Spooner Row Message Board

This is informing the public about where to find information on the possible impact on local services as the situation changes. I don't think it is scaremongering. 

Sent on Behalf of Trevor Holden, MD Broadland and South Norfolk Councils

Town/Parish Council briefing

Good afternoon,

As you will know, we have recently had our first cases of Covid-19 confirmed within Norfolk. This was expected to happen and across the areas of Broadland and South Norfolk, we are ensuring that we are well prepared for the impact of this as the situation continues to develop.

We are really proud that some great community work is already underway within local areas to support our communities and those most in need throughout this challenging time. Government have been releasing a range of support measures for individuals and businesses and our community team is currently working to identify who can benefit from the support measures such as the Hardship Fund.

We would welcome the opportunity to work with you to build upon our community infrastructure framework and to support you in the vital work you are doing. Now is the time to pull together, ensuring we take advantage of this opportunity to do the right thing by our communities.

To support this, we are planning a range of opportunities outlined below to collaborate with each other so that we can support you in the best possible way in the coming weeks and months to support those most vulnerable within your communities.

Workshops held at South Norfolk Council or Broadland District Council

We are holding a number of sessions outlined below which town and parish councils have the option to attend. To avoid large scale gatherings as per the current national Government guidance, we have arranged a number of these sessions to allow for smaller numbers of people per session.

Session Date Time Location

1 Monday 23 March 1.00-3.00pm South Norfolk Council Offices

2 Monday 23 March 3.30-5.30pm South Norfolk Council Offices

3 Tuesday 24 March 10.00-12.00am Broadland District Council Offices

4 Tuesday 24 March 3.30pm-5.30pm Broadland District Council Offices

5 Wednesday 25 March 1.00-3.00pm South Norfolk Council Offices

6 Wednesday 25 March 3.30-5.30pm South Norfolk Council Offices

7 Thursday 26 March 9.00-11.00am Broadland District Council Offices

8 Thursday 26 March 3.30pm-5.30pm Broadland District Council Offices

9 Friday 27 March 12.30-2.30pm South Norfolk Council Offices

10 Friday 27 March 3.00-5.00pm South Norfolk Council Offices

If you would like to attend, please could you let Pumi Perera (pperera@s-norfolk.gov.uk) know your preferred session number. When you attend, please report to the reception desk.

Live streaming of workshops

If you would prefer not to attend in person, we are also planning on streaming these sessions live. To watch live, please use the link below at the start time of your chosen session.

https://www.broadland.gov.uk/coronavirusbriefing

Prior to and during the sessions, we are giving you the opportunity to email in any questions or queries you may have which we will look to address during the events. To submit your questions, please email coronavirusquestions@s-norfolk.gov.uk.

Smaller sessions with Parish/Town Councils

If you are unable to watch the live streaming or feel you are unable to attend the session we would be happy to set up smaller sessions within your areas or via phone with our community team. If you would like to do this, please contact our communities team: communities@s-norfolk.gov.uk / 01508 533747

Finally, thank you for everything you have done so far to help prepare our communities. We look forward to working with you to support our residents during these challenging times.

Kind regards

Trevor Holden

MD Broadland and South Norfolk Councils

Pumi Perera

Graduate Trainee

e pperera@s-norfolk.gov.uk

The latest from Power networks which might affect us all

The above post and unhelpful comment is to allow anyone to watch who wants to. For a change we are all in this together actually rings true

One of the most useful comments I have seen regarding this mess is the red card green card window system where someone in need of assistance posts a red card visibly in front window with a green one if okay. Assumes enormous stocks of green and red card of course but something worth considering

________________________________________

From: Horwood, Michael <Michael.Horwood@ukpowernetworks.co.uk>

Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 7:44:28 PM

To: Julian Halls <jhalls@S-NORFOLK.GOV.UK>

Subject: What we’re doing to keep your electricity flowing

Dear Cllr Halls,

Many are concerned about the ongoing Coronavirus public health issue and the way it has affected nearly every industry across the world.

We want to reassure you that, as the company responsible for distributing power to over 8.3 million properties across London, the South East and East of England, we know how important it is to keep electricity flowing to your home or business, especially during these uncertain times.

