Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Service Updates - 26 February 2021

Assets & Facilities

Facilities Management

In line with the current lock down restrictions, cleaning staff including day cleaners are operating across all schools and Early Years sites and catering staff are working on a rotational basis providing hot lunches. Interviews are being conducted to fill the remaining eight vacant day cleaning positions and an additional recruitment exercise is underway to fill vacant FM cleaning, catering and Janitorial positions across the Education and Corporate estate. The implementation of Cashless Catering in Primary schools is complete with twenty eight schools now operating the cashless catering system. The next stage of this project is to upgrade the existing cashless catering system in all Secondary schools and new build Primary schools, which has commenced and will be completed by March 2021. The pre-order system is operational in Secondary schools which allows pupils to pre-order lunches from mobile phones and view orders and balance.

Property Maintenance

Gas safety inspections are ongoing and we are making good progress in reducing the backlog of inspections resulting from the current pandemic. The courts have issued all warrants to access properties which are overdue on their inspections and we are seeing a good reduction in these numbers having gained access to a number of properties over the past few weeks. Further warrants are being sought for properties which are due to reach their anniversary date as we continue to ensure compliance across our stock. Void repairs are ongoing with good progress being made on reducing the number of backlog properties and we continue to work with one of our contractors to further reduce these numbers and complete works on the significant number of new properties coming online. Turnaround times for void properties has been reduced and we will continue to monitor this going forward. We continue to carry out emergency and essential reactive repairs with the minor works element of the Care & Repair service still on hold at this time. Aids & Adaptation works continue and the Smoke and Heat detector installation programme is ongoing across the estate with good progress being made. Kitchen, Bathroom, Heating and Roofing replacement programmes remain on hold and will restart as soon as is practicable and safe to do so. Essential work continues across the Education portfolio which includes larger scale refurbishment works. The setting up of polling stations for the upcoming elections will be ongoing and we will continue to provide assistance where necessary during this period.

Assets & Estates

The new Oakburn Early Years Centre was successfully completed on Friday 12th February. Projects at Southbank House / KHCC are substantially complete with final touches now in progress and both are expected to complete on Monday 1st March.

Construction continues at Lairdsland and Bearsden Early Years facilities. Productivity across each site continues to be impacted by the pandemic and the programme impact of this in particular continues to be monitored closely by the Major Asset projects team.

Construction continues to progress well at Boclair Academy and Allander Leisure and Day Care Centre. Construction of the Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex is scheduled to commence shortly, subject to the agreement of final contractual terms. Design and cost development continues to progress for the ASN project and the Stage 1 Report was provided to Council in February 2021.

The Estates Management team continue to develop and manage servicing and maintenance contracts across the Estate, with a priority on regulatory compliance and building safety, and this work progresses on a continual basis. The team also continue to deliver a repairs services across the full estate with a current focus on priority issues within the Education estate.

In the non-operational (commercial) estate, the team continue to support both new and existing SME businesses with their property requirements, including the renewal of leases, coordinating repairs and sourcing premises. Support continues to be offered where necessary to tenants through rent deferrals and referrals to the business support team.

The Asset Management team continue to deliver a range of capital projects across the property estate. Work remains in progress at Lenzie Academy (3G Pitch Installation) and Hilton Depot (Drying Room / Canteen Refurb) and Balmuildy Primary School (classroom sink replacement). Design work is underway to progress various projects within the School Estate Refurbishment Programme.

Housing Capital

The team continue to deliver a range of capital projects across the Housing portfolio, including external rendering of properties in Waterside, window replacement and electrical rewire to void properties. Preparations are underway to re-commence kitchens and bathroom installations later in 2021 with colleagues in Property Maintenance when safe and appropriate to do so, roof replacement to mixed tenure properties and external wall insulation. This will be subject to the lifting of construction industry restrictions which currently prohibit non-emergency works within houses.

Housing New Build

Construction continues to progress well at the former TJH site, Kirkintilloch. Final contractual negotiations remain underway ahead of the construction of new affordable housing at the former Lairdsland Primary School site, Kirkintilloch; Blackthorn Grove, Lenzie and the Loaning, Kirkintilloch which is anticipated to start in March 2021.

The revised Strategic Housing Investment Plan (2021-26) and a corresponding update to the Council's Affordable Housing Investment Programme (2021-26) has been drafted and by Council at the budget meeting in February 2021.

Housing

Homelessness & Prevention:

The Homelessness & Prevention Team continue to work remotely from home. Homelessness numbers remain relatively low. There are no households in bed and breakfast and no breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order.

From a homelessness prevention prospective, we await confirmation from the Scottish Government with regards a possible extension to the eviction ban currently in place in the social and private sector. Where appropriate, the team has been providing landlords/tenants with advice and will review/revise our approach following confirmation of any extension/lift of the ban.

In accordance with the Scottish Governments vaccination roll out, most of the team and housing support providers have received their first COVID19 vaccination and appointments have been issued for the 2nd vaccination during March/April.

Housing Operations

The Estates Team continues to work remotely from home. The team liaises closely with the Voids Team at Property Maintenance to ensure a quick turnaround of void properties and to try and clear the back-log of empty houses, which accumulated as a result of COVID-19 restrictions last year. Offers of housing are being issued in line with the allocations policy and sign-ups are being carried out timeously to create new tenancies. The team also continues to work closely with Housing Associations in the area to provide nominations for voids and new build properties in this sector.

Housing Officers liaise with the Community Safety Team and Police Scotland in relation to complaints of noise issues and anti-social behaviour. As a result of joint working, 7 x SSST conversion notices have been served on those tenants who have been in breach of their tenancy conditions.

Rents

The Rents Team continue to engage with tenants by telephone and through letters to ensure rental income is being maximised. Advice and support continues to be offered to tenants whose circumstances have changed as a result of pandemic, or, who have been struggling to pay their rent. There are tenants who do not pay and/or engage and the service is now issuing 1^st and 2^nd reminder letters to these tenants. There are no current court actions for rent arrears taking place as we cannot carry out any evictions until at least March 2021, with this date likely to be extended. The rents team continue to support and assist as many tenants as they can with UC claims/verifications, DHP claims, putting affordable agreements in place and also referring to CAB, when necessary, to ensure that income is maximised, where this is possible. Current rent arrears are £1,331,792 (week 46), this is an increase of £275k at same week as last year.

Tenant Participation

Work is currently progressing with the next issue of Taking Part newsletter due to be issued in early April. The next online TPWG meeting will be held on 11 March 2021.

Systems, Policy and Performance

The Systems and Policy Team is gearing up for year end returns and is currently finalising the rent review paperwork which will go out to all tenants early March. The Business Improvement Plan for 2021/22 is almost complete and targets are being set for the year ahead. This has been harder than previous years due to the affects that Covid-19 has had on 20/21 performance.

Team are also working on withdrawing from the tenants home contents insurance scheme, minimising disruption to tenants through working closely with the broker, Thistle, who will take on the administration of the scheme for our tenants, should they wish to remain in this scheme. The allocations policy is also due for renewal and there will be a big focus on consultation with applicants and tenants, as Covid-19 has ruled out face to face large group meetings. Consideration is being given as to the best way to take this forward in terms of consultation methods.

The Annual Return on Charter will be due at the end of May this year and the team will be working on this as soon as year-end impacts. The performance for 20/21 will be unlike any other year due to the pandemic and it will be interesting to compare our performance with other Local Authorities in light of these unprecedented times. The Local Housing Strategy is due for review this year and the team is starting to put the wheels in motion in relation to consultation, beginning to think how a new strategy will look, taking into account the changes Covid-19 has placed on us all.

Land Planning & Development

Planning Applications and Building Standards

The Planning Service is currently operating as close to normal services as possible. In accordance with the relevant risk assessment planning and enforcement site visits are continuing to take place under the current local and national restrictions. Building Standards is also currently operating as close to normal services as possible. Similar to Planning, site visits are continuing to take place in accordance with the relevant risk assessment for those properties and sites only where suitable alternative evidence is not appropriate.

Monthly updates are now to be provided to the Scottish Government Building Standards Division to help monitor performance of Building Standards at a national level.

Both the Planning Applications and Building Standards teams continues to receive the number of applications expected by this point in the financial year.

In the absence of a Planning Board meeting the Planning Service will prepare and issue a Technical Note for circulation to Members. The Technical Note will contain details of delegated planning decisions, appeals and other matters.

The Councils planning service are currently considering a planning application for an Additional Support Needs School at land at Waterside Road in Kirkintilloch. The application is a major development and considered to be significantly contrary to the development plan. Plans are currently being developed for a Planning Pre-Determination Hearing and the Service has written to interested parties to give them the opportunity of being heard at the hearing.

