To receive and, if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2020.

Councillor Lamb stated that he had been missed of the list of attendees and requested that it be added.

RESOLVED: That, following the above amendment, the minutes of the meeting held 27 May 2020 be agreed as an accurate record.

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

No additional declarations of interest were made.

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4pm on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received.

No questions were received.

To receive an overview of recent key, delegated, and urgent decisions that have been taken since the last meeting of the Executive or are going to be taken at the next Executive Meeting.

The Chair informed the Committee that the report was for noting unless any Committee Members had questions relating to any of the decisions and no questions were raised.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To receive an update of the position in Trafford and to discuss the boroughs continued response to COVID 19.

The Chair introduced the item and explained that the Executive Members and Officers had been provided with a series of questions relating to this item. The Executive Members and Officers were to provide answers to those questions before giving Committee Members the opportunity for further questions and discussion. The Chair added that if any questions could not be answered at the meeting information could be sent to Members by email at a later date.

The Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing, and Equalities explained that the Director for Public Health had been working to provide answers to the Committee’s questions. Due to the wide scope of the questions received the Director of Public Health was going to provide written responses to be shared alongside the minutes of the meeting. The Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing, and Equalities then stated that they would be happy to answer any specific questions during the meeting.

The Chair noted that the main areas the Committee were keen to hear about in relation to health and social care were Track Trace and Isolate, the amendments to the Care Act, the impact on mental health services, and the CQC report regarding learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorder.

The Director of Public Health gave responses to the Committees questions starting with the disproportionate effect of COVID 19 upon the BAME population. The Director of Public Health stated that it was difficult to know whether the position in Greater Manchester reflected the national position as death certificates did not record ethnicity. This meant that cross matching of information need to be conducted in order to build up a picture of the situation within in Greater Manchester and this work was being undertaken.

A paper had been released which looked into the impact of COVID 19 in relation to levels of deprivation which had been linked to higher rates of death from COVID 19.  That paper showed that the situation in Greater Manchester did reflect the national picture. The Director of Public Health had conducted some preliminary work looking at the impact of race by cross referencing deaths by ward against ward profiles and it did look as though the position in Trafford would reflect the National position.

Trafford had been making sure that the services that were being provided such as testing and treatment were being properly followed through to ensure that people were not dying from other treatable illnesses due to the impact of COVID 19 on services. Trafford were working closely with community groups to ensure that the message was reaching everyone within the community and that provisions were in place to facilitate people who needed testing to access it. The Community hubs had been very successful in reaching people and the Council were looking at how they could learn from that success going forward. The Director highlighted the co-design of the hubs which had been a key aspect of their success.

The Director of Public Health then moved on to the question relating to test track,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive an update from the Executive Member for Children’s Services and to discuss Trafford’s position in relation to COVID 19.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services acknowledged the challenging and difficult time. She expressed her gratitude for Council staff working in Children’s services, the Council’s partners, foster carers, and schools. People had been working around the clock to put support in place and asses risks in a way that had never been done before and at a rapid pace. The Executive Member for Children’s Services noted that the questions had been received the Friday before the meeting and thanked the Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance, and the Lead Member for Education for the work they had done to put the responses together. The Committee were told that if any of the questions were not covered fully during the meeting that they would be followed up afterwards in writing.

The Executive Member for Children’s services informed the Committee that it was for Schools to decide how and when they would reopen. The Council’s role in terms of the wider reopening of schools across the borough was one of providing support and guidance for schools to aid them in making those decisions. In May the Prime Minister announced that schools would reopen for nursery, reception , year one, and year six with some face to face contact for year 10 and year 12 pupils. Trafford had recommended that schools prepare to re-open more widely on the 10^th of June. However, following an announcement regarding the R rate in the North West on the 5^th June a further recommendation was made for schools to be able to take more time to review their risk assessments.

The Lead Member for Education told the Committee that all schools were opening on the 15^th June.  By the 12^th June 71 primary schools had reopened and 2006 children were in school. The Council had offered schools more time to prepare if they needed it along with support to review their risk assessments. It was too early to say how many children had attended school on the 15^th June but it was expected to be a large increase as all schools were opening. The Chair requested that the figures for the first day back be given to the Committee and the Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance confirmed that the data would be shared.

The Lead Member for Education stated that there were expected to be variations in the level of attendance across the borough. It was anticipated that demand would be higher in the South of the borough than the North although the exact picture would not be known until the data was available. The Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance added that the figures were likely to change on a daily basis as schools would be implementing different rotas and the position was likely to continue to change over the days and weeks following the reopening.  Additional guidance had been released by the DFE stating that schools could open to more year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To suggest and agree items, relating to the COVID 19 Pandemic, to be on the agenda for future meetings of the Committee.

The Chair informed the Committee that there was to be an agenda setting panel meeting later in the week. The Chair asked Committee Members to contact officers if they had any further questions, topics, or possible recommendations that they would like the panel to consider for future meetings.

Councillor Western noted that there was a quick turnaround for Members to provide their responses for the panel given the large amount of information that had been given. The Chair responded that Committee Members could take longer in their considerations and send them to officers when they were ready but they would not be considered by the panel for the meeting on the 1^st July.

Councillor Coggins noted that there had been a lot of changes to the active transport network and asked that considered as a topic for a future meeting. The Committee agreed to add active transport as a topic for consideration.

Councillor Lamb suggested that Committee Members should put together a list of the key messages, questions, or information that they took away from the meeting.

Councillor Barclay asked that figures on track and trace be provided at each meeting. The Chair agreed to that and added that school attendance would be another area that the Committee would like regular figures on.

RESOLVED:

1)    That Committee Members are to provide any further questions, topics, or possible recommendations they would like to be consider for future meetings.

2)    That active transport be added as an item for consideration for future meetings.

3)    That figures on Track and Trace as well as school attendance should be provided regularly to the Committee.