Decision details

Leeds City Council has received £10.4m, from the Government, to support the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is a one-off contribution, for the 2020-21 financial year, and is non-recurrent.

The funding is to support proactive and preventative evidence based measures, in the fight against the pandemic. As part of this allocation, a budget has been identified for measures that support immediate support for Children and Families activity which will support public health interventions as part of the Public Health response to COVID-19:-
Due to the global Public Health emergency COVID-19 pandemic this report provides detail of programmes to to temporarily increase the capacity of the Early Years Learning Improvement Team, Children’s Residential Care teams within the Children and Families Directorate, 0-19 service within Leeds Community Health Care Trust (LCH), and Leeds City College to support the prevention, notification and management of COVID-19 in Leeds. Private, Voluntary and Independent Nurseries, 0-19 services and the FE sector, due to the nature of this requirement the duration will be from December 2020 to June 2021.

To purchase digital devices and the provision of initiatives which will increase contact with harder to reach families to support them to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including by sharing prevention and outbreak management messages , increasing adhering to self-isolation and testing guidance.

These programmes will be funded from the Test and Trace ring-fenced grant and total £348,691

Internal and External Staffing - £168,766

• COVID-19 Champion Role Private, Voluntary Independent (PVI) Nursery sector (LCC) - £20,385
COVID-19 Champion roles 2 x 0.50wte SO2 post seconded from within early years learning improvement team at a cost of £20,385 (December 2020 to May 2021) to support and manage the process to enable PVI settings to effectively notify, prevent and manage COVID-19 incidents and outbreaks.
• COVID-19 Coordinator roles Children Residential Care Settings (LCC) - £72,129
Registered Home Manager 8 x 0.20wte P05 to update and amend individual homes staffing Rotas for each community home, submit CF50 notices, liaise with advisors (H&S, Occ. Health, PHE, Ofsted Etc.) in response to managing COVID-19 related pressure. - £44,919 (January 2021 to June 2021)

Project Support Officer 1 x 0.80wte SO1 – SCP 25 to manage the reports related staffing levels across the community homes, organising & running ongoing recruitment for staffing and causals for critical cover, pre. Planning for induction of new staff - £15,360 (January 2021 to June 2021)

Administration assistant 1 x 0.60wte (B1 SCP 5) at Adel Beck Secure Children’s homes coordinated staffing resource to redeploy to homes, provide returns to regulators required by the secure estate - £7,393 (January 2021 to June 2021)

Youth worker senior support 1 x 0.10wte 52.5%DIR to undertake weekly check ins to discuss and respond to residential pressures related to COVID19 - £4,457. (January 2021 to June 2021)

All of the above are existing posts that have been redesigned to enable the service to respond to COVID.
COVID-19 Champion Leeds Community Healthcare (LCH) 0-19 services - £19,272
Family Health Worker 1 x wte NHS grade 4 - £19,272 (January 2021 to June 2021) seconded from the existing service to work as part of the clinical triage team to provide advice and support to children, young people, and families who contact the service with a specific COVID-19 related enquiry or need or are a contact to minimise harm and enable them to follow guidance to self-isolate as required.

COVID-19 Champion and administrator Further Education settings (Hosted by Leeds City College) - £56,980
COVID-19 Champion 1 x 1.0wte SO1 and 1 x 1.0wte LS4 (January 2021 to June 2021) to support and manage the process to enable Further Education settings to effectively notify, prevent and manage COVID-19 incidents and outbreaks - £56,980.
These are existing posts and funding will be used to enable them to have dedicated time to fulfil this work

COVID-19 sport sessions for young people - £60,000
A grant of £60,000 provided to Street Games to enable 15 local third sector groups that make up the Youth COVID-19 response network to deliver further COVID-19 projects for Young People. A new Family door steps sports sessions to create a positive platform to share COVID-19 messages. £45,000 will be provided to fund grants to each third sector group and £15,000 will be provided to Street Games to for overheads, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the projects.

