Issue - meetings

1. That:

(a) The projected financial impact of Covid-19 for 2020/21 as set out in section 1 and;

(b) The proposed recovery framework as set out in section 2 be noted.

2. That the extension of the voluntary sector contracts as set out in paragraphs 3.2 – 3.5 and the new one year contract to DENS as highlighted in paragraph 3.7 be

agreed.

3. That the Covid-19 Strategic Risk annexed to the report is agreed.

Decision

1. That:

(a) The projected financial impact of Covid-19 for 2020/21 as set out in section 1 and;

(b) The proposed recovery framework as set out in section 2 be noted.

2. That the extension of the voluntary sector contracts as set out in paragraphs 3.2 – 3.5 and the new one year contract to DENS as highlighted in paragraph 3.7 be agreed.

Corporate objectives

The financial impact and the Council’s response to Covid-19 will impact all of the Council’s Corporate Objectives.

Monitoring Officer comments

The Monitoring Officer continues to monitor the key issues raised by legislative changes and relevant government guidance and ensure that effective policies and procedures are in place to assist services to continue to deliver during the pandemic and subsequent recovery phase.

S151 Officer comments

The Financial Implications section of the report have been written by the S151 officer and will continue to be monitored as actual costs become clearer. Members will be regularly updated on the financial implications of Covid-19 as they develop.

Advice

Councillor Williams introduced the report to members and wanted to place on record his thanks to the whole organisation for the way it has dealt with the current crises and how well all the staff have stepped up to meet the challenge. He said the report contains a number of sections and the impact of Covid-19. The financial implications are still speculation at this stage and a number of measures have been put in place to help businesses, vulnerable people and other organisations. This report is comprehensive in outlining the challenges faced and will continue to face.

S Marshall echoed the thanks to staff who have been working under extreme circumstances and thanked members for their support. This situation is unprecedented and the report identifies the impact on services and identifies the governance for the officer recovery team to work on the programme and this is linked and in line with broader work across Hertfordshire through the resilience forum and the chief executive group. The key recommendations are extending the voluntary sector contracts to give them greater financial security and the sector needs certainty to receive more financial support to continue services at a difficult time. The community grant scheme will be widened to include Covid-19 related projects and there has been a lot of support for local businesses and S Marshall gave credit to the finance and economic development teams for processing grant payments so quickly and effectively. It was also highlighted that the homelessness team had gone from 95 people presenting as homeless pre-pandemic to 185 and this has been done with existing resources. There have been some new services provided to the community such as the food parcels being delivered to vulnerable residents in partnership with the county council. The plans to return to The Forum are flexible dependant on government guidance on public buildings and are currently preparing the building with a 2m distance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58