Issue - meetings

The Chair welcomed Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive; County Councillor Keith Iddon, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport; County Councillor Shaun Turner, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing; County Councillor Graham Gooch, Cabinet Member for Adult Services; and Mike Kirby, Director of Strategy and Performance, to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport stated that Highways and Transport had been extremely busy during the pandemic. One of the tasks faced was building the temporary morgue at Warton. The main transport issue was in relation to getting pupils back to school in a safe manner. A detailed update from the Highways Team had been presented at the last meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee. The team was making progress in getting back to normal.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing stated that public health and wellbeing had been central to the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) and it had been vital to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the communities and individuals of Lancashire. Throughout the pandemic the Public Health Team had worked closely with Public Health England and continued to work closely with district councils to ensure premises were Covid-19 secure across Lancashire. The team had worked very closely with public health commissioned services and the county council had also been required to set up an Outbreak Engagement Board.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services stated that the biggest policy decision the Government had been faced with was to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed. The county council's main adult social care priority had been to ensure the safe and effective delivery of care to those who needed it by supporting care homes and other providers. The county council had developed a comprehensive daily tracker which was used to record significant amounts of data in relation to Covid-19 that was used to provide national data, this took an enormous strain off from care homes and providers and was welcomed support across Lancashire. A dedicated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) phone hotline and online ordering pathway was made available so that providers and care homes were able to let us know their needs. 

Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive presented committee members with an update on Lancashire's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The presentation covered topics suggested by Members as part of the Internal Scrutiny Committee work planning session which took place on 29 May 2020. The three suggested areas of finance, social care and children would be looked at separately and in depth by the Budget Scrutiny Review Panel, the Health Scrutiny Committee and the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee.

At the beginning of lockdown Lancashire County Council made rapid decisions during an unprecedented, fast moving situation which set the tone for its response to the pandemic. This included supporting all county council staff in working from home and providing councillors with corporate laptops to facilitate access to meetings. 

A key priority for the county council was to protect the vulnerable people of Lancashire particularly in maintaining the adult social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5