Policy and Intelligence Newsletter - 17 November, 2020

The articles below have been drawn together by the policy and analytical community within the Council. 

Covid-19

• As of 15 November, a total of 3,280 people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have tested positive for Covid-19. Over the last seven days, 560 people in the Duchy have tested positive, at a rate of 88 per 100,000 population: this contrasts with 250 positive tests per 100,000 people across the whole of the UK. A total of 151 people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have sadly died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, with 3 fatalities in the last week. 50,000 people in the UK have now died of Covid-19, using the most commonly accepted measure (death within 28 days of a positive test).

• Interim results for a Covid-19 vaccine produced by the US company Pfizer and German firm BioNTech suggest it is 90% effective. It is not yet clear if the vaccine is disease-modifying (protecting individuals from the worst symptoms) or epidemic-modifying (preventing transmission to others). The vaccine has not yet been peer-reviewed or completed all safety checks, but these are likely to be expedited. The UK has ordered enough doses for 1/3 of the population, with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation due to decide who receives vaccines first.

• The Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock MP, told the House of Commons that GP surgeries will deliver up to a thousand vaccinations a week in special clinics. Media reports suggest that NHS England is planning to be ready for this program by December.

• 600,000 rapid-turnaround Covid-19 test kits (“lateral flow antigen tests”) were sent to some local authorities last week, enough for 10% of residents in those areas. It is anticipated that this will allow weekly testing for priority and high-risk residents, detecting a greater number of asymptomatic cases. Cornwall is not on the initial allocation list.

• 20 care homes in Cornwall, Devon and Hampshire are piloting a new scheme to allow designated visitors access to rapid Covid-19 testing. In conjunction with PPE, this should allow meaningful visit to care homes without the need for physical barriers.

• The most recent Government Statistics on NHS Test and Trace (29 October - 4 November) show that positive Covid-19 test results continue to rise, with an increase of 8% compared with the previous week. Turnaround times for in-person swab tests under Pillar 2 (for the general population) have considerably improved in comparison to the previous week, but are longer than they were at the end of June. 71% of in-person test results are now received the following day. 40% of the close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 were not reached by NHS contact tracers, the same as the previous week.

Brexit

• The House of Lords has voted to remove clauses in the Internal Market Bill which would give the Government authority to override parts of the legally-binding Brexit agreement between the UK and EU. The Bill will now be sent back to the House of Commons, which is likely to reinstate the clauses. 

• Talks between the UK and EU on a trade deal are continuing this week, with media reports suggesting that this is the final week talks are likely to take place. An EU summit on 19 November is reported to be the final deadline for an agreement, as the heads of EU countries would have to ratify a trade deal before it came into force at the end of December.

Devolution

• Lord Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister, is reported to have said that the Government is moving away from commitments to devolve power to English regions, following disagreements with the mayor of Greater Manchester over financial support for more stringent local lockdown measures.

Economy

• Cornwall airport has closed until at least mid-December, due to a lack of demand. Staff have been furloughed. The airport hopes to reopen to meet an anticipated pre-Christmas surge in travellers. Cornwall Council agreed in September that £5.6m of money allocated to the Cornwall spaceport could be diverted to the airport if Government funding was not forthcoming.

• Quarterly statistics on Universal Credit (UC) show that in August, just under 38,000 households in Cornwall had at least one person claiming UC, up from 22,000 in March. Of those households, 13,000 contained a dependent child. Nationally, 4.5 million households had at least one person claiming UC in August, compared with 2.7 million in March.

• Only 22% of England’s biggest councils are confident that they will be able to balance their budgets next year without “dramatic reductions to services”, according to a survey conducted by the County Councils Network. 56% of respondents reported that measures to tackle Covid-19 would be harmed by service reductions and 60% said that there would be a “fundamental reduction in frontline services”.

• The Government has announced that £2.2bn will be made available as grants to businesses, delivered by local authorities. Local Restrictions Support Grants can be requested by rate-paying businesses who have either been required to close under the new national restrictions, or who have not been able to provide their typical in-person service. As an example, a business which has a property with a rateable value over £15,000 and less than £51,000 may be eligible for a cash grant of up to £1,400 for each 28 day period of national restrictions. Under the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), local authorities will receive £20 per head of their local population, as a discretionary fund for businesses which have been severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions. The ARG will cover the four-week national restrictions currently in place.

• The Government has announced the creation of a new Office for Investment, to attract foreign investment into the UK. The office will be part of the Department for International Trade, and aim to “resolve potential barriers” – such as regulatory constraints and planning issues – which might otherwise block key strategic investments.

Education

• A report by Ofsted into the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on children in England has found that some young people worst-affected by school and nursery closures have “regressed” in basic skills and learning. 

• The Welsh Government has cancelled GCSE, AS and A-level exams in Summer 2021, replacing them with externally set and marked assessments, delivered under teacher supervision in the classroom. Education Minister, Kirsty Williams MS, said that this would allow teaching to continue throughout the summer, and that universities had confirmed they would accept these qualifications.

• University students in England will be permitted to travel home for the Christmas holidays between 3 - 9 December (the “student travel window”), using staggered departure times. In-person teaching will stop by 9 December, moving online for the rest of term. Where possible, students will be tested for Covid-19 before they travel, as part of a mass-testing programme for universities.

• In the week to 5 November, 99.6% of state schools across the country were fully open, a slight drop from 99.7% the week before half term, while attendance in all state schools has risen slightly to 89.3%, from 89.2%. As a snapshot, on 5 November, 38% of state-funded secondary schools and 11% of state-funded primary schools reported that they had one or more pupils self-isolating due to contact with a potential Covid-19 case within the school.

Equality and Diversity 

• November 18^th marks the start of Disability History Month, coinciding with new research undertaken by YouGov into the experiences of 1,000 Britons living with disability. The research has been undertaken to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act: landmark legislation that makes it unlawful to discriminate against people due to their disabilities. The legislation has since been consolidated within the Equality Act of 2010, which reached its tenth anniversary this year. The research by YouGov considered a range of issues affecting people with disabilities, highlighting that 59% of adults with a disability report “encountering at least one problem when looking for work” and almost half felt that “existing legislation is not robust enough to protect the rights of the disabled”. 

Consultations and Campaigns 

• The Public Accounts Select Committee is calling senior officials from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to answer questions on: the impact of Covid-19 on local authority services and budgets; local authority responsibilities in the pandemic, particularly in relation to social care, tackling homelessness and providing services; the future of local authority financial sustainability; and housing, including the impact of Covid-19. Evidence on these topics is requested by 20 November 2020.

• The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched an inquiry into the immediate and long-term impact that Covid-19 is having on the homeless, rough sleepers and those in the private rented sector. Deadline 27 November 2020.

• Public Health England is asking for feedback from employers and front-line workers to inform the development of the Community Health and Wellbeing Worker apprenticeship standard. Community Health and Wellbeing Workers consider the causes of poor health and wellbeing, and aim to help people understand the services or support available in their local area. Deadline 27 November 2020.