Our engineers are out as normal continuing their core role in maintaining your electricity network, and fixing any electrical faults that occur.

We have put into place a number of well-rehearsed contingency plans and precautions to ensure we maintain a good level of service, with high numbers of engineers and call centre staff available to support the ongoing situation.

With many of our customers now working from home and to support the wider UK economy through this very challenging period, from tomorrow evening (Friday 20th March), we will be cancelling most of our lower priority planned maintenance work. This is in order to avoid prolonged planned power cuts for people who are currently working from home.

If you or your constituents need information on a power cut, you can, as always, visit our Power Cut Map for live updates, tweet us at @UKPowerNetworks or telephone our customer service team, 24 hours a day, on 105 or 0800 3163 105. Calls are free from a landline or mobile phone.

Here are some of the practical steps we are taking:

• To ensure continued resilience in months to come, we have split key teams across different locations, and hundreds of call agents are equipped to answer customer queries while working from home

• All essential work will continue as normal, including fixing power cuts on the rare occasions they happen

• We’re postponing lower priority work on electricity cables and substations, as we recognise many people are working from home and we want to minimise disruption to their lives

• We are working with other network operators and trade associations to ensure we share best practice and focus on activities that safeguards power supplies

• We have engaged with our supply chain to ensure access to the equipment and supplies we need to keep the electricity flowing

What it means for you or your residents:

• If our engineers might need to enter your home to restore your power, we’ll ask you on the phone first if you are self-isolating so we can make the relevant arrangements

• National guidance has been given to our engineers, who will wear protective equipment, stay in a different room from people who are infected or self-isolating, and avoid touching surfaces

• If you live in London, the East or South East of England, then being on our Priority Services Register will ensure you will receive extra support if you experience a power cut.

• We understand that the coronavirus outbreak is a worrying time for many, and we want to make sure you have access to local services, should you need assistance during this unprecedented time.

• We are here for you 24/7 and there are over 20 ways to get in touch including our website, on Twitter @ukpowernetworks, or ring 105

We will continue to support those who need help the most during a power cut

We continue to offer free additional tailored support and guidance to customers on our Priority Services Register if they experience a power cut, reliant on electronic medical equipment or with young children.

For more information on our Priority Services Register, please visit www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/priority to register, or call us on 0800 169 9970.

Thank you for your support

This is a fast-changing situation, and we will continue to adapt so that the way we work ensures you, our customers, continue to receive the highest level of service.

We will keep you updated and will review the information on our website continuously to ensure you have the most up to date information.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this very uncertain period.

Yours sincerely,

Michael

Michael Horwood

Public Affairs Manager

UK Power Networks

Newington House

237 Southwark Bridge Road

London SE1 6NP

Email: michael.horwood@ukpowernetworks.co.uk

Just attempted to listen to on line briefing which, as this morning did crashed after 12 minutes

Some key questions need to be answered and I have  emailed asking for details

However key information

contact telephone number is 01508 533933

Out of hours 08003896109

This contact will assist with residents who have been identified into those in the high risk health group who should have been or are in the process of being written to, and Economic residents who are being forced , due to circumstances to stay at home for childcare reasons and are self employed.

As far as I could gather medium and high residents in both categories will be handled by South Norfolk and the low risk will be handled , or rather expected to be handled by the 'parish' where minimal intervention required. Phone call contact/ delivery of food essential supplies and for those not on the net a postcard or knock on the window to see if they are okay. For obvious reasons keeping the door shut is good practice to protect your self and the person the other side. IT IS NOT RUDE TO DO THIS 

Concerns expressed re handling money and payment for required food and essential supplies. If someone takes money and does not come up with the goods this is THEFT so must be reported to the police. Never give or handover pin numbers and cards to someone at the door.

