City of York Council LGA Peer Challenge of Outbreak Management Plan 2021

Delivery Plan against Recommendations – Update May 2021

Recommendation	Actions	Progress	Status
Develop a plan for addressing organisational resilience, giving people time to reflect and recharge. This should be wider than those directly working in public health and consideration should be given on how to support council staff across all services	The council has established a Workforce Group with representation from across the organisation including Human Resources, Health & Safety, Public Health which is putting in place measures to support staff resilience and recovery. A staff wellbeing survey has been conducted and the results presented to the Corporate Management Team which is being used to support the workforce with return to business as usual operating. There is ongoing psychological support through the Employee Assistance Programme. All staff with line management responsibilities have been provided with guidance on how to support staff working remotely and stay connected to their teams There is ongoing physical support for staff working at home e.g. provision of IT equipment, desk chairs etc.	Completed	Green
Capitalise on the benefits gained from the distributed Public Health team model by determining where Public Health will be positioned in the future and the capacity required to sustain this.	Public Health has been established as a separate Directorate with the Director of Public Health reporting to the Chief Executive. The capacity in the Public Health team has been increased with additional posts being established. This increase in establishment has been possible because of an uplift in the Public Health Grant Allocation for 21/22. The Director of Public Health is working with other Directors across the council to develop an integrated model for delivery of Public Health specialist advice and support, building on the successful model adopted during the pandemic to date. Examples include a joint Consultant in Public Health across the council and the Vale of York CCG, public health staff attending People, Place and Corporate Services management team meetings.	Completed	Green
Build on the great work with communities during pandemic to maintain focus on addressing inequalities. CYC can show many examples of great work undertaken during the pandemic to address inequalities. The council and its partners know that a joined up approach and strategic approach will be needed if those inequalities are to be addressed.	Building back better and fairer is at the heart of the council recovery plans for the city incorporating a public health approach. Health and care partners have approved the establishment of a Population Hub reporting to the Health and Wellbeing Board which will have a key focus on improving population health outcomes and tackling health inequalities. Progress on tackling health inequalities will be measured using the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment which is a statutory requirement of the Health and Wellbeing Board. An annual report on progress will be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board.	Completed	Green
Partnership working is a clear strength, providing the opportunity to consider next how to embed the benefits from recent closer partnership working into future ways of working across all council priorities, over and above COVID-19 and economic recovery.	The council has a recovery strategy which is a live document updated and presented to Executive on a regular basis. The newly established York Health and Care Alliance has a vision for integration across health and social care for York which clearly sets out partner aspirations for building on the effectiveness of partnership working across organisations over the past year. The York Partnership has started work on a 10 year strategy for the city focused on key priorities for delivery.	Completed	Green
Develop contingency plans for worst case scenarios, as well as best case scenarios. For example, emergence of new vaccine resistant variants, requirement for social distancing beyond the summer, potential challenges with vaccine take-up within certain populations etc.	The Outbreak Management Plan has been refreshed to include delivery of the covid vaccination programme and a plan for ‘surge testing’ in response to new variants. The covid vaccination programme has established an inequalities sub-group which reports regularly to the Outbreak Management Advisory Board on progress. There is an action plan with steps being taken to address variation in uptake of vaccine amongst different groups. Public Health have worked across the council and the NHS to develop potential best case and worst case scenarios as we head through summer and into winter. These scenarios will be used to inform contingency and business continuity plans. There is constant monitoring of case data, emerging variants and vaccine uptake by the Public Health team, together with review of government guidance and evidence of best practice regionally, nationally and internationally which is used to inform our outbreak management response.	Work commenced	Amber