Land Planning and Sustainability Policy and GIS

The Council’s Local Development Plan 2 was approved at August Council and consultation took place between October 2020 and 15 January 2021. Over 2000 representations have been received and officers are logging these in order to acknowledge them and will begin analysis and drafting of the Council’s response. Future updates will provide more details on this process. Officers are also working on planning guidance, the historic environment designations review, which is currently being consulted on following a LDP Working Party, and site specific projects such as Kirkintilloch Gateway.

The East Dunbartonshire Economic Recovery Plan was reported to Council on 1 October 2020. The Plan draws together actions across the Council and those being progressed by economic partners as part of delivery of Local Outcome 1. It is a live document, reflecting the ongoing nature of the public health and economic crisis. Consultation took place in November 2020 and the findings and ongoing data analysis are being used to update the Economic Recovery Plan. Work has commenced on initial project planning for a Circular Economy Strategy.

A Draft Parking Management Plan is currently being worked on by officers ahead of it being presented to the Transport Working Group for discussion. Work has commenced on initial project planning for the next Active Travel Strategy, which replace the 2015-20 Strategy. These are two of a number of actions in the Local Transport Strategy, approved in March 2020, which is currently being progressed by the Land Planning Policy Team in conjunction with other Services.

Work is progressing well on the Scottish Government funded Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Pilot Project with virtual work to assess the potential for improvements on properties in the Milngavie and Bearsden areas to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions now under way. The recommendations from the project will inform the development of the Council’s approach to tackling climate change which will be reported to PNCA Committee in due course. The Council’s Climate Change Public Bodies Duties annual report was submitted to the Scottish Government by the November deadline and indicates that the Council’s 44% carbon reduction target for 2019/20 has been achieved. A report proposing a 49% carbon reduction target for 2020/21 will shortly be reported to PNCA Committee, along with proposals for the preparation of a new Climate Action Plan. This will set a new zero direct carbon emissions target for the Council, linking to new Regulations that require the Council to report the date by which it will achieve zero direct emissions, and how the Council will align its spending plans and use of resources to achieve its emissions reduction targets.

Consultation on the draft Glasgow City Region Climate Adaptation Strategy, prepared by Climate Ready Clyde in partnership with East Dunbartonshire Council and other partners, closed on December 24^th. The Strategy is now being finalised and an Action Plan prepared. The finalised Strategy and Action Plan will be reported to Council this spring.

Work on the Council’s other key Land Planning and Sustainability Strategies and Plans is ongoing. This includes ongoing policy development, continuation with consultation using electronic methods and plans and strategies being presented to Council for approval.

Work progresses well for a number of key projects that the GIS team are leading on and supporting. With the completion of the Local Development Plan 2 project, the team are creating a web application that will allow officers in shared services to accurately plot and analyse safe walking routes for school placement requests, due to be completed by March. This web application will utilise Ordnance Survey products such as OS Highways, Pathways and Place names, which will then be configured as required by the . The team are also collaborating with Glasgow City Council, the Digital Office and the NHS to create a Covid-19 case tracker. This will show real time cases of Covid-19, recorded by the NHS within the East Dunbartonshire boundary. This is due to be completed by the middle of February. The team are also planning a programme of work that will ensure the accuracy of address data with the Scottish Assessors Association and other key stakeholders. This is to support the issuing and recording of postal ballot votes for the upcoming May elections. Finally, the team are continuing to liaise with the Planning, Building Standards and Validation officers to ensure that any issues with the IDOX application are resolved swiftly.

City Deal

The City Deal core team is now fully resourced with 3 dedicated Officers and a Team Leader. Additional resource across the Council is being put in place to progress the projects. Officers continue to engage with partners across the City Region on the Council’s developing City Deal project, including landowners, SPT and GCC and First Bus.

Work on the outline business case has been delayed due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, but progress is being made in relation to: procurement of consulting services in support of the Outline Business Case (OBC); programming of the individual projects and work relating to the OBC and work on early economic impacts forecasting (as required under the funding approval). Consultants have been appointed to commence work on the Bishopbriggs Public Ream Plan and desktop research and site visits are under way. Arrangements are being made for initial meetings with Council teams including Traffic and Transport, Roads, Greenspace, etc.

Regeneration & Town Centres

The team are working towards delivering a range of projects despite the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 including those approved at the Council meeting on the 1st October. Project activity and progress is being maintained via virtual meetings and electronic communication. The team can report that the new Antonine Wall Play Park in Peel Park Kirkintilloch is now scheduled to be completed for early March with the delay due to recent adverse weather conditions. Designs are being developed for phase 2 of the Milngavie Public Realm project. The project will mirror the phase 1 design which created an attractive gateway to the start of the West Highland Way and will be managed by the Milngavie BID with support from the team as required. The team have secured £1.1m of Scottish Government Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for the Twechar Canalside project. Town Centre projects such as Regent Gardens are being to progressed again, and working closely with the local community council draft designs being prepared for consultation. Work to identify and apply for external funding is ongoing to support both Council and community led projects as required and an update will be presented to an upcoming PNCA Committee. Work continues supporting a number of local groups and organisations to deliver Scotland’s Towns Partnership “Love Local” fund projects which will help town centres and local businesses adapt to and recover from the impacts of Covid-19.

Business Support

As of the 23^rd February payments have been made for 1,701 temporary closure grants, total value £2,392,500 (up to 448 per month), 166 restrictions grants, total value £153,125 (up to 83 per month). 423 top up grants £2,724,000 and 360 taxi grants £540,000. The total is 2,650 grants for a total value of £5,809,625. That was an additional 477 grants and £969,125 in a week. The team have now administered over £19m in financial support.

The Discretionary fund is now live and there has been good take up so far. The one off grant is for £4000 following an increase in the fund. The Strategic Framework Fund payments for February are in process.

The Self Catering and Bed & Breakfast Fund and the Large Self-Catering Fund will be launched in February following receipt of full guidance. The national Contingency Plus Fund (brewers, travel agents and indoor football centres) is being administered by EDC, who as with other Councils continue to work with Scottish Government to the agree the exact list of eligible businesses in the area that will be written to and awarded a direct one off payment.

The Council’s Business support during the coronavirus emergency webpage continues to be kept up to date. Due to the number of grants and volume, officers across the Place & Business Service, and other areas are supporting the grants schemes. The Business Support Team continue to experience high volumes and calls and e-mail enquiries.

Traffic and Transport

Works have commenced at Mugdock Road Car Park, Milngavie for the electric vehicle charging hub. Three new rapid chargers will be installed over the coming weeks adding to the existing EV charger.

Installation of seven Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) units are ongoing on Milngavie Road, Bearsden, as well as three replacement shelters. The rollout of RTPI will continue into Milngavie Town Centre as part of the 2021/22 Capital Programme.

The team are working with colleagues in Greenspace and Rangers at Mugdock Country Park to deliver path improvement projects throughout the authority including:

Langfaulds Path
Kilmardinny Loch
Cairnhill Woods Path.

With the increase in cycling throughout 2020 schools are seeing a huge rise in need for cycle and scooter parking. The team are installing additional shelters at six schools by March 2021. A new cycle shelter design competition will be launched at Balmuildy and Milngavie Primary Schools and implemented by Easter 2021.

The team’s iBike Officers are working with colleagues in Outdoor Education on the roll out of led rides and led walks following the planned phased return to schools on Monday 22 February.

Design work continues on the Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project which aims to improve the function of Canniesburn Toll for pedestrians and cyclists making travelling by these modes safer in the immediate vicinity of this roundabout. The project also aims to improve the flow of traffic and reduce journey times with the introduction of traffic signals.

The team continue to work on the A803 Signal Optimisation Project funded by the Bus Priority Rapid Deployment Fund (BPRDF).

The team have now completed their 2021/22 funding applications with over £1m of external sustainable transport funding expected in the coming year.

Neighbourhood Services

Place & Community Planning

Environmental Health

The new Covid-19 strain identified at the end of 2020 is prevalent with increasing incidence (estimated to be 85%) within communities, and therefore all associated work continues to create a significant demand for Environmental Health Officers.

The team are working with Education colleagues to deliver contact tracing within schools in liaison with health board colleagues through local Problem Assessment Groups (PAG’s) and Incident Management Teams (IMT’s). We are also being advised of clusters within occupational settings that require to be investigated to ensure the adequate mitigation measures are being put in place by businesses to prevent virus transmission. To this end, the service takes part in additional meetings with Health Board colleagues to agree investigation plans.

The area was placed in Level 4 of the tiered strategy within The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations as amended but this was raised to a ‘Stay at Home’ order in January. This means that all hospitality premises, non-essential shops and services, accommodation and leisure services amongst others are closed and the public advised to remain at home unless to leave for essential purposes.

Environmental Health's programme of pro-active visits to supermarkets/ retail and takeaway premises to assess Coronavirus mitigations is underway and other visits are taking place to respond to serious Covid related complaints. The team have received many requests from local businesses for advice on what the restrictions mean for their operation. Other routine service requests such as food complaints continue to be received. The team are sampling foods from local businesses to assist in national monitoring surveys to ensure safety, composition and labelling requirements are adhered to. The importance of food safety and food standards compliance continues to be significant during the course of a wider public health pandemic.