Do not let anyone in who you do not know as no one is being DPS checked

Call staff at district council on the above number are security checked however . Do not engage or respond to cold callers at door or phone. Ring the above number 

If you cannot afford to pay for goods you need, let the above number know and they will assist. Try to avoid ordering stuff knowing you cannot pay for it , ring the above number 

the  email contact for those who can use it is communities@s-norfolk.gov.uk

If you know of anyone who needs help please let your councillor know and they will pass on the info to the clerk to co ordinate and who will keep a secure list and if it is clear what category the persons requiring help are in.  I assume south Norfolk will let us know of contact they have had and their involvement. Question asked but no response yet

Julian Halls

This information is provided from a Town and Parish Council Briefing leaflet. Community Ward Clusters have been created to be responsible for delivering support within their areas.  This involves prioritising support for health and economic vulnerability. We are Cluster E, Area 28 Wymondham.

Contact details:

General help line 01508 533933

Our cluster which is group E    01508 533747 

Lead officers Julie Ringer and Barbara Howard 

Covid19 Community Hub Cluster E-page-001 (1) by spoonerrow, on Flickr

From: Jonathan Pyle <JPyle@S-NORFOLK.GOV.UK>
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 5:14:24 PM

Subject: Coronavirus Update

Good afternoon Councillors

Things are still moving very fast as we work with our colleagues across the county to put in place mechanisms to support our residents and businesses who are suffering because of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Help to Residents

So far, across both districts, we have taken over 1,500 calls from residents needing help. Over the last four days, the Help Hub, through local teams, has dealt with over four hundred cases of people requiring urgent help and the Help Hub will remain open this weekend.

Yesterday, an 80 year old lady in Thorpe St Andrew was unable to have her shopping collected by her daughter who was displaying viral symptoms and self-isolating. The lady only had enough food left to last one day. Our staff liaised with local volunteers and her shopping was done that afternoon.

Last night, a disabled lady in her forties, from Wymondham, who had run out of essential supplies called the Help Hub. Her husband has an ongoing illness and she was in self isolation. Inside of an hour our staff had sourced and delivered the vital supplies she needed.

Just two examples of how we are making a difference and providing an essential service to our residents.

We are working with our County colleagues to develop a Norfolk-wide approach to dealing with the pandemic. Letters will be going out to all Norfolk residents over the next few days directing them to a number of initiatives for support. The letter is attached for your information.

But, we are not just waiting for people to come to us asking for help. We have mobilised our staff in the communities and we are actively seeking out people, who we know are vulnerable, to make sure that they have what they need.

Service Status updates

On Monday we will be uploading Service Status reports to our websites. These will be updated regularly and let our residents and businesses know how our services are running during this difficult time. Examples of the current Service Updates are attached. We will also be including how are customers can contact each of the services via email and phone and webform.

Help to Businesses

We are continuing to contact our local businesses to make sure that they are aware of the help that is available to them. Information is being regularly updated on our website and our team and partners are responding to queries from local businesses and we are helping them access the support available. We are also issuing details to businesses on grants and business rates relief.

Staff

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, as many of our staff as possible, are now working from home. There are however still a number of staff working from both offices and Ketteringham depot to ensure that critical services are delivered.

We have prioritised our services into three tiers in order to manage our staff resource over the coming months and ensure the delivery of key services. These are:

Tier 1 critical services that are experiencing an increase in demand i.e. Benefits, Business Rates, Community Work

Tier 2 critical services that need to continue to allow the service to meet its statutory duties

Tier 3 all other services

Parish and Town Councils

We have held briefings and emailed all Town and Parish Councils key information on how we plan to work with them in the coming weeks and months to support the most vulnerable in our communities and we will continue to keep you informed of communications with parish and towns councils.

Key to making this a success is co-ordination of support in each area. As you will be aware, central government has asked us to set up Local Support Systems and networks of community hubs across our districts to make sure those individuals self-isolating, who do not have an existing support network in place, receive the help they need.

To deliver this, we have set up Community Hubs, made up of small clusters of town and parish councils, to be responsible for delivery of support within their areas.

Our email to Parish and Town Councils explained that our districts have been organised into ‘clusters’ in order to co-ordinate response to the Covid-19 virus.

These clusters are detailed in slides 6-10 which are attached. The clusters are made up of ‘areas’ which encompass one or more Parish or Town Council areas. Each cluster has an ‘area lead’ officer allocated to co-ordinate the local efforts.

