To receive an update on the above titled item.

Hilary Hall, Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning, gave the Board an update. She explained that the Local Outbreak Engagement Board was leading the communications and collaboration if there was a local outbreak with businesses, stakeholders and residents across the borough. The board reported on its progress to the Health and Wellbeing Board at each meeting going forward. The membership consisted of:

·         Three elected members (one from each group)

·         Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning

·         Head of Housing and Environmental Health

·         Consultant in Public Health

·         Communications and Marketing Manager

Standing invites were given to other senior members of the council, like the Managing Director. The board was originally designed to meet monthly, with an escalation in the number of meetings if required. Due to the current situation, the board was now meeting weekly.

An active communications campaign had been developed which included:

·         The Council website being updated with the latest information and guidance; Berkshire wide public health website launched with data/lookup facility.

·         Use of key influencers as “interlocutors” to disseminate messages

·         Use of social media – key messages.

·         Working with services, businesses and organisations to make sure that information was clear and accurate.

·         Information was available in accessible formats and languages other than English.

Engagement with residents involved two key areas; identifying and engaging with people and groups that were deemed to be ‘high risk’, and defining the role of councillors and other important community figures to utilise messages through their channels.

RBWM was currently in the bottom tier, but the current position was worrying as cases had been continuing to rise and the borough was in danger of being moved into ‘Tier 2’ which was regarded as ‘High Risk’. This would mean more restrictions on residents and businesses designed to curb the spread of the virus. Targeted actions were being taken now, particularly around households mixing indoors, along with more police enforcement to help stop the spread of the virus.

The Chairman commented that this board had been very successfully set up and that meetings were becoming more regular. Household mixing was an important area of transmission that needed to be targeted and going forward the Board would be working closely with the Police and Crime Commissioner to ensure that the police were able to deal with non-compliance.

Councillor Stimson asked if there was a breakdown of the data at ward level as this could help to identify any ‘problem wards’ that needed extra targeting and resources.

The Chairman said that there was data available that was by ward which was useful for seeing any hot spots. He had asked that all ward councillors ensure that messages were being delivered to their wards and that they were also reaching out to leaders across the community. Anna Richards, Consultant in Public Health, said that the ward data was useful for examining cases that were unlinked and could not initially be traced. The Communications team at RBWM could do targeted engagement with specific wards if needed.

Councillor Coppinger said that two people in his immediate family had recently contracted the virus and it was important that action was taken now to stop the spread. The Chairman said that the danger really hit home when it was your family that was involved, it was important to get the message across and Public Health protocols would go a long way to managing the spread of Covid.

Councillor C Da Costa explained that she had started a Covid response hub at the start of the pandemic. She asked a number of questions:

·         How effective had test and trace been in the local area?

·         She had not seen any enforcement taking place and wondering if police were taking action against non-compliance?

·         Was there any correlation between inequality/deprivation and testing positive?

·         What was the local R rate?

·         What was the council advising for those residents that were on the shielding list?

The Chairman said that better enforcement was something that he wanted to see and said that he would be meeting with the Police and Crime Commissioner. The Managing Director was also due to meet with the Chief Contestable, so conversations were taking place between RBWM and Thames Valley Police.

Anna Richards explained that 68% of cases and 71% of contacts were successfully completed. Slough had already got their own local test and trace programme and it was hoped that RBWM would be able to do something similar so that people could be contacted quicker.

Tessa Lindfield, Strategic Director of Public Health for Berkshire, said that they were keeping a close eye on the uptake in testing. More cases had been recorded in affluent areas which could have been an impact from families returning from holidays abroad. Deprivation and old age increased the chance of transmission. There was nothing new confirmed around shielding, but some work was going on currently which would look at the options with guidance from the government expected soon. The local R rate was not known but information like the average number of contacts each case had was and this was regarded as being more useful.

Hilary Hall said that RBWM was still calling those on the shielding list and that if arrangements needed to be escalated again then they could be done so.

Councillor Bond asked if Councillors had been contacted if test and trace was unable to get hold of potential contacts. He asked if officers were looking ahead to December and the pressure that this would bring on the health service.

The Chairman believed that would be a challenge to feed into the test and trace system, with Councillors being able to raise any specific issues with the Public Health Team. It was very difficult to plan for the festive period and national government guidance would need to be considered. The Chairman said that it would be good for people not to plan significant travel over the period but it was difficult parameters to plan on.

Anna Richards said that once the local contact tracing was up and running it would hopefully give RBWM better localised information. She agreed with the Chairman’s comments and said that immediate thinking was for October half term and ensuring that appropriate messages were sent out.