Away from business regulation, officers continue to deal with other environmental regulation and public health in terms of Air Quality, Contaminated Land and numerous noise, odour, smoke and dampness service complaints. The team are also assessing relevant incoming planning applications and providing comment for planning colleagues on environmental public health considerations to be accounted for.

The EU Exit Deal and its implications continue to be monitored, as there are implications to the import and export of food products. Food Standards Scotland has given advance notice of the expectation for the Official Food Control Recovery Plan to be implemented by Councils. This is likely to generate very significant extra work over early 2021 with the presumption that inspection programmes can begin in summer.

Trading Standards

As a result of level 4 restrictions and amendments to regulations early January, then non-essential retail including close contact services such as hairdressers, beauticians and aesthetics providers required to close along with gyms, indoor visitor attractions, ski slopes and home improvement showrooms. The loopholes in the Regulations relating to an exemption for homeware and hardware retailers had also been closed.

The Trading Standards team continues to receive a number of enquiries from local businesses about whether they can trade and the methods they can use to trade. In particular, receiving enquiries from non-essential businesses regarding click and collect. Trading Standards Officers will continue to monitor compliance and take appropriate action in cases of non-compliance.

Trading Standards Officers continue to provide individually tailored advice and guidance to all non-food businesses on the emergency health protection Covid-19 Regulations and Scottish Government guidance. Officers are also dealing with complaints regarding compliance with the legislation from both the public and businesses. Officers continue to receive enquiries from businesses who work within people's homes and traders who operate from their own home. Trading Standards Officers continue to monitor gym/ fitness and exercise operators.

Further, there has been an increase in the workload in the areas of scam prevention, product safety, fair trading, metrology and petroleum. Unfortunately there has been surge in the number of Coronavirus scams circulating via email, Facebook and text messages. These scams are wide ranging and some examples include advising you are a priority group due to family genetics or that you need to confirm your NHS vaccine appointment, all of which involve clicking on a link which then asks for a payment and/or personal details. Working with the Corporate Communications team Trading Standards are posting regular warnings on social media to alert residents.

Having now exited the EU, Trading Standards anticipate an increased workload in relation to the many changes which will impact on their remit. Officers will continue to receive training regarding changes to Trading Standards legislation brought in by the withdrawal agreement. Officers have undertaken e-learning courses on the changes to Trading Standards legislation, including fair trading, e-commerce, metrology, product safety, animal health, and cross-border matters in advance of the changes which are now in place. Enquiries are received from importers looking for advice on the new requirements and duties placed on them.

The Team's Fair Trading Officers have continued to provide advice to consumers and traders in relation to contractual disputes. Many of these instances have arisen as a consequence of the coronavirus restrictions impacting on performance of contracts, particularly home improvement complaints. The current situation presents additional challenges when mediating between businesses and consumers to satisfactorily resolve complaints.

Licensing Advisers are continuing to deal with routine licensing consultations, complaints and enquiries.

Community Safety Team

The Community Safety Team continues to deliver a range of essential, emergency and ongoing work. Service delivery activities have been tailored and prioritised to coincide with the requirements of the level 4 Covid restrictions and lock down measures which are currently in place across East Dunbartonshire.

Investigation of instances of fly-tipping continue to feature heavily and officers have been working closely with colleagues in Police Scotland to take robust enforcement action in relation to a number of offences. Throughout the course of the pandemic the team has deployed a number of mobile CCTV cameras in known fly-tipping hotspots for the purposes of helping to tackle this on-going problematic issue. Additional camera deployment has been somewhat restricted over the last few weeks owing to the latest set of lock down measures, but additional deployment will be considered wherever relevant as soon as restrictions ease in order to assist with offence detection and support the valuable enforcement work being carried out by the Community Safety Officers in relation to fly-tipping issues.

Control of Dog matters continue to be investigated and an essential pest control service has also been delivered for residents on an on-going basis since the start of the original lock down in March. In terms of pest control, a number permanent bait visits have recently been recommenced and carried out in instances where they have been necessary to support the Council's on-going public health response in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic (e.g. at the mass vaccination centres in Kirkintilloch and Milngavie).

For Community Wardens on-street enforcement for parking offences recommenced in the middle of August 2020. Charging and enforcement in off-street car parks then recommenced 14 September 2020.

During the current period of restrictions, the focus for the Community Wardens in relation to decriminalised parking enforcement has largely been centred upon our town centre areas, but due to increasing complaints for a number of our Primary Schools (which have now re-opened on a phased return starting from 22nd February) we will be ensuring that patrols are carried out at these schools during drop off and pick up times over coming weeks. On the DPE front, interviews have recently been held for new Parking Wardens and 4 successful candidates will now join the team and commence duties with the Council towards the end of the financial year.

Essential patrols in relation to environmental incivility breaches as well as antisocial behaviour and youth disorder patrols in and around identified issue areas have also continued. Complaints in relation to the issue of dog fouling have increased significantly in a number of areas throughout ED over recent months and an increased number of targeted patrols (including plain clothes patrols) have therefore been delivered in these areas in order to tackle the problem and Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued to a number of offenders. Officers have also been working with colleagues in Corporate Communications as well as Greenspace on a number of eye catching leaflets and an animated video which was launched week commencing 15th February.

The team continues to provide a remote service in terms of neighbour complaints/disputes, providing advice by phone and email and liaising regularly with colleagues in other services including Housing, Social Work and Police Scotland. As part of this the team will continue to carry out antisocial behaviour visits in the most serious of cases in order to tackle the significant increase in the number of complaints that have been received in recent months - however, alternatives means are being utilised wherever possible with face to face visits only being carried out where absolutely essential.

A number of mobile CCTV cameras continue to be deployed across the Council area to try and help tackle ongoing issues in terms of antisocial behaviour as well as more serious criminal offences. These cameras have been deployed in conjunction and agreement with colleagues in Police Scotland. Whilst new camera deployment has recently been hampered to some extent by the nature of current restrictions, work in this area is continuing with priority being given to the more serious / essential cases. There has been an significant increase it the amount of antisocial behaviour in our communities during the course of the Covid pandemic - we are therefore delighted that a replacement Antisocial Behaviour Investigator has now started with the team following a recent recruitment process.

Community Planning

Officers are assessing the 38 applications to the Community Grant Scheme Round 2 (2021-21). The Grant Advisory Committee is scheduled to take place in March and CPP Board approval will be sought thereafter.

Officers continue to develop actions relating to outcomes in our Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), via online engagement with community groups and partners / individuals during lockdown. EDVA also works in the community and has strong links. The Council continues to develop the Place plans for Auchinairn; Lennoxtown; Twechar; and, Hillhead and Harestanes. These are due to be reviewed in line with statutory guidance and to reflect changed circumstances due to the pandemic.

In line with revised guidance for CLD planning in 2020 and further to the requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013, Council Officers are developing a plan for Community Leaning and Development for 2021-24. The Community Learning and Development Partnership is meeting (online) and the group is collating data on evidence of need in order to formulate themes for the next three-year plan. Emerging priorities include combatting isolation, developing green spaces and financial / digital inclusion for priority groups.

Our Resettlement Officer continues to offer full-time support to our resettlement families e.g. providing access to essential services.

In line with statutory guidance officers are working on the update to the Equality Outcomes and Mainstreaming Report for 2021-2025.

In line with the mandatory requirements issued to public bodies under the BSL Scotland Act 2015, EDC have produced a British Sign Language Plan with an update required in October 2021.

Roads & Environment

Streetscene Operation

Streetscene Operations are currently assisting with footway gritting as part of the winter maintenance programme and undertaking the following tasks:

Litter routes/Street cleansing, including removal of waste from bottle banks and fly tipping

Pitch Lining

Clearing Culverts

Assisting in cemetery duties

Play Park inspections

Winter squad continue with gritting of schools, Covid vaccination centres, cemeteries as well as assisting with litter/fly tipping

Streetscene Technical Support

Kilmardinny House woodland management works ongoing

Langfaulds path upgrade commenced this week. Path upgrades at Kilmardinny Loch and Cairnhill Wood scheduled for coming weeks also.

Upgrade of Lennox Park play area near completion.

Creation of Bee Bank at Hillhead Community Centre starting next week in partnership with Buglife.

Upcoming repairs to Kelvinbridge roundabout.

The team also continue to respond to open space, tree and cemeteries enquiries on a daily basis, together with planning application consultations and assisting local community groups.