Service Status Tracker SNC MASTER 26-03-20 (003)-page-001 by spoonerrow, on Flickr

Service Status Tracker SNC MASTER 26-03-20 (003)-page-002 by spoonerrow, on Flickr

Community Council leaflet:

Some leaflets have been or are the process of delivery to all on the patch that we are officially aware of,  to catch all those not on line who might want help

Unfortunately some confusion has arisen over the contact numbers as some early versions of the leaflet had a link on which was incorrect

BOTH numbers will work 01953 304401 and our Clerks contact  number 07771585010. The e mail contact clerk@spoonerrow.cc was correct throughout 

Important updates and useful info will appear here and on www.spoonerrow.cc

What measures to increase bed capacity are being taken at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital to meet the corona virus demand? The hospital was already struggling with a lack of capacity and other problems before this happened. The only thing I have read is that there might be some private hospital beds made available and that's it! Is this area being overlooked? 

From: Jonathan Pyle <JPyle@S-NORFOLK.GOV.UK>
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 6:36:57 PM

Subject: Town and Parish Council briefing

Good evening

We would like to start our briefing this week by thanking you for the huge amount of help and support that you are giving us, as we work together to help our most vulnerable residents.

Please see below an update on the work that we are doing, with our partners, to help our residents and businesses and the latest information coming from central government.

Residents

The Council has a comprehensive mechanism to support vulnerability, utilising our existing help hub model, working with our partners, town and parish councils, community groups and hundreds of volunteers to coordinate our response. On Monday we launched the new County Council number for people to ask for help: 0344 8008020 and residents can also visit  www.norfolk.gov.uk/coronavirus

Our help hub team is in place to respond to requests for help from these new channels and support residents with practical help, mostly around food and medicine enquires. 

We are taking delivery of a range of food products which will be stored at locations across the districts. These supplies are to provide us with emergency food for residents who are in need of immediate support.  Central Government is also providing food for the most vulnerable and the first load was delivered this week.

We will have a main distribution centre with holding sites across the area and we will be working with the current well-established food bank system to distribute food to residents.

This week, we started to contact the most vulnerable residents via a list created from our own data, County Council and the national NHS lists.  These residents are considered to be the most vulnerable and we will be checking they have the support they need. 

Individual volunteering

Volunteering is now being coordinated centrally by Voluntary Norfolk and our hub model is supported by a network of mutual-aid groups that we have set up around South Norfolk and Broadland.  These groups help us by allocating volunteers to support local residents and using local knowledge to feed in details of vulnerable residents. This work is key to ensuring we identify residents in our community. 

Our partners in the voluntary sector are working with us to recruit volunteers for a county wide effort to respond to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.  Already, an additional 75 volunteers have been allocated to work in our districts.

https://www.voluntarynorfolk.org.uk/home-2/volunteering-2/register-to-volunteer-2/

NHS Volunteers- More information about this scheme can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/participation/get-involved/volunteering/nhs-volunteer-responders/

We are working alongside all these volunteers to ensure that help is given to our most vulnerable residents and would like to thank everyone who is contributing to this effort.

Some of the things we can do to help:

• Emergency income to assist with purchase of essentials (Food) or utilities, up to £150
• One off payment to assist people whilst waiting for Universal credit or SSP to commence.
• All working age people in receipt of CTS receiving additional assistance. Further £150.00 deducted from all working age people who are in receipt of CTS. Where liability is below £150.00 this will be reduced to allow Council Tax liability to be zero
• Discretionary Housing Payment from £500-£2k
• Council Tax Assistance, up to 85%
• Discretionary Council Tax Relief
• Universal Credit
• Renters – We are encouraging anyone whose income has been impacted by COVID-19 to contact their landlord immediately, whether that be a registered provider such as Saffron or Clarion or a private landlord. We are aware that registered providers are keen to work with people however they will not know that their tenants are in hardship unless they are informed. Similarly, central government has announced that private landlords can ask their mortgage providers for a 3 month payment holiday when their tenants are affected by COVID-19, it is therefore expected that this saving be passed to the tenant. If landlords are not helping, our housing team may be able to assist, however we do ask tenants to speak to landlords first.

