Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1 The purpose of this paper is to update Cabinet on the current situation regarding Swine Flu and what role Hampshire County Council is taking in ensuring that the County is fully prepared.

1.2 This paper seeks to inform Cabinet of the activities that have been taking place and the procedures activated to deal with various Swine Flu issues.

2. Contextual information

2.1 During the period leading up to the declaration of the Swine Flu' Pandemic by the World Health Organisation and since, Hampshire County Council has been proactive in two main areas in response and support to, both employees of the County Council and the communities of Hampshire.

2.2 The first by a request to the Corporate Management Team to confirm implementation of the Authority's Pandemic Influenza Supplement to the HCC Business Continuity Plan. One of the core actions in the plan is the activation of the Hampshire County Council internal Tactical Management Group which consists of members of each Department and seeks to achieve coordination, continuity and consistency of guidance and application across all Departments.

2.3 The latter, by fully participating in the multi authority, multi agency Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum which formed two management groups, one at Strategic (Gold) level and the other at Tactical (Silver) level, to consider the many issues both current and predicted.

2.4 The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum Gold and Silver Groups and, internally, the Tactical Management Group are existing structures detailed in organisations contingency plans and are part of the organisational reaction to any `normal' emergency incident. These generic responses are a proven tool, which have been tested and exercised and would be applied to the majority of emergency situations.

3. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum. (HIOW LRF)

3.1 The Strategic (Gold) group of the HIOW LRF have been meeting fortnightly since April 09 for both the early predictions of affects on LRF members and the Community and identifying initial assistance and support, where required, to various Health Services and Agencies.

3.2 Once the Pandemic level was confirmed Tactical groups were initiated based on the four Primary Care Trust (PCT) areas. Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.

3.3 Officers of the County Council sit on both groups and have fully participated in a number of combined response to deal with issues which will affect mainly the services provided by Adult and Children's Services across the four Local Authorities.

3.4 The Gold meetings are chaired by the Director for Pandemic Flu' from Hampshire Primary Care Trust and he has set up a number of Task and Finish Groups (TFGs) to consider specific issues which need a greater degree of consideration in order for interlinked services to be maintained and common pressure points to be identified.

These groups are:-

· Vulnerability of nursing homes, residential care homes and the provision of domiciliary care.

· Establishment of Antiviral Collection Points- this work has been completed but is retained for both audit and possible future tasking.

· Managing the return to school, (including issues involving Colleges and Universities) and all educational settings.

· Staffing resilience, this is linked to the vaccination programme

· Port Health mainly involves Portsmouth and Southampton but for Hampshire includes Farnborough Airport. Group stood down but retained for Audit purposes.

· Hampshire and Isle of Wight Vaccination programme.

· The release of and entry into Hospital of patients, linked to care services, to be managed as part of the NHS Winter Resilience Process. Group stood down but retained for Audit purposes.

· Critical care.

4. Hampshire County Council Organisational Response

4.1 In common with other organisations and agencies the main thrust for Hampshire County Council in response to the Swine Flu' Pandemic is one of Business Continuity in ensuring that the most critical services to the public are maintained. When possible reductions in staffing levels occur that this then translates in the maintenance of those critical services identified by each Department and contained in the County Council Business Continuity Plan by implementation of work around strategies.

4.2 As stated above a major part of the response is the activation of the Tactical Management Group and this currently meets the day after each HIOW LRF Gold meeting to ensure that any actions that have been identified can be consistently promulgated, issues discussed and internal actions taken.

4.3 Two core initiatives, Guidance for Managers and Centralised Absence Reporting have been introduced to maintain effective management as well as provide support to employees throughout the Authority.

4.4 The document Guidance for Managers contains comprehensive advice and information for all the unusual situations which could be brought about by a pandemic situation, three such examples could be:

· staff wishing or needing to work from home to look after unwell family members.

· Staff health and safety

· External pressure such as loss of transport or closure of schools

4.5 Centralised Absence Reporting will be introduced to manage the scale of unplanned absences and for Departments to quickly identify which services are coming under pressure and enable managers to make arrangements to cover critical services. This in turn will ensure that CMT are able to be continually updated on the Authorities strategic position and take action as required.

5. Current Situation

5.1 At the time of writing, the local NHS, across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, has continued to experience a quieter time with a lower percentage of calls being made to the Out of Hours services and a reduced workload in relation to Influenza A (H1N1). The reduction in the demand for anti-viral restocking at collection points has also continued.

5.2 The Health Secretary has recently announced the Pandemic Flu' Vaccine Programme including the priority groups who will be first in line for vaccination against swine flu'. These groups will include pregnant women, frontline health and social care workers, and everyone in at-risk groups aged over six months.

5.3 Decisions on vaccinating the wider healthy population will depend upon the evolution of the pandemic as well as new and emerging clinical data on the use of the vaccine.

5.4 Following a decision made by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, schools in England were advised to reopen as normal for the Autumn Term. To ensure continuity of message and information Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and Isle of Wight produced a common information pack which was sent to all Local Authority schools, colleges and independent schools. Early Years were sent a modified pack as the information for parents/carers of children under school age is slightly different. The individual PCTs are dealing with the University Authorities.

6. Conclusion

6.1 Hampshire County Council has been actively contributing to the multi agency aspect of the Swine Flu situation, ensuring that the residents of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are well placed to be provided for should the need arise. Similarly over recent years significant effort has gone into producing contingency plans for our internal Departments to ensure that at the height of a pandemic situation the County Council can continue to provide its essential services. This planning has stood the Council in good stead to deal with the current situation.

6.2 The Council must not be complacent, colleagues working in the Health economy advise that further "waves" of the pandemic are likely and these waves are likely to have worse consequences. The Council continues to plan to be able to respond to that situation and remain operational in key areas.

7. Recommendation(s)

7.1 Cabinet is asked to note the report and the efforts of many officers of the County Council to deal with this situation and to endorse further activity associated with ensuring the preparedness of the Authority.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

Other Significant Links

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Not applicable

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. Not applicable

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption? Not applicable

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts? Not applicable