Mugdock Country Park

Visitor Centre, offices, toilets and non essential retail units continue to be closed at Mugdock;

Visitor numbers are still high as people are exercising outdoors and the children's play park and adventure trail are open;

Work is continuing in the maintenance yard, working with Caulders Garden Centre;

Fencing work in ongoing at the play park and quarry;

Steps and paths in the Walled Garden are being realigned with improved paving installed;

Refurbishment work around Craigend Castle is almost complete with all 3 panels now installed, security fencing in place and planting will continue in due course;

New and updated signage across the Park is being installed;

BT's Community Fibre Partnership scheme should be in place within the next year and will be essential in the development of the Park;

New footfall counters have been approved and will shortly be installed;

Updated website almost complete and will enable the development of on-line shopping options.

Roads Technical and Engineering Team

Structures

Allander Bridge No.1 Glasgow Road, Milngavie - Road closed on 12 February following inspection by structures staff. The bridge abutment has been washed away, and a void has formed behind this. There are four 36" diameter water mains at this location, each supplying around 150,000 people, so we are working with Scottish Water who have engaged consultants and George Leslie Ltd to design and then implement a solution.

Alnwick Bridge, Crow Road, Lennoxtown - Work ongoing to replace waterproofing to bridge deck.

Inch Belle Culvert, A803 Kilsyth Road, Kirkintilloch - Work ongoing to place concrete saddle around arch, waterproof saddle, repair masonry abutments and arch, and rebuild parapets.

Allander Bridge No.5 Boclair Road - Replacement of bridge expansion joints completed.

Nicolson Bridge New Lairdsland Road, Kirkintilloch - Replacement of bridge expansion joints completed.

Culvert Repairs, Bencloich Road, Lennoxtown - Assisting Drainage colleagues with supervision of repairs to culvert.

Stockiemuir Road, Bearsden - Assisting Roads colleagues with supervision of work to install gabion baskets to provide support to carriageway.

Continuing with General Inspections, and some Principal Inspections also being completed.

Drainage and Flood Prevention

Part of the Strathkelvin Way alongside the River Glazert has been undermined. This area is to form part of the river restoration works. Warning fences have been installed until a long term solution can be implemented. Some tree removal from the watercourse has been undertaken to assess the erosion.

Remedial works at Bencloich Burn, Bencloich Road, Lennoxtown ongoing.

Golf View, Bearsden - New fencing has been installed to keep out the public until the landscaping is complete in May 2021.

Glazert River Restoration project - Site investigations have been carried out at the 3 reaches along the river with a report and lab testing outputs expected nearer the end of March. From discussions the ground conditions found via trial digs looks promising at this stage.

Climate Ready Park - Etive & Woodhill Bishopbriggs - Finalising detail design actual costs with the consultant. Detail design to be complete by the end of the financial year.

Development

The February/March quarterly round of RAUC meetings will take place on MS Teams.

Continuing with monitoring and coordination of road works.

Traffic

Assisting with the design and installation of a new average speed system proposed on Auchinairn Road.

Providing technical advice to the City Deal projects in Bishopbriggs.

Completing installation of a temporary traffic regulation order on the A803 through Bishopbriggs to improve traffic flow.

Preparing a temporary traffic regulation order at Campsie Glen to enable bus movement at a congested site that has become popular with people wanting to get some exercise in the countryside.

Procurement exercises are underway for a traffic calming gateway project at Milton of Campsie, a traffic survey contract and a lining contract.

There is regular liaison with Police Scotland Traffic Management department.

Continuing to respond to Legal Services on licensing applications and processing dropped kerb and disabled bay applications.

This is in addition to the usual tasks of responding to planning applications, FOI requests and customer enquiries.

Roads Network Operations

In line with current restrictions the Roads Network Team will continue, on a rota basis, to carry out essential road safety repairs where social distancing can be maintained. As a result of the recent period of cold weather resources have been prioritised to the repair of road defects reported over the last few weeks to ensure the safe use of the network. We also continue with our planned gully maintenance operations, working to complete all secondary routes and respond to reports of blocked gullies. The Street Lighting Operations team are responding to any reported defects, dark lamps or dark areas, addressing all within the required time frames.

The Roads Operations team have also provided 24 hour response to any issue reported on the network including road traffic accidents or emergency defects on a stand by rota basis. This includes our Winter Maintenance operations with all planned treatments as a result of the recent snow successfully completed. Teams have also been out re-stocking our grit bins and clearing snow from key areas of the network.

The team is continuing to weekend support colleagues in Waste with the operation of Mavis Valley Transfer Station, providing traffic management to assist with the control of vehicles accessing the site.

With the opening of both the Mass and Targeted COVID Vaccination Centres at Milngavie and Kirkintilloch Town Halls, roads operatives have been supporting with the supply of marshalling and additional gritting operations to ensure safe access is maintained to these centres. Through collaborations with Greenspace, additional gritting measures have been put in place to ensure those attending appointments can do so safely.

Roads Inspectors continue to carry out all statutory safety inspection routes as well as investigating issues reported across the road network. As operations by utility companies have now increased the inspectors along with the Utility technician have commenced inspections of their operations as required. Inspectors and technician are now continuing to review and process and permit applications submitted to the Roads authority.

The lighting technical team continues to work on ongoing tasks suited to home based working such as processing inventory records, updating and data cleansing. Officers have returned to site inspection duties and are liaising with developers to carry out site inspection and testing of new developments and progressing any new adoptions. The team is also responded to any planning applications which have been received.

The Roads Network Team is continuing to review Risk Assessment and Safe Working Practises in response to the Government guidance and are actively working towards increasing activities to allow a return to the Capital Resurfacing programme when welfare and vehicle issues are resolved. Through the use of specialist external contractors we have managed to resolve structural road issues on both Crow Road and Stockiemuir Road and managed to complete the resurfacing of several locations, including Manse Road, Whitehill Road, Eskdale Road, and Tay Road. Works continue on both South Erskine Park and Collylinn Road to upgrade both the carriageways and footways.

Education

Organisational Transformation

Procurement Team

The Procurement Team continues to support tender and contract requirements across all services with significant workstreams around major assets, Property Maintenance contracts and other needs across services such as Education, Housing, Business & Digital Change Projects, and Roads. Renewal and award of various contracts continue with various key ICT system requirements being progressed at this time.

The team continues to monitor supply chains for PPE stocks and other critical supplies. The operating arrangements and support to services have been updated for all services to ensure sufficient supplies and emergency procedures where required. PPE demand is monitored from the Stores location, and is managed/facilitated by the Procurement team.

Procurement are also currently supporting key work streams, these include Mass Vaccinations, Scottish Parliament Election, City Deal, the new Integrated Housing Management System, Transport Service arrangements, Remote Digital Solutions for Education and Supplier/Partner provider support in line with COSLA guidance.

Review of Care at Home and Supported Living Contract renewals are currently ongoing and aligned to support the Commissioning team and HSCP.

Business Grants, School Clothing Grants, Education Trip repayments, Early Years grants, Care providers additional funding requests, etc continue to be processed via the Procurement Support team to support Scottish Government payment requirements.

End of year processes for invoices and payments are currently in place and resources aligned to support the increased demand on the Service.

The team continue to process Free School Meal Payments for the period of School closures and are supporting ongoing applications in line with Scottish Government Guidance. Payments (£20 per week per child) up to the 5^th March 2021were paid on 19thFebruary.

Financial tracking of costs for Free School Meals, Hardship and Isolation Payments is ongoing, and associated Grant claims to Scottish Government are being monitored.

Additional specialist workstreams from City Deal and increased payment requirements from Business Grants, had informed resourcing with additional recruitment required.

Health & Safety

The Health & Safety Manager has supported the set-up and layout, risk assessment and final checks for our Asymptomatic Testing Site alongside the British Army and Legal and Democratic services.

The Health and Safety Team has been supporting the Property Maintenance working group in their review of new risk assessments and safe systems of work in conjunction with trade union representative for the service and with Streetscene and Mugdock Park teams.

Health and safety training continues to be delivered to support safe operational services and compliance with statutory legal requirements pertaining to training, internally as well as with external training providers. Health and Safety Duty Holder training over Microsoft Teams is also being delivered as part of the preparations for the safe opening of new Early Years Centres.

The Health & Safety Manager has also supported Education with review of control measures for bringing back more children into schools as well as Health and Social Care Partnership Adult Services Team to re-start services.

The Health and Safety manager has visited some of the new Early Years Centres and the recently refurbished Southbank House to inspect the new buildings and the Fire Risk Assessors have been visiting to make sure compliance with Fire regulations are in place.

Site visits to educational establishments, council operational and domestic properties have been carried out to assure compliance with health and safety regulations, improve working practices and compliance with COVID regulations.

The Health and Safety manager continues to support the work from Legal and Democratic services for the Scottish Government elections preparations and electoral office set-up arrangements.

Work continues supporting HR team with Individual Risk Assessments and Occupational Health request as well as DSE workplace and home self-assessments to support home workers.

