COUNTY COUNCIL NETWORKS – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (PSR0016)

PUBLIC SERVICES: LESSONS FROM CORONAVIRUS

SUMMARY

 Since the outbreak of COVID-19, local government has successfully stepped up to the plate to deliver the services that government has asked it to.

 There were points where processes could have gone better, as could be expected given the unprecedented circumstances. In many cases this was because the knowledge and expertise of local government was not taken advantage of as quickly as it might have done.

 Research by Grant Thornton, commissioned by CCN, shows that CCN member authorities could face an in-year funding shortfall of £752m, increasing to £2.5bn when potential council and business rates collection fund deficits are considered, and continuing ‘legacy costs’ of COVID-19 pressures are included. Two further scenarios demonstrate that the shortfall could increase to between £3.6bn and £4.5bn, depending on how costs evolve during this financial year and the next.

 Alongside emergency funding, government should provide an income guarantee to be available to compensate councils for their lost income from council tax, business rates, fees and charges and other non-commercial income.

 Funding issues even before the pandemic have limited local authorities’ ability to provide preventative services because most expenditure in this area is non-statutory and therefore has been de-prioritised in favour of statutory services.

 Any public service reform which emerges from the pandemic should recognise the unique and crucial role local authorities can play in supporting national initiatives, delivered locally. As part of conversations about the post-COVID future of public services, CCN believes that the government should extend the powers that have been given to combined authorities to county areas.

 There has been increased and ongoing communication between central and local government – both at political and administrative level.  The pandemic has led CCN member authorities to innovate with service delivery to ensure that they can support communities, residents and businesses appropriately.

 The transfer of public health into local authorities has been of help to councils in responding to the pandemic quickly and effectively.

 The influx of hundreds of thousands of volunteers offering to help the most vulnerable in their communities has been welcome. However, there have been issues over ensuring enough opportunities to help, with some volunteers not having been deployed or used as effectively as they might have been. Introduction

1. The County Councils Network (CCN) represents 36 English local authorities that serve counties. CCN’s membership includes both county council and county unitary authorities who together have over 2,500 councillors and serve over 26m people (47% of the population) across 86% of England and deliver high-quality services that matter the most to local communities, including children’s social care and education services.

2. CCN’s member authorities have worked hard during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown to ensure that children’s services continue to provide the support that children need and that families are properly supported at this difficult time. However, they remain extremely concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 health emergency both on children’s immediate welfare and their long-term wellbeing. This response summarises some of the major concerns which have been raised by our members during the pandemic in relation to children across the gamut of services provided by local authorities.

Central and local government cooperation on public service delivery

3. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, local government has successfully stepped up to the plate to deliver the services that government has asked it to, and to deliver existing or new services that residents look to their local authority to provide. Government has understandably asked a lot of local government, asking them to use their knowledge of their local communities to support national initiatives. Councils have successfully undertaken some of the heaviest lifting across the public sector: ranging from shielding the vulnerable and protecting the NHS, to helping secure local businesses' futures.

4. However, there were points where processes could have gone better, as could be expected given the unprecedented circumstances. In many cases this was because the knowledge and expertise of local government was not taken advantage of as quickly as it might have done, for example with the roll-out of the Shielding Programme. The involvement of councils in the delivery of Test and Trace might suggest this is a lesson that has already been learnt.

5. It is to be hoped that any public service reform which emerges from the pandemic will recognise the unique and crucial role local authorities can play in supporting national initiatives, delivered locally. This will involve a new local government settlement that empowers councils to drive forward public service reform across their area, and through services such as health and social care and economic development. To date, devolution has been unevenly rolled out across England. This is partly because England presently has a complex local governance system with too many councils and perhaps needs a smaller number of authorities with greater powers.

6. As part of conversations about the post-COVID future of public services, CCN believes that the government should extend the powers that have been given to combined authorities to county areas. Councils have again shown that they can be trusted to deliver and coordinate high quality public services and have demonstrated they merit a greater role with regard to the coordination of public services in their area. However, given county councils have already proven themselves able to provide the place-based leadership required for the COVID-19 response, it would suggest there is no advantage in these larger areas having a directly-elected mayor which may complicate and slow down their ability to respond to significant challenges.

