga and Karen Blake who pulled this altogether and identified local retailers who could support the purchase of 250 gift sets and 250 boxes of chocolates (particular thanks was given to Boots in Drakes Circus in supporting this); 500 items were wrapped and left untouched for 72 hours to ensure they were Covid safe;

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all out of county care leavers had their presents posted to them; face to face deliveries were made across the city with an incredible response from care leavers; Christmas lunch boxes from The Box were also delivered, if they had been requested;

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Foster for Plymouth was a drive to increase the number of local fosterers in Plymouth; a dynamic website had been created with lots of helpful information and videos of fosterers (website details www.fosterforplymouth.co.uk);

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a video of foster Grandad Roy was shown.

(c)

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

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there were 11 Covid outbreak settings across the city with one single case confirmed in four homes, one death had been confirmed in a care home (since the beginning of the New Year); there were currently 23 residents with confirmed Covid  and 54 care home staff with suspected/confirmed Covid;

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the care hotel opened on 4 January 2021; the Council had been working with colleagues across the city’s health and social care sector, to setup a new care facility for people who were ready to leave hospital but needed extra support before going home; the care hotel would be at the Hearts Together Hospital Hotel near Derriford Hospital; the Council wanted to ease the pressure on its colleagues at Derriford;

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the Council had been working with its NHS colleagues to co-ordinate the roll out of vaccinations to frontline social care staff; this weekend 712 staff received their vaccinations, these staff were from the Council’s in-house services including Independence at Home Community Outreach, Adults and Children’s Social Care; vaccinations were also delivered to the Council’s Vines and Colwill staff; work continued with NHS colleagues to co-ordinate vaccinations offered to all Social Care staff across the city including Dom Care, Supported Living, Day Services, Alliance partners which was in line with Government guidance;

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following the return of the national lockdown the Council had re-launched its Caring for Plymouth initiative to ensure that those who were shielding had support during the coming weeks;

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ten homes across the city had now received the first resident vaccination over Christmas and the New Year period; this week the five Primary Care Networks (PCN) were piloting one care home in each PCN area.

(d)

Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for the Environment and Street Scene) made the following announcements -

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last week the Council published its 2021 Climate Emergency Acton Plan containing 89 new actions that it would deliver this year; the Council also published its Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan which sets out the 24 actions it would take as a City Council to decarbonise its own activities; the five original key areas of focus remained the same including buildings, mobility, power and heat, waste and engagement and responsibility;

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2021 was a pivotal year as the Council moved from the emergency response phase of its climate change actions to the transitional phase, where it needed to be ramping up actions still further, embedding new ways of working and inspiring local action by communities and individuals;

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the actions being planned for the year included -

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improving the energy efficiency of over 300 homes;

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developing Plymouth’s largest community owned solar farm;

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delivering a £96m programme of sustainable transport initiatives with new walking and cycling facilities across the city;

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in November 2021, the UK would host the UN COP26 summit in Glasgow; it was vital if ‘we’ were to meet the objectives set out by the Parish Agreement, and were to make meaningful reductions in global emissions, that this summit agreed real tangible actions; the Council would therefore be writing to the COP26 President to set out the Council’s views on the key issues and the role of local government and local communities in helping to reach net zero;

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the Council could not do this alone and the action plans invited everyone to consider what they could do to help;  it was pleasing to see that the Climate Change Committee’s report ‘Policies for the Sixth Carbon Budget and Net Zero’ published in December 2020 contained specific recommendations to the Government on delivering net zero at local level, including the need to support local authorities to deliver climate action through increased funding and new powers;

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although it had been difficult due to the impacts of the pandemic, the vast majority of the 114 actions contained within the first actions plans had been delivered;

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the 2021 actions plans would be presented to the Brexit, Infrastructure and Legislative Change Overview and Scrutiny Committee this week for consideration.