Digital Devices, training and equipment - £119,925

This decision details the authority to procure and fund the purchase of digital devices and a range of activities to increase understanding of and adherence to testing, contact tracing and self-isolation advice among children, young people, families and parents to be, targeting those less likely to adhere to central guidance and at increased risk of poorer outcomes as a result of COVID-19. The funding will be used to increase family’s virtual and face to face access to services they already have an established and trusting relationship with. Each service will provide the opportunity for families to discuss COVID-19 and will offer tailored support to enable families to minimise the spread of the virus. This will be delivered in partnership with DIS who will purchase the devices on behalf of the organisations and 100% Digital who support maintenance and management of the devices for loan including longer term. This report provides authority for DIS to procure the required digital devises for the purposes detailed in this report

The plan consists of the following, all costs are approximate at this stage:-
Homestart – £10,402
Purchase of 12 x iPads and 1 x laptop and £200 phone top up data purchased via DIS (a division of the Council)
• 12 x iPads = £7,342
• 1 x laptop = £600 + £240 software = £840
• 1 x phone top up = £200
A grant provided to Homestart to provide 2 hours per week of coordinator time for 3 months provided by Homestart practitioners and families to increase access to virtual young parents - £2,020
Children’s Centres – £37,765
Purchase of 40 x Ipads and 30 x smart phones, including data purchased via DIS linked to 100% digital to enable a minimum of 200 additional vulnerable families to access virtual support from Children Centres, purchased by DIS (a division of the Council)
• 30 x smart phones = £10,500
• rental charge = £2,790
• 40 x iPads = £24,475
Women’s Health Matters- £19,960
40 x devices including set up, training, IT support and delivery to households for use by vulnerable families working with Women’s Health Matters purchased by DIS (a division of the Council)
Purchase of
• 40 x chromebooks @ £300 each device - £12,000
• 40 x dongles @ £45.00 each - £1,800
• 40 x 3 months unlimited data @ £60.00 each - £2,400
A grant provided to Women’s Health Matters to provide staff time to support set up of each of the 40 x devices including set up, training, IT support and delivery to households for use by vulnerable families working with Women’s Health Matters 40 x £94.00 each - £3,760

Health for All - £6,270
• £8,300 funding for DIS to purchase 8 x IPADS, - smart phones and data to enable Health for All, Breast Feeding Peer Support service (BFPS) to increase number of women able to access virtual support incorporating COVID 19 prevention and management.
• 8 x Ipads @ £500 each = £4,000
• 2 x laptop @ £1,100 each = £2,200
• 2 x smart phones with data @ £35.00 each = 70.00

Equipment - £30,528
• Recharges from Children’s Services (a division of the Council) for actual equipment purchased to include web cams, oils, baby mats and staff training to enable virtual delivery of baby massage courses by Children Centre staff to vulnerable families which will include discussion on preventing and managing COVID-19 - £30,528

Training - £15,000
• A grant of £4,000 provided to Health for All to deliver additional Breast Feeding Peer Support training in order to upskill and increase the number of breastfeeding peer support volunteers by 15-20.
• A grant of £11,000 provided to Health for All to deliver Breast Feeding Peer Support coordinator time to deliver 2 additional weekly Breastfeeding Peer Support groups.

Health for all are an existing provider who currently provide breastfeeding peer support so are able to mobilise quickly in order to meet this immediate work to provide support during the pandemic therefore have the skills, knowledge and networks to implement immediately providing a best value for money option.

As the Council would be entering into grant arrangements with the above named organisations, the Council will have no contractual control over enforcement of the terms. The only sanction available with grant payments is for the Council to claw-back grant monies unspent. However, this is balanced by the opportunity for creative approaches to be developed making use of the flexibility of the grant; and for added value to be obtained.

There is a risk of challenge that the grant payment is not a grant. Legally there is some confusion about when a grant can and cannot be used as there is a fine line between a grant (which is not caught by the procurement rules) and a contract for services (which is caught by the procurement rules).


Funding from which any grant payment is made must be designated as “grant” money. If the Council wish to make a grant, the money must be in the “grant” block. If it is not, it can normally be moved from other blocks in the Council budget into the grant block.


Awarding the grants to the named organisation in this way could leave the Council open to a potential claim from other providers, to whom this grant could be of interest, that it has not been wholly transparent. However the risk of this would appear to be low.


As this is a grant it is not subject to the Council’s Contracts Procedure Rules or within the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 but good practice and transparency will be observed throughout.


There is no overriding legal obstacle preventing the award of the grants and the contents of this report should be noted. In making their final decision, the Director of Public Health should be satisfied that the course of action chosen represents best value for the Council.

As this decision is a consequence of a previous key decision dated 11th December 2020 (D52580) under the special urgency rule, each separate decision at most, should be an administrative decision but for clarity a significant operational decision for the entire report and not be subject to call-in