7. It is encouraging that there are already moves towards offering local areas greater autonomy in tailoring national priorities with local responses – such as local authorities being involved in conversations with government about securing economic recovery. CCN are keen to work with the government and parliamentarians more generally to ensure that this recognition of local government continues. The Devolution White Paper that we are expecting to be published this year, provides an opportunity for the strengths of this cooperation to be retained and built on.

Local and national co-operation

8. CCN member authorities have had to dramatically re-shape their services and redeploy significant numbers of staff at short notice to ensure that they can support communities, residents and business at the present time. They have innovated in terms of the continued delivery services that residents rely upon, and the delivery of new services that the government has asked for. There are five key areas where councils have had to work on the response to COVID-19 and examples of work county authorities have delivered are included in the table below.1

Protecting Buckinghamshire Council transformed the Olympic the NHS and Lodge and other buildings at Stoke Mandeville Stadium social care in Aylesbury into a 240-bed social care facility for adults in just three weeks.

Cambridgeshire County Council used the trade links it had built up over the years with enterprises in China to help source over 12,000 pieces of personal

1 Full case studies for these initiatives can be found here: http://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/download/3027/ protective equipment for Addenbrooke’s Hospital and local care providers.

Going the launched an emergency extra mile to helpline for its vulnerable residents immediately after help the the lockdown, and in little over two weeks it had vulnerable helped over 5,000 vulnerable or isolated people in need of urgent help. In April the council was receiving 200 requests a day for assistance.

Durham County Council has offered help to residents who fear losing their home due to the financial impact of Coronavirus by asking them to get in touch directly with the council so housing officers can help.

Making the Hertfordshire County Council moved essential best use of public health services online, with many consultations council staff being conducted virtually, sexual health testing kits and services and contraception being ordered and sent out by post. The stop smoking service continued, and the council had to double the amount of specialist clinics available due to demand during the pandemic. Importantly, putting the service online allowed re-deployment of 240 public health staff to roles in combating the virus.

Somerset County Council re-deployed over 1,000 staff – including councillors – to help on the frontline. With libraries having to close, councils have seen a spike in demand online. The number of people joining Somerset libraries online increased 544% compared to the same period in 2019.

Marshalling Nottinghamshire County Council created a new England’s community hub to offer advice and support to volunteers communities over the coming weeks for vulnerable people, families and residents who can’t leave their homes or who are self-isolating at home. More than 600 people or organisations signed up as volunteers in the first weeks, to help people with services such as: food supplies and delivery; collecting and delivering medicines; personal and social support – dog walking, collecting newspapers; advice on health; and transport needs. The database includes a search facility so that residents can easily find a volunteer group to meet their needs. Northamptonshire County Council mobilised hundreds of local volunteers to deliver a leaflet to every single household in the county which outlines the help available to them during the pandemic. The huge undertaking, in partnership with district authorities in the county, aimed to ensure no stone was left unturned in explaining to people what help is at hand from their local authorities. These leaflets contained a helpline number for those who are isolated and may fall unwell during the pandemic. All volunteers were given appropriate protective equipment and had safety guidelines explained to them prior to the leaflet drop.

Helping local Shropshire County Council took advantage of a lack businesses of vehicles on the road during the early days of the back on their pandemic to begin fixing the county’s potholes in a bid feet to help the local – and national - economy once lockdown restrictions are eased. On Monday, March 23, there were 5,250 defects on the county’s roads – and as of April 9, that number had reduced by over 2,000 to under 3,000 defects on the county’s roads.

9. In the early stages of the response, there was less innovation in approaches towards local and national cooperation. This has been marked by the traditional relationship between national government directing local government, often in very prescriptive ways, for example through the Care Home Infection Fund. Since then there has been increased and ongoing communication between central and local government – both at political and administrative level – which has been unprecedented and extremely encouraging.

