St Helens Council chief's update on coronavirus recovery plans

Rob Huntington, the council’s assistant chief executive, updated members this week on the authority’s reset and recovery plans.

When the commission were updated on the plans in June, the council was preparing to enter the recovery phase of its response to the pandemic.

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However, surging infection rates across the region have led to a series of new lockdown restrictions being put in place, and has put the council firmly back into response mode.

Mr Huntington told the council’s overview and scrutiny commission that the council’s response to and management of the pandemic continues to be a “key focus of our activity”

“That is our activity across the majority of areas that we are responsible for,” he said.

“I suppose over the last couple of weeks, that sort of response and our coordinated response that we followed during that national lockdown, has been even more prevalent as we start to manage local outbreaks and actually now how we communicate and engage with our residents due to the further local, regional and now national restrictions that have been set out, and actually what that now means for us as a borough and what that means for us as a local authority with responsibility for the borough.

“It is challenging, and as I said earlier, we are very much back into response mode, as is the rest of Merseyside and probably the rest of the North West actually, in terms of what Covid looks like in its impact.”

Mr Huntington said the current situation should not “hinder” the council’s reset and recovery approach, and stressed that it is not looking to go back to how it was prior to the pandemic.

“We should see this as an opportunity to create a new future,” he said.

“And also use it as an opportunity to build on the strengths and creativity of our communities and the partnership we’ve developed.

“It is a reset, and I talked about that back in June. This isn’t a recovery process – this is a reset process.

“We are not aiming to recover to what it used to be like pre-Covid because actually, that has changed, and that environment has changed.

“This is about resetting what we do, how we do things, our shape in order those things but also may mean stopping some things. I think we also need to realise that as well.”

One of the key changes the council is looking to make moving forward is to enable an “agile workforce”.

Prior to the pandemic, the majority of staff were office-based and worked from fixed desks with restricted core hours.

This changed when Boris Johnson ordered the country to work from home, and led to the majority of the council’s offices being closed.

Core working hours have also been removed to allow for more flexible working.

The next transition – which the council is calling the ‘next normal’ – will see a focus on a hybrid, agile, blended working model for office-based staff.

Atlas House will be redeveloped to become a ‘hybrid hub’ for council staff, while St Helens Town Hall will remain the “democratic heart of the council”.

Atlas House

Home working will become the norm and there will also be working in the community where technology will allow, such as in cafés or hotels.

The Gamble Building will be redeveloped as a community arts and educational space and Forster House will be used by St Helens CCG.

Mr Huntington said: “Obviously we need to focus, currently on response, and the renewed focus on response, but actually, what are our longer-term plans to help our borough recover?

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“The positive stance on this being this is an opportunity to reset our operating models, reset how we look at and deliver and provide services where necessary in order to adapt to the ongoing impact of the virus.

“And even though we’ve moved back into response and we are dealing with local, regional, and national restrictions, I think our whole approach and our narrative needs to be one of opportunity and transformation rather than one of crisis.

"And I think that for me is absolutely key.”