Health and Safety inbox queries, accident and incident recording, investigations and task based risk assessments all continue to be part of the day to day of team. The Health & Safety Manager continues to investigate positive cases of COVID-19 in council workplaces.

Social Work Commissioning Team

Planning & Development team continues to support the HSCP and commissioned services including Care Homes, Care at Home and Third Sector organisations – essentially ensuring that throughout the recent Stay at Home Regulations, services continue, are safe, flexible and responsive to changing needs and are sustainable in the longer term.

P&D continues to have an integral role in the HSCP’s daily Adult Services Oversight Group. The group, whose membership includes Public Health and Care Inspectorate, has responsibility for providing assurance across key service areas including care homes, care at home, supported living and day care. P&D’ responsibilities includes monitoring (daily analysis/reporting, service & financial monitoring, compliance, risk management) and supporting providers/market management/facilitation. A key priority is the roll out of the C-19 vaccination and testing across care homes and community based services. The team has recently implemented a weekly return to help monitor the status and impact of staff testing and vaccinations across services and provides weekly update reports to the Oversight group.

Planning & Development continues to monitor providers Business Continuity Plans and intervenes if/where required to help mitigate service continuity risks. Provider’s business continuity plans are regularly reviewed, and updated and aligned to the HSCP’s overarching BC Plan. The HSCP’s Local Resilience Management Team (LRMT) continues to meet fortnightly to review resilience planning, surveillance and reporting across all HSCP / commissioned services

Assurance visits to care homes are underway. P&D progress any related compliance issues with care home managers/owners and report / update the Oversight Group on progress, actions required and outcomes.

Planning & Development continues to support Social Care Sustainability Payments & Care Home Occupancy payments for providers who, as a direct result of Covid-19, have incurred additional costs relating to infection control, PPE and/or losses due to reduced occupancy. The Scottish Government has recently published updated guidance. All approved claims are captured within the HSCP’s Mobilisation Plan and thereafter, providers submit invoices to P&D team for recording and payment purposes. P&D has arranged a Provider Forum over the next week to support providers with the new claims process and clarify requirements for Planned v Actual payments.

P&D is currently working with the HSCP, supported by colleagues in Legal and Procurement to prepare the transfer of its Care at Home and Housing Support contract / business to Scotland Excel’s National Flexible Framework. The current contract expires on 31 March 21 and all current business transfers over – commencing 1^st April 21. The criteria for accessing Scotland Excel’s framework includes Care Inspectorate grades of 3 or above. Unfortunately, and due to the pandemic / prioritisation of care homes and resourcing issues, the Care Inspectorate have not inspected many care at home services, resulting in two of our local homecare providers - who due to recent buy outs and effectively being new organisations, do not have the grading history required to satisfy Scotland Excel’s access criteria. On-going engagement and escalation with the Care Inspectorate and Scotland Excel is underway along with a scope of alternative interim options with a view to ensuring and protecting service continuity.

Human Resources & Organisational Development

Trades Unions engagement continues on a weekly basis has been focused on strategic issues such as targeted vaccination updates, workforce vaccine programme, weekly testing processes, election preparations as well as risk assessment and required actions to respond to strategic issues in the Stay At Home regulations.

Engagement continues with Managers on the support for Individual Risk Assessments based on Stay At Home regulations and Scottish Government advice. The response and review will continue to be monitored throughout this time.

Work continues in relation to trend analysis for consideration of impact on Services due to implementation of Stay at Home Regulations and any preparedness in addition to regular statistical updates.

Absence analysis and support continues with priority focus within HSCP. Detailed scrutiny of the absence performance across all services continues with engagement taking place to understand required support and actions for improvement. Work continues to prepare and launch winter wellbeing information and will be available on the Employee Zone. Updates will continue to be made as required. The team continues to receive daily calls on COVID reporting for various circumstances. The implementation of a 7 day cover rota remains in place. Advice and guidance to employees and managers on COVID related issues and absences continue to be supported by the HR & OD teams.

Work continues to enhance the Employee Zone pages with updates and additions to the Wellbeing page to reflect Healthy Working Lives campaigns going forward in February and March.

Work continues to provide support and advice in relation to resourcing and recruitment campaign as well as safe recruitment practices during this time.

Wellbeing campaigns are being highlighted through employee communications and publication on the Employee Zone. The teams are involved in Trauma awareness training at this time.

Communications in relation to EU Exit for the workforce were circulated to all employees and a dedicated page on the Employee Zone created with the support of the Corporate Communications Team.

Business & Digital Change Team

The Business & Digital Change Team continue to lead the delivery of a range of multi-disciplinary projects across the Council.

Work is progressing to finalise the requirements specification for the new Housing Management solution to replace Saffron Housing. The Invitation to Tender is on track to be published in April 2021.

New eforms are continually being developed to meet demand. Recent additions include: Holiday play scheme at Merkland, the Discretionary Business Grant Fund and the Strategic Framework Business Form.

The team are supporting the Temporary Restrictions Fund which opened to applicants on the 4^th February. A total of 13 applications have been received to date with a cumulative total of £ 26,275. This fund will support childcare providers in the private, voluntary and not-for profit sectors, including out-of-school care providers within East Dunbartonshire.

Work to deliver new solutions for the replacement of legacy Education systems continues to gather pace, a wide range of new solutions are being planned and outlined to allow delivery of essential functions across the Education sector.

Initial baseline work is underway on delivery of Digital Telecare for all residents across East Dunbartonshire, this work will help to inform the direction of the wider project to ensure we are ready for the digital switch over which will begin from 2023.

Business systems are working with Procurement & Legal to procure services for the next phase of the Smart Working M365 project, (Envisioning and Implementation Planning), and also the implementation of next generation Council Tax Citizens Access Revenues Benefits and Document management modules. Work is also underway to cleanse all Social Work open case records addresses in line with One Scotland Gazetteer addressing standard which enables more effective services for vulnerable citizens particularly during emergency response scenarios.

Legal & Democratic Services

Democratic Services

The team continues to support the Council’s COVID-19 civil contingencies response, supporting command structures at Council, local, regional and national level. Work is still progressing on the recovery phase, lessons learned and in support of Test and Protect, however the changing circumstances are such that response activity is increasing. In addition, members of the Team continue to attend meetings of LARGS in support of these matters and are working across the network to look at concurrency issues through a series of thematic sessions. These sessions seek to share development work and good practice in relation to issues that all Councils are having to revisit with a “COVID-lens” e.g. the impact of COVID on existing civil contingency arrangements for bad weather and other business as usual civil contingency events. As part of this, the Team is reviewing the Council’s current civil contingency arrangements to identify necessary changes or supplementary requirements in light of COVID-19. This is challenging in light of the changing environment in terms of the trajectory of infection rates and has to be flexible enough to adapt to developing circumstances e.g. the recent local lockdown and increasing national restrictions.

In addition to the above, work is continuing on support for the most recent recurrence of COVID. Regular meetings are taking place both locally and at a Greater Glasgow & Clyde LRP level to look at current issues and also future planning e.g. dealing with additional deaths so that there robust plans in place which can be activated if necessary. In addition the Team is supporting colleagues in dealing with assistance for those isolating due to Test and Protect and more generally in response to current restrictions and other impacts of the increasing infection rates. Further, officers are finalising alternative rest centre preparations to ensure that the temporary centre is COVID compliant eg which accommodate physical distancing and dedicated rooms for those isolating and/or shielding and fully stocked and ready for use.

The Team continues to lead in planning and oversight of the Council’s involvement for both mass vaccinations and community testing within East Dunbartonshire. This work continues at pace given recent announcements and both centres (Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre and Allander Leisure Centre) opened on 1^st February. Initially they operated from 8.30am to 4.30pm but the internal layout and workforce arrangements were structured to allow this to be scaled up as required and both centres were operating increased volume and hours during this current weeks. It is likely that volume and hours will ebb and flow as new cohorts are introduced and supplies increase. Discussions with colleagues in NHS GG&C and other local authorities continue to take place in order that centres are able to provide vaccinations as planned and the EDLCT workforce continues to provide excellent support to the clinical operation, in a manner which is flexible and responds to the ever changing supply chain. Feedback from attendees continues to be positive and colleagues in the Leisure Trust are managing the throughput of vaccines efficiently and without any significant queues or delays.

Similarly, the Team is leading on planning for community asymptomatic testing across East Dunbartonshire. This is where the Council is required to set up a testing facility in communities where there is a significant spike in infection rates and/or where there are persistently higher than average rates. These centres will be used to test those who are asymptomatic and are intended to identify where individuals have COVID-19 in order that they can quickly self-isolate and contact tracing can be triggered. Detailed planning is ongoing and for a venue for a fixed ATS facility has been identified. Booths have been established at the Auchinairn Community & Early Years Centre in conjunction with and Army team. This team will support the initial operation of the ATS. At the time of writing, certain items of kit are still to be delivered via the national supply chain and once these are in place it is proposed to commence a soft opening, with publicity increasing after a few days of operation. In addition to regular comms, the Team is liaising with colleagues in Community Planning & Place to engage with local community groups and also colleagues in Education with a view to encouraging testing via the various local schools.