10. It is likely the central/local cross coordination of the Test and Trace programme is a direct consequence of this communication which augurs well for the prospect of further innovation may follow as part of public service reform as each branch better understands the concerns and pressures of the other and how they can best work together. Through this programme each local authority will be given funding to develop tailored outbreak control plans, working with local NHS and other stakeholders. County authorities’ public health teams, working with the NHS and district council partners, have a huge amount of expertise to call upon, helping to devise the scheme nationally, making it work locally and providing essential leadership on the ground.

Data-sharing 11. Data sharing with the NHS was an issue to begin with during the early stages of the Shielding Programme. The lists of those who needed to be shielded were based on NHS data on people who the NHS regarded as clinically vulnerable. The data was slow to be shared with local authorities and was not always accessible or in an accessible format. Lists of those on the Shielded Programme did not always meet local authority expectations of who should be covered, or indeed the expectations of residents and family members. The Shielding Programme may have been established quicker if local authorities and the NHS had agreed lists of people needed support permanently in place, and subject to regular review.

Public Health

12. One move that has particularly helped the local authority response to the pandemic was the transfer of public health into local authorities at the beginning of the last decade. This was predicated on the value that embedding public health holistically across a wider range of community services would lead to greater prioritisation of prevention.

13. CCN and Shared Intelligence published a report last year which reviewed the impact of incorporating public health into the local authority in the early part of the last decade – Learning the lessons from the transfer of public health.2 The report’s findings highlighted the overall benefits of this move, which have been shown throughout the response to COVID-19 but warning the reductions in budgets for this service have more recently threatened the progress being made. However, it is important the committee specifically notes county councils’ ability to put in place prevention programmes that will improve the health of their local population and help to mitigate the impacts of pandemics such as COVID-19 has been limited by the current formula for CCN members’ allocations of public health funding. They receive £42 per head, compared to a national average of £57. This compares to £71 per head for metropolitan boroughs, and £102 per head in inner London.

Funding issues

14. COVID-19 has emerged against a backdrop where county authorities were already facing a funding gap in the coming years. Research published by CCN in conjunction with PwC last year suggested that by the start of 2020, local government has needed to have made £13.2bn of savings and cuts since 2015 to balance budgets, on top of council tax rise - with CCN member councils having needed to have made £7.4bn of these savings and service reductions3.

2 http://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/download/2126/ 3 http://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/download/2258/ 15. CCN authorities were already facing an underlying funding gap of £1.8bn in 2020/21 which is estimated to increase year on year to £3.6bn in 2024/25. They would face a cumulative funding gap of £13.2bn which equates to 43.2% of the overall cumulative funding gap for England over this time. A 4% rise in council tax in 2020/21 reduces the CCN funding gap in this year to £1.3bn. Further rises of 2% p/a from 2021/22 reduces the cumulative funding gap to £7.7bn, an average annual gap of £1.5bn.

16. Members were therefore already having to adapt to a climate of significantly reduced resources, growing and ageing demographics, and the changing needs of our residents. Before COVID-19, over 65% of county expenditure was dedicated to social care.

17. For example, research CCN and LG Futures published last month on Children’s Services Funding and Early Intervention showed how a combination of reduced funding and increased demand have meant preventative children’s services have been deprioritised in order to ensure councils can meet their statutory duties4. This may mean children’s services are underprepared to meet any significant upsurge in need during the recovery phase. In particular, the impact on lower-level preventative services means local authorities will have more difficulty in responding as effectively to a rise in need due to less opportunities for identifying vulnerable children and families through, for instance, children’s centres or youth clubs.

18. County and unitary authorities are having to rapidly adapt to the severity of the potential impact of the pandemic on local government finance demonstrated by independent research from Grant Thornton that was published by CCN in June. Grant Thornton’s base case scenario shows that CCN member councils could face an in-year funding shortfall of £752m, increasing to £2.5bn when potential council and business rates collection fund deficits are considered, and continuing ‘legacy costs’ of COVID-19 pressures are included. Two further scenarios demonstrate that the shortfall could increase to between £3.6bn and £4.5bn, depending on how costs evolve during this financial year and next. The report shows that unless further support is provided to our members, all county authorities would have exhausted their useable reserves by the end of 2021/22 in dealing with the financial challenges caused by the crisis, with a large number facing severe sustainability challenges this year.

