Prior to the commencement of the meeting the Convener intimated that this meeting of the Board would be recorded and that the recording would be available to watch on the Council's website.

Councillor Campbell declared an interest in item 2 on the agenda as she was an employee of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde but not in the Council's area and intimated that she would remain in the meeting during consideration of the item.

Councillor McGurk, Convener, presided.

S Black, Chief Executive; S Quinn, Director of Children's Services; M Crearie, Director of Communities, Housing & Planning Services; G McNeil, Director of Environment & Infrastructure; A Russell, Director of Finance & Resources; L McIntyre, Head of Policy & Commissioning, L Mahon, Head of Communications & Marketing and P Fara, Web & Multi-media Editor (all Chief Executive's); J Trainer, Head of Childcare & Criminal Justice and Chief Social Work Officer (Children's Services); O Reid, Head of Communities & Public Protection and C Dalrymple, Communities & Regulatory Manager (both Communities, Housing & Planning Services); K Graham, Head of Corporate Governance, P Murray, Head of ICT; L Neary, Head of Transformation, HR & OD, M Conaghan, Legal & Democratic Services Manager and D Low, Democratic Services Manager (all Finance & Resources); D Leese, Chief Officer and S Strachan, Acting Head of Health & Social Care (Paisley) (both Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership); F Naylor, Head of Finance and Corporate Services (Renfrewshire Leisure); and D Mair, Civil Contingencies Officer, Civil Contingencies Service.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Board held on 29 May 2020.

Councillor Mackay advised that at the last meeting of the Emergencies Board he had incorrectly referred to former public toilets in Paisley Town Centre being located at County Square, Paisley.  He intimated that the facilities were actually located by the Thomas Coats statue, High Street, Paisley. 

DECIDED: That the Minute be approved.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the Council’s current arrangements and response to the ongoing international Coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic. The report provided information on the national position including the number of cases and deaths at both Scottish and UK levels. The recent publication of updated figures and analysis from the National Records of Scotland was also included which showed that the rate of increase in deaths from COVID-19 was beginning to slow. A summary was also given of policy and guidance updates that had been released since the previous meeting of the Board on 29 May 2020.  It was noted that as at 4 June 2020 there were 281,661 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospitals in the UK up from 267,240 reported on 29 May 2020. In Scotland there were now 15,553 confirmed hospital cases (up from 15,288). Of these, 3,961 cases were within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area (up from 3,934). In GGCHB area there were 317 people in hospital (down from 369) and 5 in intensive care (down from 9) as either confirmed or suspected cases.

The report intimated that there had now been 39,904 deaths across the UK (up from the 37,460 deaths reported on 29 May 2020). The UK still ranked second for overall numbers of recorded deaths, behind the United States where over 109,000 deaths had been recorded (330 per million population). When considering the number of deaths in relation to population size (removing countries with very small populations) the UK currently ranked 2nd with 588 deaths per million population, behind Belgium (824 deaths per million population) but now ahead of both Spain and Italy. The latest National Records of Scotland report showed that at 31 May 2020, there had been a total of 3,911 deaths registered in Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate (up from 3,779 deaths registered up to 24 May 2020).

The report highlighted some positive indicators in relation to the response to the outbreak in Scotland. Of the total number of deaths registered in the week from 25 to 31 May 2020, there were 131 where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, a decrease of 99 from the previous week. This was the fifth weekly reduction since the first COVID-19 death was registered in March. The proportion of all deaths involving COVID-19 had also decreased for the fifth week in a row falling from 36% of all deaths registered in the week ending 26 April 2020 to 12% of all deaths in week ending 31 May 2020. Appendix 1 provided an overview of all deaths involving COVID-19 in Renfrewshire. 

The report set out two policy changes which had been announced by the Scottish Government since the last meeting of the Emergencies Board relating to: further information and guidance that had been published to support the move to Phase 1 in the Scottish Government’s Routemap to transition through and out of the current crisis; and a Mobilisation Plan for the NHS in Scotland had been published which set out how the NHS could start to resume services that were paused as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.  The report also detailed further guidance which had been issued by the Scottish Government and which covered a range of issues including the return of all pupils to schools on 11 August.

The report provided specific service updates in relation to the implementation of the Phase 1 easing of the lockdown including progress on the Test and Protect programme and the transition back to a greater level of face-to-face education in schools and early learning and childcare (ELC) settings. The Director of Children’s Services was invited to set out the work being undertaken before the return of all pupils on 11 August 2020. From Monday 8 June Head Teachers and other key workers would return to schools to allow time for planning, preparation and familiarisation with arrangements for the new session in August. Other non-vulnerable and non-shielding teaching staff, would return to schools in the following two weeks to arrange appropriate transition activities for pupils starting primary and secondary school in August.

 

The report advised that the emergency childcare hubs would close at the end of the school day on Monday 8 June. The children of key workers who currently attended the hubs, would then return to their normal school or early years setting until the end of the school session on 26 June.  However, the children of key workers who normally attended a nursery class in school or a partner provider would remain in the current provision.  Child care arrangements for the summer would be for the children of key workers and those children deemed to be vulnerable. Further reports on these arrangements would be submitted to future meetings of this Board.   

The report set out support for communities including care homes. Sadly 111 people had been reported by care homes as dying with COVID-19 since 18 March 2020. Three care homes were reporting residents with symptoms of COVID-19, or had confirmed cases, with a total of four residents now reported as symptomatic or confirmed. The Acting Head of Health & Social Care (Paisley) provided information on the testing regime that had been undertaken between discharge from hospital and admission to a care home.  

DECIDED:

(a) That the current national and local situation with regards to COVID-19 and the impact on communities, businesses and the Council and its partners be noted; and

(b) That the response measures being put in place by the Council and its partners be noted.

It was noted that there were no items for decision by the Board.

The Board resolved to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that if members of the press and public were present, there could be disclosure to them of confidential information.

It was noted that there were no confidential updates.