Supporting residents and local business throughout the pandemic and planning for the future is our priority.
We have put together 12 commitments that set out how we will do this:
We will do anything that is needed to support the roll out of vaccines to our residents. Our staff, buildings and volunteer help stand ready to be turned towards the national vaccine effort. We will push for vaccination sites in all of our neighbourhoods so our residents do not have to travel to be safe. We are supporting families throughout the winter. Our Children and Family Centres will remain open to help those families struggling by helping them to access hardship funds as well as hosting baby banks that provide baby food, nappies or food parcels when needed. We will continue to provide support for anyone who is a victim of Domestic Abuse through our One Stop Shop and signposting access to health and wellbeing support. We have quickly mobilised testing centres throughout the borough and will continue to test as many residents as possible (with or without symptoms) and provide local contact tracing to keep everyone safe. The Council will make sure that there is free and easily accessed COVID testing in all of our neighbourhoods. Our specially trained Council teams will continue to carry out contact tracing to make sure that everyone at risk of coronavirus is contacted as soon as possible. The team is working seven days a week and will help residents access help and services while they isolate. We will make sure that all of our parks are safe for our children to play, with Play Safe Champions in play parks. We know that our children are suffering some of the worst effects of lockdown. To make sure that they can get the fresh air and exercise they need, our Play Safe Champions will give friendly help and advice in all of our play parks, making sure that children and their families can enjoy them safely. We will continue to provide a face mask for everyone in the borough who needs one. Face coverings are one of the best ways residents can keep each other safe. If you don’t have a face mask, please call 0208 496 3000 or visit our website to have one sent by post, or pick one up from any of our main libraries. We will support our schools to stay open and safe for vulnerable children and the children of key workers, and will help them set up and run in-school COVID testing when it is time to reopen. The Council will continue to provide one to one public health advice to help keep our children and teachers safe and will support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of our children and young people. We will make sure that our foodbanks are always stocked. We will make sure that our local foodbanks have food and anything else they need to support residents over the winter. We will promote their services, help refer residents and collect food donations at our main libraries. We want to make sure that no one has to sleep rough. We will continue to fully support our most vulnerable residents who are sleeping rough and provide accommodation and support to meet their needs. We will make sure they have a safe space to spend the night over the winter months. We will help bring jobs to our borough. We will ramp up job and re-skilling opportunities for our local people, offering adult learning courses, guidance for local skills and support into job opportunities. The Council will work with its partners to invest in a local jobs economy creating opportunities for young people for work placements, apprenticeships and jobs. We will be there for our most vulnerable residents who need to stay home with food, prescriptions and friendly contact, ensure care homes are safe, and make sure Council homes are safe and vulnerable residents supported. We are providing immediate help to make sure our most clinically vulnerable have access to food, prescriptions and any support they need. We are phoning regularly to check in and will be there if they need us. We will make sure that our care Homes have the PPE they need and support their residents to access the vaccine. We will continue to fully support vulnerable residents living in Council housing and ensure all our tenant’s homes are safe to live in. Contractors will follow safety rules and reassure residents when entering their homes. We will boost our support for local businesses to survive and thrive through lockdown and as we reopen the economy. This will include fast distribution of business grants and financial packages, spending Council money locally and helping businesses focus on innovation. We are putting in place business help for recovery and will continue to ask all of our residents to choose local and support everyone. We will promote and enforce the rules to keep our residents safe. We’re working to make sure that everyone has the information they need to follow the new national measures. Where people ignore the advice and put others at risk, our enforcement team will not hesitate to take action, working closely with the police to exercise all of the powers that we have.