Agenda item

To receive an update on key areas of work within the Environment and Health Executive Portfolio over the last twelve months.

The Committee received a report summarising the Council’s work during the past twelve months which was encompassed within the Environment and Health People Portfolio. A portfolio which covered a number of areas including air quality, older peoples’ services, emergency planning and business continuity, environmental health, waste and recycling and health and wellbeing.

The Covid-19 pandemic had had a substantial impact on services within the portfolio in terms of both service delivery and income generation for example whilst there had been a significant increase in the number of new customers of the Meals at Home service there had been a significant reduction in the number of journeys provided by the Community Transport service and Emergency Planning and business continuity had played a key role in the Council’s response.

The Council had entered into a full partnership with Runnymede Borough Council to deliver community services across both areas, a partnership which would go live on the 1^st April 2021.  The partnership aimed to provide sustainable services which met the needs of all vulnerable residents and would be overseen by a Partnership Board which would set objectives and targets for the service and monitor and evaluate all aspects of the service.  Whilst all staff would be employed by Runnymede Borough Council there would be a physical presence in both council offices. 

The number of meals at home products served over the first two quarters of 2019/20 (32,985) meant that the service would exceed the annual target of 35,000 products.  To ensure that the Meals at Home Service could sustain this level of demand officers were exploring a number of different options including reconfiguring routes to make the best use of spare capacity in the current Runneymede routes and leasing an additional van.  The booking service was also being revised so that all bookings would be co-ordinated by staff in Surrey Heath. 

Emergency Planning and Business Continuity services had been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic which had been declared to be a major incident on 19^th March 2020.  Throughout the pandemic the Council had worked closely with partners across the Borough to support residents.  Further support was provided to the Borough following a major heathland fire on Chobham Common in August 2020 and Storm Dennis in February 2020.

The work with the Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System was noted.  It was acknowledged that a significant proportion of Surrey Heath’s residents were covered by the Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Area and it was clarified that the Council was working in partnership with Surrey Heartlands on a number of projects including a hospital discharge service and an Oximetry project.  It was agreed that future portfolio updates would include updates on partnership work with both Surrey Heartlands and Frimley. 

It was agreed that the figures for the number of residents supported through the hospital discharge service would be provided for both 2020 and 2019.

The Committee was advised that the Frimley Health and Care Integrated Pathway would provide a number of opportunities for greater delivery of partnership service delivery and a cross party committee would be established to explore how this piece of work might be taken forward and developed.

The Committee was informed that the number of public nuisance complaints received during 2020 had doubled when compared to the number received in 2019 (approximately 500 in 2020 compared to 255 in 2019) with a significant number of complaints relating to bonfires during the periods of Covid-19 restrictions.  It was agreed that data relating to complaints received would be included in future portfolio updates.

It was agreed that Joint Waste Solutions would be asked to provide an update on the recent unavailability of the online reporting procedures for missed bins and online payments.

The Committee noted the update.