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

Councillor McCartin declared a non-financial interest in respect of item 2 of the agenda as she was a member of the Board of Renfrewshire Leisure Limited. Councillor McCartin indicated that as she had a general dispensation from the Standards Commission which allowed her to take part and to vote in relation to such matters it was her intention to 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; L McIntyre, Head of Policy & Commissioning, A Morrison , Head of Regeneration; L Mahon, Head of Communications & Marketing; and P Fara, Web & Multi-media Editor (all Chief Executive's);  A Scott, Criminal Justice Services Manager (Children's Services); O Reid, Head of Communities & Public Protection and C Dalrymple, Communities & Regulatory Manager (both Communities, Housing & Planning Services); G Hutton, Head of Amenity Services (Environment & Infrastructure); K Graham, Head of Corporate Governance, M Conaghan, Legal & Democratic Services Manager, G Dickie, Partnering & Commissioning Manager, S Fanning, Principal HR & OD Adviser, and L Belshaw, Democratic Services Manager (all Finance & Resources);  S Strachan, Acting Head of Health & Social Care (Paisley) (Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership) and D Mair, Civil Contingencies Manager (Civil Contingencies Service). 

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Board held on 17 July 2020.

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, COVID19 pandemic.

The report provided an update on the current policy and guidance position – in particular the most recent Scottish Government three-weekly review of progress and the decision to reimpose lock-down arrangements in Aberdeen to combat a local outbreak of infections.

The report highlighted that there was evidence of success in suppressing the impact of the virus since the peak of the pandemic. No COVID-19 confirmed or suspected death had been recorded in Renfrewshire in the last 4 weeks and no deaths from COVID-19 had been reported in Renfrewshire Care Homes since 10 June 2020 and no care homes had reported residents with COVID-19 since 19 June 2020. No Care at Home service users had died with COVID-19 since 9 May 2020. 2.1 However, the position in world terms was less positive and there remained an ongoing risk presented by the pandemic that would impact on communities in Scotland if current measures to track and reduce transmission were not maintained.  

It was noted that specific Scottish guidance for Shielding had been paused with shielding residents now asked to follow the same guidance as the general population, allowing them to return to school, or to work, with appropriate medical advice being followed, in line with the guidance for all residents; that all Scottish schools would reopen to children and young people on 11 August 2020 and be fully reopened by no later than 18 August 2020 (in Renfrewshire all schools would fully return by 14 August 2020); that non-essential offices would remain closed until at least 14 September 2020, with working from home remaining the default position where possible, even after this date; Council officers continued to review and update local contingency plans for a range of different scenarios based on increased data around the impact of the virus and the experiences of other areas in Scotland, the UK and elsewhere; and that while there was still uncertainty over the dates for when remaining services would be able to reopen, plans were being made for the restarting of relevant RLL services in line with the timetables and guidance set out by the Scottish Government.

The report set out details of funding announcements by the Scottish Government and outlined actions for economic recovery, including a number of key actions which were of direct interest to Renfrewshire. 

(b) That the response and recovery measures being put in place by the Council and partners as set out in the report 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.