CASH provided by the Government to St Helens Borough Council to manage coronavirus outbreaks may be “very quickly exhausted” by a second wave, a senior councillor has warned.
In June, the Department of Health and Social Care provided funding to councils to develop tailored outbreak management plans to help them respond to local outbreaks of Covid-19.
Local authorities were also given additional funding to support the setting up of local test and trace systems to support outbreak management.
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St Helens Borough Council received £1,328,091, which will support it to have a system in place to manage outbreaks for the next 18 months to two years.
For the first year, the council has committed £384,382, although this will be reviewed after six months.
At the council’s cabinet meeting last week, Cllr Anthony Burns, cabinet member for public health, leisure, libraries and heritage, said it is unclear how long a team will need to be in place in order to deliver effective management.
Cllr Burns said: “Our main function at local authority level is to manage the consequences of outbreaks.
“Whilst for St Helens we have received over £1.3 million of funding to manage outbreaks, this is one-off funding.
“And due to the nature of Covid-19 as we’re all finding out, we are not sure how long we will need a team in place to deliver effective management.”
Cllr Burns said that, in order to get the most effective and efficient way of managing outbreaks locally, the council has developed an integrated model, with some delivery within a Cheshire and Merseyside Hub.
He said the Cheshire and Mersey team will do “a lot of the heavy lifting”, focusing on single, complex cases.
Local management will focus on outbreaks and the subsequent contact tracing, environmental health support for business and infection control support for care homes and schools.
The cabinet report said the hub will not replace local work, but “bolster local resilience”, and will be particularly important during the winter period or should a second wave occur.
Cllr Burns said: “We need to ensure that we have a skilled team in place.
“While we don’t know how long we will need staff in place to support the testing and tracing, we have left scope for two-year funding, plus additional support for campaigns and any unknown consequence management.
“With a potential second peak on the horizon though, it’s important to mention that this budget will no doubt be very quickly exhausted.”
Cllr Burns also criticised the Government’s messaging throughout the pandemic, accusing Downing Street of talking “waffle”.
The Labour councillor said the Government has been “contradictory and confusing” in its advice, and slammed the Prime Minister for attempting to blame the public for the rise in infections.
Cllr Burns said: “At this point we do have to question the Government’s handling of this while situation.
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“Yes it is unprecedented, yes it’s worldwide and we are all living with it day by day.
“However, the people of this country and this borough look to the Government for advice and direction during times like these.
“And I’m afraid to say that the advice and direction has been confusing, unclear and quite frankly – waffle.”
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