(e)

Councillor Coker (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure) made the following announcement -

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a bid had been submitted for an OLEV grant of £225,000, for the installation of 50 on-street electric vehicle charge points which had been successful;

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during 2020/21 more than 16 kilometres of new and improved traffic free facilities on the strategic cycle network alongside major roads and through green spaces had been delivered and 600 m of new on road cycle lane provision;

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£500,000 had been secured from the Department of Transport’s Access Fund to continue Plymotion behaviour change programme until November 2021;

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secured funding of £945,000 for local walking and cycling measures through the Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund.

(f)

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

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despite the latest lockdown, Customer Services remained fully available across the Council’s website www.Plymouth.gov.uk and the Contact Centre;

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staff in Customer Services were once again supporting the Covid Caring for Plymouth Service and were making outbound calls to complete welfare checks for shielding customers, making sure the most vulnerable got the support they needed;

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Covid secure birth registration service continued at Building 1, Derriford, with death registration being dealt with over the phone;

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the Council was also offering wedding ceremonies in limited and urgent circumstances.

(g)

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

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following the announcement of the third national lockdown, all schools had moved to online learning, until at least half term in February 2021; schools would remain open to vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers; early years, special schools and alternative provider settings would remain open during this lockdown;

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took this opportunity to thank everyone working in an education setting for the work they had done over the Christmas period, in order to prepare for the new academic year; they had responded heroically to sometime unrealistic and confusing demands from the Government;

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it was important to recognise that there was support available through the schools and the Council for parents having to balance home schooling and work;

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the mass Covid testing in Plymouth’s secondary schools and academies was proceeding as planned; testing would be important to enable schools to reopen, as soon as possible;  volunteers were currently being recruited and testing areas set up; the Council was supporting educational establishments with this process;

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the Council was currently looking at the categories of learners that could still attend school; vulnerable children were still expected to attend school on a full time basis and ensuring that these children had a school place was top priority; therefore the  expectation was for vulnerable children to be offered a school place; parents classed as critical workers should notify the school it they required onsite provision;

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the Council’s Education Department had undertaken a survey across 89 schools and the initial feedback had been that there was capacity to accommodate both these groups of children; however this situation may change given the pressure on schools and the high number of children requiring onsite learning; this situation would be regularly reviewed;

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given the short notice, schools had responded extremely well in delivering remote online lessons; the Department for Education had set out remote learning expectations for the third Covid lockdown which would be reviewed by Ofsted; the Department of Education had set out a minimum amount of remote education which must be provided for each Key Stage; it was important that learning was of a high quality and the Council would be monitoring this locally and liaising with Government, whilst supporting parents in delivering remote learning;

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there had been support for families with disabled children which had been maintained throughout the pandemic; the short break providers were still delivery essential support across the city; overnight residential support also continued; Routeways Centre Ltd had supported families, where special schools had not been able to provide education, for periods of time (particularly during the early part of the pandemic);

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the Government had announced that Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs had been cancelled for this year, including reading and maths; an update on the early years assessments was awaited;

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students who were due to sit exams in the summer would receive grades determined by teachers; the Department of Education and The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) would be consulting on the approach for alternative arrangements which would allow students to progress fairly; it was hoped that lessons from last year had been learnt and that these would not be repeated;

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vocational/technical exams could continue in January 2021 where the school or college judged that the exams could proceed; the Government had left the decision to individual educational establishments and some had chosen to cancel the exams; students were urged to check with their education provider to find out whether their exams were proceeding or whether they had been cancelled;

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there would be a new campaign for the Skills Launchpad in January 2021; a refresh of the contents of the website would take place with more functionality included (the referrals form had now been added); this would allow an individual’s employment journey to be tracked and monitored which would provide important information that would help to continually improve this service.

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took this opportunity to pay tribute to those working in the early years sector, who were on the frontline for the care and education of young children;  this sector had no access to testing, had lack of PPE in the early part of this pandemic and faced specific funding issues; the current funding arrangements for early years care was based per head; with the third national lockdown children were not attending  early year settings which was threatening the sustainability of these providers in the city; this issue needed to be urgently addressed by the Government.