We have already seen a 61% increase in calls to our benefit teams with families starting to face financial difficulties. This will link into the hardship fund described above.

Businesses

We have been contacting and supporting our businesses and local companies with help and advice on how to respond to the challenges they face.

Our detailed information on the website and FAQs has meant most businesses are able to get the information they need, and we have already had 15,000 page views across the two websites.

The Councils have taken a step by step approach in working through the various criteria and have helped hundreds of businesses since the restrictions began. We have been able to successfully signpost them to the various affiliated agencies handling elements of the available support and explaining the planned payment mechanism for Council actioned support.  

Where the Business Support Team has been critical, is in triaging those businesses that need further intervention at a local level, sometimes in the form of a friendly voice offering guidance and advice, and sometimes help in solving a real cashflow crisis.

There are several measures that have been announced by Government in the Budget, and subsequently, to support businesses as they face significant disruption because of coronavirus.

These measures include:

• A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
• A Statutory Sick Pay relief package for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs)
• A 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses in England
• Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
• Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank
• More self-employed people will be eligible to apply for Universal Credit
• A new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
• The HMRC Time To Pay Scheme
• A £500 million Hardship Fund for residents to access financial support from the Council
• Insurance cover related to pandemics and government-ordered closure

This week, in total, we have distributed just under £8 million in grants to 504 businesses in South Norfolk and Broadland.

Our team of advisers in our Economic Growth team are providing support and advice and can be contacted on 01508 533921 or by email at  businesssupport@s-norfolk.gov.uk or business@broadland.gov.uk

Supporting our vulnerable residents

This week we are averaged 550 calls per day to the help hub from vulnerable residents and those in hardship.

Over the last 10 days we have deployed volunteers on 1090 occasions to support residents with supplies of food and medicine.  Most of the residents helped so far, have been over 70 years old, but we are expecting more families to start contacting us as finances become tighter. 

We know that some pharmacies are experiencing problems with queues. If your local pharmacy is having issues, please contact us and we will try and help. We understand that there is not a problem with stock or supply, but that part of the problem is people stock piling medicines.

As well as receiving calls we have also contacted 638 of our most vulnerable residents. These have been identified by the NHS, the County Council and from our own data.  The number of outward calls will increase as we receive more data from the NHS.

Nationally we have seen a rise in domestic abuse from two deaths a week to seven. Rural areas can be particularly vulnerable, and with families isolating we predict more cases, both men and women can be affected.  Any issues please report directly to the police on 101.  Support for housing can be requested via 0808 168 2222 (South Norfolk) 01603 430641 (Broadland) or go to the relevant District Councils’ website.

Remote Attendance

The Local Authority can hold such meetings and at such hour and on such days; and alter the frequency, move or cancel such meetings, without requirement for further notice.

When an appointment is required to be made at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) such appointments continue until the next AGM or until the Local Authority determines.

Meetings are not limited to a place, can include; electronic, digital or virtual meetings i.e. internet locations, web address or conference calls.

Attendance counts when:

1. Member can hear / see and be heard / be seen by other Members
2. Member can hear / see and be heard / by seen by entitled to attend to exercise the right to speak – where practicable
3. Member to be heard and where practicable be seen by the public attending

Attendance includes by remote access.

The Local Authority can make standing orders and rules about remote attendance at meetings including the provision for:

1. Voting
2. Member and public access to documents
3. Remote access of public and press

Being present includes by remote access.

Open to the public includes access to meeting through remote means including but not limited to video conference, live webcast or live streaming.

Documentation “open to inspection” includes being published on the website.

Publication, posting or making available of a document at council offices includes on the website.

Decisions and background papers made avaibale to the public includes through the website or any other such means as is considered appropriate.

National information

 We have also received, and attached, a PDF of a leaflet with advice from central government that is being distributed, by the government, to every household in the country.

Jonathan Pyle
PR Manager
t 01508 533631 m 07894810890 e jpyle@s-norfolk.gov.uk