Corporate Outcome 1 - People live active, healthier and more independent lives
Covid Support
The Covid pandemic and the public health control measures, including lockdown, significantly impacted on all aspects of everyday life. This required the Council to rapidly re-allocate resources to ensure that the best possible support could be provided.
New statutory powers were placed on local authorities and Police Scotland to regulate the public health restrictions across businesses, domestic dwellings, and public areas. The Council and Police Scotland coordinated enforcement activity, agreed priorities and an enforcement strategy which was carried out by authorised Council officers.
When the Coronavirus lockdown occurred in March 2020 the Council had to close its Service Points except for statutory face to face interactions. This meant that over 45,000 transactions that had previously been face to face had to be managed differently. An additional concern was that the face to face customers were those who were more vulnerable and needed more support during the pandemic or were less able to use digital technology. As a result the demands on the Coronavirus Helpline increased.
To mitigate this additional pressure not just on the Service Points but across the Council the following actions were rapidly put in place-
- Staff were trained to manage customer contacts across all contact channels with more staff available at peak contact times. Service Point staff were also proactive by calling and supporting the majority of the Shielded and Test and Protect customers.
- This proactive approach ensured that the 2,552 Shielded customers received at least one call while 1,637 agreed to follow up calls. Support calls were made to the 960 citizens who were asked to self-isolate.
- Additional staff from across the Council were trained to manage some of the specialist demands that now required to be met, such as the provision of funds to families who usually receive free school meals during school holidays.
- We rapidly put into place other forms of technology to help those less comfortable with online services. To enable automatic sign up for a supermarket priority delivery a voiceform1 was available 24 hours a day on our call centre helpline. We also expanded the use of chatbots2 on the web site to help signpost users to other online services and enhanced the Browsealoud3 website support feature for those with sight and language difficulties.
1A voiceform lets customers speak to answer questions and leave comments into a form or survey.
2A chatbot is a computer program that mimics and processes human conversation both written and spoken, and allows an individual to interact with a digital device as if they were communicating with a real person.
3Browsealoud is a piece of software that that provides reading support on websites.
As a result of rapidly implementing these actions not only did we support our most vulnerable customers in a variety of ways, the service delivery targets we had originally set ourselves for the following indicators - ‘call resolution at first point of contact’ and ‘call waiting times’ were fully met.
We developed a weekly news roundup to keep people informed and connected. As well as our regular features on Council service updates, jobs and consultations we included information on a wide range of available support during lockdown, from guidance on staying healthy, to sources of support for individuals, families and businesses. Our subscribers increased by 10% and as the following examples of feedback show, this helped address the social consequences of isolation.
- “Your weekly news is a godsend, alone, keeping me in touch, great format.”
- “Thank you for such regular, concise, clear newsletters. So comforting to know we in isolation are included in outside life! And I trust it!”
- “Thank you, the updates are so helpful especially keeping those of us who don’t get out up to date”
Across the Council staff were redeployed and worked with partners and volunteers on the logistics and co-ordination of the Community Food project. From a standing start in March to the projects close in August, the Community Food project delivered over 45,000 food parcels across the Council area. The project was in operation for a total of 18 weeks.
Additional grants for businesses, families and welfare were made by the Scottish Government. As the grants and claims needed to be processed and paid as quickly as possible, staff from across the Council were redeployed and trained to process-
- A total of £641,514 in Scottish Welfare Fund grants were paid to support vulnerable people.
- It took on average 19.2 days to process a New Housing Benefit claims which was below the target of 21 days
- On average it took 2.6 days to process a Housing Benefit Changes in Circumstances claim which was below the target of 6 days.
- We distributed £787,614 of Discretionary Housing Payments to households in need.
- We paid out £65,000 in grants to cover food and fuel for people in poverty and successfully referred them for support to advice agencies.
- We worked with our Partners to deliver a redesigned advice service to manage the demand from vulnerable and non-vulnerable clients.
- Advice and assistance was provided to clients to ensure they had access to the full range of available benefits. Our set targets were exceeded despite the difficult service delivery circumstances.
- In total 240 families have been supported to access the full range of available benefit income
- Households have been supported to reduce their fuel costs to a total value of £301,000.
Over the period the Council aimed to support business and to ensure that they continue to have appropriate guidance and advice for them to be “Covid safe”. The Council also worked to ensure that business that were directed to close did not open. This approach achieved high levels of compliance and helped protect the public by minimising any potential spread of the Covid infection. This work has been demanding and challenging, and over this period council officers have been in direct contact with 2,780 businesses to assess their Covid measures; they have investigated 896 complaints from the public about businesses; provided advice through businesses groups, Business Gateway, specific business enquiries and the Website. The officers revisited 456 businesses and 23 instances of formal enforcement or Prohibition notices were issued which required business to cease activities. This work to promote and secure compliance is continuing.
Delivering Affordable Housing
Despite lockdown 38 units at the Dunbeg development were completed and LINK (social landlord) are on track to complete the handover of the entire 300 unit phase by the end of the 2021/22 financial year. This multi-million pound investment is Argyll and Bute’s biggest investment in social housing in decades and it will directly contribute and improve the housing supply in Oban and Lorn area. It is the culmination of significant cross-public sector partnership working and has received funding from Argyll and Bute Council, Scottish Government, Scottish Water, LINK and West Highland Housing Associations.
The first completed phase is shown with more phases set to be released soon.
Energy Efficient Scotland
The area based Energy Efficient Scotland scheme was put on hold from March 2020 to July 2020 due to lockdown restrictions. Coming out of lockdown and continuing to deliver the scheme was challenging. The scheme contractor was based out-with Argyll and Bute which meant safe travel and accommodation arrangements had to be negotiated with the Scottish Government. Additionally, to ensure that the full budget was spent we worked with the Scottish Government to reach an agreement to extend the 2019/20 budget until 30th November 2020. In total 287 households have received insulation measures through the Council’s programme, and in conjunction with Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA)131 private owners in mixed tenure blocks have received external wall insulation.
By working closely with the Scottish Government £2.3 million of additional funding has been made awarded to support insulation work with ACHA during 2020/21. The scheme programme was put on hold again from 26th December 2020 to 26th April 2021 as the majority of works were deemed non-essential construction (limited external works were able to progress). To allow as much work as possible to progress the 2020/21 budget was extended until 31st August 2021 with a full programme of works planned for summer 2021.