In the last few week, the team has been engaging with Scottish Government in relation to the identification of sites for walk in symptomatic testing in East Dunbartonshire. These discussions are ongoing and a separate Technical Note will be issued shortly detailing proposed venues and the manner in which the facilities will operate.

The Team continues to be involved in the strategic management of Registration Services at a local and regional level to inform the national picture regarding the management of additional deaths during this pandemic and working with partners to support a Greater Glasgow & Clyde-wide response. The registration of births and marriages/civil partnerships continues to be supported by colleagues in Legal Services and significant progress has been made to address the backlog of birth registrations. In addition, the Team is feeding into discussions at a regional and national level, which seek to embed some aspects of the move to remote/online registration where possible and practical to do so. The Team continues to monitor the national position and infection rates so that additional resources can be deployed if necessary and plans for cover over the holidays are being finalised.

Wedding and Civil Partnership ceremonies continue to take place at 21 Southbank Road for now. In addition, the Team continues to closely monitor the ever developing situation around restrictions and what they mean for ceremonies and receptions. This will be continuously under review in light of changing restrictions.

As at 24 February 2021, 52 Births and 148 deaths were registered by Customer Services.

Notwithstanding the pause in some of the workstreams around Care for People and Shielding, the Team continues to work to support governance matters and civil contingencies input in relation to Outbreak Management & concurrency issues as more services are “switched back on”, and is supporting colleagues in Place and Community Planning in these efforts locally and nationally. This area of work increased in the few weeks following Christmas, but is starting to subside again as infection rates start to fall. In addition, the Team continues to participate in work to capture the events of the last few months from a civil contingencies perspective, as part of ongoing local, regional and national “lessons learned” exercises.

On top of the above, there are other emerging civil contingency concerns in relation to which the Team is participating in various local and regional awareness and planning meetings including the review of strategic infrastructure and fulfilment of the “All Risks” approach to the various concurrent risks across the country.

Preparations for the Scottish Parliament Election scheduled for May 2021 are proceeding at pace. This planning requires additional attention as a “COVID-lens” is applied to conventional election workstreams on a local and national basis. Preparations are developing on a “safety first” approach so as to ensure the safety of all involved (staff, candidates and voters) and to provide assurance that the arrangements are safe for all. A comms plan is being developed and other additional briefings are planned for both staff and prospective candidates. The layout of all polling places has been reviewed and the arrangements for counting votes are progressing. A small multi service team continues to work on the detailed planning. Contingency plans will be prepared which anticipate a resurgence in the virus and measures put in place to secure the availability of the core election team. All aspects of the process and arrangements will be subject to robust risk assessments in order to protect employees, voters and candidates.

The Team continues to work on the further development of remote video meetings to support the Council’s governance arrangements and decision-making. A proposed cycle for January to June 2021 was prepared and approved by Council on 17^th December, however Members will be aware that most meetings up to the end of March have been stood down due to the resurgence of COVID-19 infection rates and the consequent lockdown. Notwithstanding, Council meetings will take place and quasi judicial boards where there is urgent business. The Legal & Democratic Services Management Team is examining the best use of available resources to accommodate this important area of work while sustaining our support for Covid response [particularly planning for Community asymptomatic Testing and Mass Vaccinations]. A further calendar of meetings for 2021/22 is also in initial stages of preparation and is expected to be submitted to Council in April.

Information Management

The team continues to support to services in relation to information management, data protection and data sharing, which are critical in these circumstances and has supported various services in the ongoing development and amendment of Privacy Notices and Privacy Impact Assessments for new workstreams and the establishment of information sharing agreements and protocols which assist the Council in its work to protect some of the most vulnerable residents. In addition to supporting the Council’s postal mail services, the Team remains busy with print activity in support of schools and Committee cycles. In addition to the foregoing, the Team is working with in relation to the classification and preservation of information generated by the Council’s response to the COVID pandemic

SMT Support & Members Support Teams

The SMT Support team is working with the CMT and SMT to assist in the re-introduction of services across portfolios and continue to support other areas of the wider service and beyond as required. The Team continues to support the CMT, SMT and Departmental Management Teams with processes for remote meetings, production of Committee Reports and Elected Member Technical Notes. The Members Support Team also continues to support Elected Members.

Legal Services

Many of the Legal Services team’s resources continue to be dedicated to assisting Major Assets in the negotiation and conclusion of the Council’s capital projects and attentions are now focused on the negotiation of contracts and ancillary arrangements for the new Allander, Boclair Academy and Kirkintilloch Community Sports Hub projects. Due to the nature of these contracts (in terms of complexity, scale and value) these are particularly time and resource intensive. One of the main issues with existing and planned contracts is how they deal with the allocation of the responsibility for risks to the projects presented by not only Covid-19 but also the UK’s exit from the EU. This requires sophisticated contract drafting and intense negotiations with contractors in order to ensure that the Council is protected but also that the best commercial terms are reached and the projects remain affordable. The recent developments in the pandemic have made an impact on the construction industry and, as a result, the Council’s projects. This has resulted in these contracts becoming more difficult and taking longer to conclude. Complex negotiations and drafting are required in order to protect the Council’s commercial position and programme but also to ensure the long term sustainability of the pool of contractors. Separately, whilst full details of the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU upon labour, materials and exchange rates emerge, delicate drafting is required to future-proof the Council’s interests in these projects.

In tandem with this, the team is also guiding the Housing Service in respect of delivery of its many capital projects and in the recommencement of open market purchases and shared equity buy-backs to increase the provision of affordable housing within East Dunbartonshire.

The team is also assisting with the initial contracts required for the City Region City Deal project with the recruitment of a team to support this well underway.

Further resource continues to be dedicated to interpreting, assessing and, where necessary, protecting the Council from the impact of the pandemic and the EU exit on its legal interests. In tandem with this the team endeavours to ensure that any potential benefits to the Council are optimised. One particularly busy area of work continues to be in relation to the many grant offers which the Council is receiving. Each grant comes with its own terms and conditions which the team assesses and then advises the relevant service in relation to any potential risks or performance/reporting requirements. This work can often be challenging - whilst the terms and conditions are not overly complex, the volume and increasingly short turnaround times within which the grant has to be accepted in order for the Council to access funds can at times impact on other work.

The team also works closely with the procurement team in ensuring procurement processes are complying with the changing law in this area and that the flexibilities offered by Government guidance are appropriately used. This also involves the drafting and documentation of contracts with suppliers of goods, works and services to the Council and the contractual clauses on the risk to the delivery of contracts caused by Covid-19 and the EU exit have to be tailored to fit the individual nature and circumstances of each contract. At the moment the team is assisting with some urgent procurements which have some complicated features and, as such, need detailed legal advice to ensure compliance and minimisation of risk.

The team is also playing a key role in the project team appointed to deliver a new Integrated Housing Management System for the Housing Service. The market for such systems is such that procurement of this project is complex and requires a high degree of legal project management and support. Coupled with this is the drafting and negotiation of bespoke IT terms and conditions to ensure that the system delivers as required.

The team negotiates, drafts and concludes the majority of contracts that the Council enters into for supplies, goods and services. A particular highlight at the moment is the contract for the new Committee Management system. The team is further assisting the Education service in respect of the implementation of new software to facilitate new approaches to learning and teaching both within the Council’s schools and remotely, as well as contracts for the integration of new IT systems and upgrades which apply Council-wide.

On top of this, the Commercial team is endeavouring to carrying out its “business as usual” activities where required in support of a Council priority. These include land transactions and commercial agreements, which seek to improve the Council’s commercial position. The team has also been involved in many data sharing and IT agreements, including licences to other partnering local authorities in respect of applications developed by the ICT team for education purposes.

In respect of litigation, at present the team is usually representing the Council’s interests by way of virtual hearings. There are, however, some matters which necessitate team members physically appearing in court. Current ongoing actions in court relate to housing, social work, licensing and employment matters. The team also continues to support the Council’s services in the management of various complex matters, which are currently at the pre-litigation stage, in an effort to mitigate effects on the Council. In addition, the team is currently preparing for a public inquiry in relation to a compulsory purchase order. This is the first compulsory purchase order that has been promoted by the Council in some time and the team, having limited previous experience of the process, is navigating it ably.

A significant amount of work is dedicated to the running of quasi judicial boards. In conjunction with colleagues in Democratic Services, virtual meetings of the Planning Local Review Body, the Licensing Boards and the Civic Government Appeals Board are now talking place, albeit that some are temporarily paused. However, during this period the team is still busy with dealing with applications, renewals and queries from application/agents. Despite this pause, a Special Civic Government Appeals Board took place this month to deal with an urgent and high risk matter and the next meeting of the Planning Local Review Body is scheduled to take place next month.