19. Councils operate differently from other parts of the public sector – such as the NHS – as they are legally required to pass a balanced budget. The scale of the funding shortfalls means that a significant number of CCN authorities would not be able to do this within their existing resources, even if urgent measures were taken to reduce

4 http://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/download/3003/ costs. If this were to be the case, they would be left with no option but to significantly cut back spending on day-to-day services so that they were able to continue to provide statutory services and continue with the level of response to COVID-19 that many in the local community rightly expect.

20. Finding a solution to the short and medium-term financial challenges will require a combination of emergency funding, income guarantees and reform to local government finance. CCN has previously called for a £5bn income guarantee for councils and has called for government to work with councils to design a comprehensive strategy to protect council finances over the coming months. Alongside emergency funding, this should include an income guarantee to be available to compensate councils for their lost income from council tax, business rates, fees and charges and other non-commercial income.

21. However, CCN are also waiting for the outcome of a number of other key strands of work from government that will affect counties’ ability to deliver services to our communities. In particular, the Devolution White Paper will set councils’ ability to shape local communities, and the long-awaited Adult Social Care Green Paper will hopefully create a lasting settlement for the provision of care to older people that provides councils the funding needed to deliver this key service.

Prevention

22. The funding issues detailed above have particularly impacted local authorities’ ability to provide preventative services. This is because most expenditure in this area is non-statutory and therefore has been de-prioritised to ensure statutory duties are met – this is a key finding of the aforementioned Children’s Services Funding and Early Intervention report.

23. However, as far as possible local authorities are constantly looking to improve preventative measures – for example using technology to help keep more elderly people in their own homes with support rather than moving into institutional care. Similarly, many counties have begun to expand their ‘extra care housing’ offer allowing citizens to move to owned accommodation with care on hand to provide a more gradated approach to ageing. In the wake of the pandemic councils are already considering how such approaches can be expanded.

Voluntary Sector

24. It was encouraging to see that hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to help the most vulnerable in their communities. County authorities worked with this groundswell in public support, setting up community hubs to marshal and co-ordinate the volunteer response through activities such as:

 doing shopping and distributing food;  delivering medical supplies;  making sure that people stuck at home on their own are not isolated.

25. However, there have been issues over ensuring enough opportunities for volunteers to help, with some not having been deployed or used as effectively as they might have been. There is also a concern that the central drive to gain volunteers may have taken away volunteering hours from smaller local charities.

26. Councils are now looking to how their local VCS can continue to harness the goodwill shown by those who volunteered to help in the years to come. The VCS may also need further financial support given the challenges that the sector faces resulting from a drying up of donations and income; and the potential for pent up demand once lockdown has been released.

CASE STUDY: have worked closely with the Surrey Community Foundation, which matches donors with charities, not-for profits, faith groups and volunteers, to support their emergency fund for voluntary and community sector organisations providing vital support in response to Coronavirus. The council also established a hardship fund to assist local voluntary, community & faith sector organisations which have suffered financial and other losses as a result of Coronavirus.

27. VCS are already facing a reported £4.5bn loss in voluntary income due to fundraising opportunities being limited during lockdown (source: ACEVO). Government has so far committed £750m to support the sector. It is important the committee considers too how intricately the public; private and voluntary sectors have become interdependent over recent decades. This means the economic impact of the pandemic is likely to impact each sector in connected ways – for example:

 the squeeze on public revenues is likely to impact on how far central and local government can directly support the VCS going forward;  the VCS now provides many contracted and uncontracted services to LAs – the collapse of a VCS provider may cause significant disruption to local services;

 as well as a recession limiting the amount of support from the general public, private companies hit by the pandemic are likely to scale back CPD investment in the VCS exacerbating their income challenges.