Agenda item

Announcements

Minutes:

This item is a continuation of minute 20, ‘Announcements’.

 

Councillor Patrick Nicholson (Deputy Leader) provided announcements on the following:

 

·        

there were ongoing issues of capacity at Derriford hospital – the Council played a significant part as a key stakeholder in assisting in those pressures. The hospital discharge pressures were related to the limited domiciliary care in the city, the covid 19 impact on providers, the complexity of those that needed support and the different thresholds of risk – the Council was doing its best to assist the University Hospitals Plymouth to expedite discharges from Derriford. Now there was twice daily attendance of the council at escalation calls with University Plymouth – revised risk arrangements to open care homes as quickly as possible following the outbreak of covid. Commissions of adult social care and were provisioning a care hotel of 13 beds in care homes in the city to ease discharges. The council formed a domiciliary care brokerage team to maximise capacity of domiciliary care in the community;

 

·        

the Council had launched a recruitment campaign for providers of domiciliary care providers in the city; the campaign started on 20 August 2021 and would run for 12 weeks promoting flexibility of the role and the benefits and rewards of working in this sector;

 

·        

since the decision to support further discharge William Patricia Venton Centre at Mount Gould with deliver further beds – builders start this week;

 

·        

the 2021 tree programme – 2031 trees over 17 wards were to be planted from October this year – 59 projects in the programme, of which 34 were supported by Councillors through community grant funds;

 

Councillor Downie provided announcement on the following –

 

·        

with regards to young peoples’ return to school, the council proactively prepared schools for a September return whilst the city was designated as a covid enhanced response area. The Council and Public Health worked closely to provide an information pack with advice needed;

 

·        

on 6 September 2021 an EGM was held with Head Teachers and CEOs from the city’s schools and academies. Enabled the council to give further advice and answer questions about school re-openings;

 

·        

Plymouth schools all opened as planned;

 

·        

an inspection of the youth offending team taking place on 27 September;

 

·        

demand for childrens social care continued and was 25% than previously experienced;

 

·        

Mark Riddell MP will visit the city on 29/30 September 2021 to allow the Council to share its progress in working with care leavers in the city and young people.

 

Councillor Mrs Maddi Bridgeman (Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene) provided announcements on the following:

 

·        

Garden waste services – there was a problem regarding HGV drivers and the impact on street services teams. In light of high level of staff absence and annual leave, the Council made the decision to give priority to brown and green waste collections with garden waste collections being affected;

 

·        

the schedule for grass cutting and weeding an issue in the city – over the past few months consulted with the public and now defined areas that agreed as suitable for re-wilding. This was in line with the climate and emergency action plan;

 

·        

praise the grass cutting team – the team worked hard and the Hoe was looking beautiful for the Hatchling event;

 

·        

bulky waste collections were to resume in October with online registrations to open shortly – blossoms together improvements at Devil’s Point were progressing well;

 

·        

correspondence was read out praising the refuse team.

 

Councillor Jonathan Drean (Cabinet Member fir Transport) provided an announcement on the following:

 

·        

that he had a statement from Plymouth Citybus, Stagecoach, Network Rail and the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint ferry regarding disruption to commuters in the city however there was not enough time to provide this update – these would be sent around to Councillors for their information.