The team continues to provide close support to colleagues in social work in respect of sensitive and important matters involving children, families and vulnerable adults some of which are particularly pressing at the current time. These often require court appearances with very short notice. The number of referrals and matters requiring legal support has significantly increased during the pandemic and is requiring increased support from the Litigation & Licensing Team. In addition, the Service has supported social work colleagues in collating and assessing information in respect of a major Inquiry.

The team is gearing up for the return of heritable court business in terms of actions suspended at the point of lockdown in March and other matters which have arisen since. There is, however, one complex and important heritable court matter that is being allowed to proceed due to its serious nature and the team are acting on the Council’s behalf to ensure the best outcome for the many different parties involved.

In addition to the above, the Team is now turning attention to this yea’s placing requests. The extended timescales of last year (to accommodate the work of the pandemic and home working) are no longer available and so preparations are commencing for this year’s anticipated appeals. Members will be aware that the Council normally receives a significant number of placing request appeals which result in several weeks of Appeal Hearings. This is time consuming and labour-intensive for both the Litigation & Licensing Team and also the Democratic Team Accordingly, the Team, along with colleagues in Democratic Services will shortly meet with Education to agree a time line and process for dealing with these appeals.

The team is also representing the Council’s interests in respect of various employment issues, including disputes that have made their way to tribunal.

As always, the team provides strategic advice and support to its colleagues in other services on the full range of legal issues currently and normally facing the Council. At the moment, that is particularly complex and resource intensive.

As always and due to the nature of the work of the team, there are many matters which the team is working on which are confidential and sensitive and further detailed information cannot be given on these.

Resources in Legal Services have been depleted recently and the sharp increase in demand for its services has put significant pressure on the team. In addition to existing projects, the team will be required to support the delivery of the City Region City Deal project. This has necessitated investment in the team in the form of a substantial recruitment exercise to fill a variety of new and existing roles. That process is well underway and the first two new members of the team have now joined, including a new Team Leader for the Litigation and Licensing team, with others to join in the coming weeks. The intention is that by Spring/Summer 2021 the team will be much better resourced to be able to continue to support the Council through the projects and challenges which lie ahead.

Customer & Business Support Services

Corporate Performance & Research

The Corporate Performance & Research Team is supporting data collation and quality assurance for performance reporting including the preparation and submission of statutory returns and local performance indicators as well as wider data analysis across Council services and HSCP social care services and ongoing reporting requirements. This period this includes working with HR colleagues on the annual Social Work staffing return and data collation and analysis in relation to target areas for Covid-19 messaging. Quality assurance improvements and data cleansing activity are ongoing to ensure accurate data and confidence in data returns. Engagement continues with National Records Scotland in preparation for the next census, now due to take place in 2022 with planning underway and a communications plan in development for engagement with the East Dunbartonshire public from March next year.

Thee Public Performance Report (PPR) 2019/20 is being finalised for publication in March and in line with our local developed approach this will incorporate case studies to highlight good practice and the PPR is aligned to the key LOIP principles and themes. A Technical Note on the LGBF Benchmarking data (published today, Friday 26 February) is being finalised for issue to councillors.

Work is continuing to support performance reporting for 2020/21 and agree timescales for committee approval ahead of recess in June 2021. Support is being provided to Executive Officers in the finalisation of their Business Improvement Plans (BIPS) for presentation to Council in March. Work will also continue in the coming months to develop the corporate performance aspirations highlighted in the strategic review of strategic planning and performance that was presented to Council on 17 December, and reinforced in the Council Budget papers on 25 February. Work is also progressing with all service areas on the Council’s insurance renewals.

Communications

The Communications Team continues to provide 24/7 communications support for emergencies and essential out of hours messaging. Communications support and advice is provided across all Council services the East Dunbartonshire HSCP and EDLC Trust to ensure customers are aware of service delivery arrangements, highlighting changes if required across all channels to ensure maximum reach of message. Internal communications have continued to focus on ensuring the workforce is aware of the latest guidance and the continuing review of risk assessments and workplace Covid-19 measures in line with updated guidance to ensure the safety of all employees and sharing the Public Health and Scottish Government guidance as this is updated and renewed.

Engagement also continues with Regional Resilience Partners, CoSLA and UK and Scottish Government Departments to co-ordinate consistent communications around Covid-19 and EU Exit messaging and communications planning around mass vaccination and mass community testing.

In the past fortnight, a total of 15 media enquiries were received and responded to and 6 media releases were issues resulting in positive coverage online and print media for the Council. Media releases past fortnight have been on: Rare snails being reintroduced in Torrance, Climate conversation to inform action plan, £18.2million paid out in business grants, National adult support and protection day, Fairtrade fortnight to tackle climate change, Consultation on local historic environment planning protections.

Communications support for the mass vaccination centres in East Dunbartonshire continues, including a dedicated Vaccination centre webpage with ‘what to expect’ videos and a communication plan has been prepared to support the introduction of an asymptomatic testing centre locally.

Social Media messaging remains a key focus and effective channel for engaging with East Dunbartonshire communities. On twitter there were 109 posts in the last period with a reach of 2.28 million, consistent with previous fortnights. The highest reaching posts on twitter this past fortnight were the repairs to the boundary wall on Switchback Road, the posts in relation to the opening of the Council’s Discretionary Business Fund. The most engaged posts (where people have interacted rather than just seen them) were the two posts on the Discretionary Business Fund and the post from Scottish Water in relation to water supply disruption in Bearsden.

Top three Twitter Reach:

On Facebook there were 120 posts and 508k reach over the past fortnight and the highest reaching posts were the recruitment of part-time carers advert, the post with the animated video asking people not to litter and to pick up after their dogs and the emergency road closure of the A81 Glasgow Road in Milngavie. The posts with the most engagement (where people interact with the post rather than just see it) were the carers recruitment post, the post asking people to look out for their vaccination appointment and the gritting post featuring song lyrics (these prove consistently popular across the gritting season).

Top three Facebook Reach:

Popular posts:

The website continues to be updated daily and new pages created to meet service and messaging requirements. Further new online forms and associated web pages have been created for the latest rounds of business support grants launched by Scottish Government and administered locally.

The Employee Zone, which can be accessed by all Council employees whether they are office-based or on the frontline, continues to be regularly updated with key information, including Health and Safety updates and Wellbeing support. Five Employee News have been issued this reporting period.

Customer Services

The Emergency Response Centre continues to provide customer support 24/7 for the hour care alarm service, CCTV monitoring and emergency communication across services out of hours as required.

The wider Customer Services team continues to respond to changing priorities and fluctuating numbers of daily enquiries, predominantly in response to local and national measures in relation to Covid-19 including vaccination and testing. Call volumes and remain stable with calls in relation to vaccination being signposted to the national helpline, NHS Inform and the dedicated Council webpage with details on transport and travel to centres. Customer service resources continue to be deployed flexibly across the channels with greatest demand and call waiting times are continually monitored.

Customer Service delivery continues primarily through digital and phone channels in line with current guidance with a strict appointment-only based approach for the necessary face to face elements required for licensing at Bearsden Community Hub, which continues to work effectively for the final checking of original documents ahead of issuing of plates/licences. Registration services (delivered by Customer Services Agents/Assistant Registrars) continue to provide 5-day service delivery during the Covid-19 Recovery phase, in line with current guidance. Death registrations continue to be delivered remotely through telephone appointments from Kirkintilloch Community Hub. Birth registrations are being undertaken in real time with a preliminary telephone appointment prior to a face to face appointment for the final stage and signing of the register. A strict appointment system is also in place for marriage paperwork submission. Ceremonies are being delivered at the former Registration Office on Southbank Road which has been risk assessed and appropriately signed for those attending. Ceremonies are in strict compliance with current lockdown guidance and maximum numbers permitted.

Shared Services

The Shared Services Team continue to provide critical support across a range of Council Services in both the pandemic response and business as usual. The team are providing support through the National Assistance Helpline which provides support to shielders, vulnerable and those asked to self-isolate by Test & Protect. Two Shared Services team have been seconded to Revenues and Benefits to support the Scottish Welfare Fund helpline due to the volume of work there. The Early Years team have been recalculating the bills for EY customers as a result of the closure after Christmas. This task is almost complete and new invoices will be issued from 16^th March. The Education Team continue to work on P1 enrolment and placing requests.

The School Support Coordinators are meeting with Head Teachers to discuss budgets as we approach year end and they are also providing support to the schools with the phased return of pupils. The Transport team have collated the transport requirements and these have been passed to our colleagues in procurement. The updating of Carefirst for our Homecare and Residential Teams remains a priority to support the most vulnerable of our residents.

Revenues and Benefits

The Scottish Welfare Fund continues to cope with unprecedented demand on the services we deliver, particularly crisis grants. The ‘Self-Isolation Support Grant’ eligibility criteria changed on 16th February and additional resources have been deployed to deal with the increased demand. The team have been training and supporting the seconded team members.

Non Domestic rates continues to see higher than normal levels of work considering the pressures facing businesses around the country. The team are preparing to proceed with the first summary warrant for rates at the appropriate time. The team are preparing the annual NDR billing for April, the date is dependent on the legislation for the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief (RHL) for 21/22 financial year being laid before parliament.

The team continue to work with our colleagues in Business Gateway on the various Scottish Government grants to support businesses during the current period.

The Benefits team are receiving high levels of applications, particularly for Council Tax Reduction. The team completed the initial Housing Benefit Accuracy Awards programme in the timeframe required by the DWP, whilst continuing to meet our performance objectives.

The Council Tax team continue preparations for annual billing with the processes due the first week in March with Royal Mail due to commence delivery on 8^th March. Meanwhile, Council Tax and arrears continues to have high volumes of correspondence which is processed in date order. The second summary warrants have been signed and letters have been issued. The Sheriff Officers continue to contact clients in attempts to get payment arrangements reinstated where possible.

The team have been liaising with external audit on Council Tax, Non Domestic Rates and Debtors.

ICT

The ICT Team continue to provide support across all areas of the Council including those working from home. Our Education team continue to support additional requests for devices for pupils who require specific device types for individual subjects such as Computing. The infrastructure upgrades have now been completed and the team have commenced the roll out of the latest Windows version to school devices. The team have been collating ICT equipment lists for our insurance renewal.

The team have issued the remaining devices in stock for pupils and have placed orders for an additional 300 devices to satisfy the demand for devices for pupils at home. Fifty of these have been delivered and the team have been working to configure these and get them out to the pupils as soon as possible. We continue to support major assets with the installation of infrastructure in Southbank and the 3 new Early Years Centres.

The Infrastructure Team have completed the upgrade of key Disaster Recovery software to remove the reliance on software which will go end of life soon. They have also completed the migration of the Libraries public PC booking system to a cloud based system.

Finance & Audit

Work continues on a number of business as usual activities as previously reported to Elected Members. These efforts continuing throughout our teams. Significant work is ongoing to support payments, grants and systems developments to support the ongoing Council efforts.

In recent weeks significant attention has been given to finalising the Council’s Budget papers, engaging with management teams and their Officers to ensure that information and content is complete and accurate. These are due for Council approval on the 25 February.

The Finance Team continues to engage with services to track the impact of Service arrangements and the attributable costs of Covid. This work will inform future discussions about services with new announcement on funding occurring on a regular basis. Otherwise the process of business grants administrations continues to be challenging to manage with new forms of funding requiring administration and the development of guidance. This continues to increase the workload of all supporting teams with enhanced financial monitoring being required. With work ongoing in relation to a number of additional grants it will be necessary for the Council’s internal audit team to validate and consult on new control processes.

The Council’s Chief Finance Officer continues to work with COSLA and the Directors of Finance to represent the best interests of Local Government and the Council as efforts increasingly turn to budget setting and year end outturn. Work is also ongoing to review the requirements, guidance and notifications required to put in place a number of additional fiscal flexibilities to assist the Council as part of its future financial planning. The team is actively working with COSLA to inform the Scottish Government budget process making representations in a number of core areas for future funding.

Technical Accounting

The team continues to work on maintaining and improving the Council's financial systems and controls, including developing the Oracle ledger system to support the Education accounting workload following the retirement of the SEEMIS Educational finance modules. The technical team continue to provide support to the business support and revenues benefits teams in discharging grants to business and individuals totalling over £18.3 million. The team continues sharing VAT advice on national issues with the relevant services, including the construction reverse charge and income issues. The scale and timing of developments in these areas ensure that the work of the team to support other teams in the Council continues at pace.

The compliance and systems team continues to work with the Business and Digital change team to improve the Council's income systems to provide a better service to customers and to secure the Council's income streams against the effects of Covid. The team continues to ensure all income transactions and the school meals payments are ledgered timeously and assist other services as required.

Revenue Team

The team continue to support the development of expenditure expectations in relation to Covid and tracking the various income streams to establish whether this funding is additional to support the anticipated financial gap or in the form of a grant to offset new, additional and required expenditure. Period 10 monitoring is now being finalised and will likely be reported via a technical note in the near future.

The team is also supporting the finalisation of General Fund Budgets with provision set aside to develop alternate Budgets for completion and submission in anticipation of the meeting on the 25 February.

The team is also planning and working towards the financial year end working to develop expectations for provisional outturns with this being especially challenging as the Council’s General Fund position moves from an in year deficit position to one where, as a result of recent in year funding streams, may supplement Council reserves. The overall financial position despite the challenging circumstances which continue to change and new funding announced.

This work has now been consolidated into a single tracker and circulated to Executive Officers to ensure good governance and to aid reporting. In addition the team is starting to compile more detailed expectations and documentation in relation to the 2021/22 budget with benchmarking information being collated between all 32 Councils as well as through external economic advice. This is being applied within the Council’s financial model to provide initial expectations of future financial gaps albeit this remains at a very high level given the variability within the economy.

The Teams is also supporting the development of solutions to manage Seemis retirement of budgeting functions for schools. This is a technically challenging task lead by Organisational Transformation teams.

Treasury, Capital & Housing

The team continues to track Lockdown restrictions on the Council’s cash flow including the impact of any intended borrowing decisions with Capital works remaining slower than planned. The treasury team continue to monitor cash flow closely due to the increased financial transactions due to Covid ensuring that there is liquidity for all Council activities. This including putting in place the new controls and procedures for paying the daily isolation grants and also the opening of our new bank account to enable enhanced cashless catering processes at our schools. The team are engaging with Treasury advisors to determine the impact of potential fiscal flexibilities and the application of these in future years.

The Capital & Housing Team is now completed all audit requests and are now working on completing various year end returns for Scottish Government, Capital Budgets and the submission of our City Deal claim. The team has also completed Capital & Housing budgets for 2021/22 for inclusion on the Council’s agenda on the 25 February.

Internal Audit and Fraud

Internal Audit have continued to work on audits included in the original audit plan for the year including VAT, Corporate Health and Safety, the Highways Code, Control Self Assessments and School Funds (Education) and the team is also seeking to finalise the last of the audits that were commenced pre-Covid. Follow up work on previously raised internal audit findings has recommenced on a limited basis, focusing only on high risk issues at present. Reactive work also continues including the provision of advice in relation to new or revised processes.

Further, Internal Audit continues to provide a business grants appeals service including reviewing appeals from some businesses whose applications for the Strategic Framework Business Fund were rejected. The majority of these appeals are from businesses that are affected directly or indirectly by the current restrictions. However, as they were not legally required to close under Tier 4 or as a hospitality business to modify their services under Tier 3 through early closure or by ceasing to serve alcohol they are not entitled to this grant and the Council has no discretion regarding the eligibility criteria. Of the 29 appeals received to date for this fund, the rejection has been upheld for 26, whilst three were passed back to the Business Support Team for further assessment.

The Team and the audit plan remains flexible, whilst recognising the need to review adequate evidence for the Chief Internal Auditor's annual opinion. The Team is also continuing to provide support to transition the operation process for reviewing HSCP provider additional cost claims based on the previous work undertaken by Internal Audit.

The Corporate Fraud Team continues to investigate various reports of fraud and undertake vetting on all applications received for business grants, licences, housing, and school places. Corporate Fraud has also received National Fraud Initiative data matches for review and investigation. The Team has begun assessing the matches and commencing investigations, focussing initially on the high priority matches and those that are most likely to yield results. The process for following up on single person discounts has been fully digitalised and streamlined for the first time this year. In previous years residents were sent a paper form which they were asked to complete and return. This year an online form has been created, with the support of the Business & Digital Change Team, bringing benefits to residents in terms of a simpler and easier process and also to the Corporate Fraud Team, as the submitted forms are easier to review than the previous hand written forms.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Service Updates - 26 February 2021

PLACE, NEIGHBOURHOOD & CORPORATE ASSETS: SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 26 February 2021

Assets & Facilities

Housing

Land Planning & Development

Neighbourhood Services

Place & Community Planning

Roads & Environment

EDUCATION, PEOPLE & BUSINESS: SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 26 February 2021

Education

Organisational Transformation

Legal & Democratic Services

Customer & Business Support Services

Finance & Audit

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PARTNERSHIP (COUNCIL DELEGATED SERVICES): SERVICE UPDATES: Friday 26 February 2021

HSCP Business Continuity & Recovery / Transition Planning

Public Protection

Service Delivery Impacts

Assessment and Care Management

Direct Services

Service Activity Snapshot

Testing for Social Care Staff

Support to Care Homes

Support to Home Care