Decision details

What decision has been taken?


The Director of Public Health has approved (due to the global Public Health emergency COVID-19 pandemic) to continue to temporarily increase the capacity of the Education, Health and Safety function within the Children and Families Directorate, including, the Leeds Learning for Life Service to support the prevention and management of COVID-19 in Leeds educational establishments at a total approx. cost of £215,903 from 1st September 2021 to 31st March 2022.

Further to the previous Significant Operation Decisions dated 28th October 2020 (D52423) & 29th January 2021 (D52689), funding from the Council’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund will be used to continue to fund additional capacity within the Education, Health and Safety function within the Children and Families Directorate, including the Leeds Learning for Life Service given the steep increase in numbers of Covid cases (3rd Wave) among children and young people and the subsequent continued need to prevent, monitor and manage Covid 19 in Education settings. These services will continue to implement and deliver on prevention and outbreak management including supporting establishing testing in education settings.

The approximate total cost to extend these posts from 1st September 2021 until 31st March 2022 is £215,903 and will be funded from the Council’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund provided by the Government to locally manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding will be transferred based on actual costs on a quarterly basis.

The plan to maintain this increased capacity consists of retaining the following posts:
• 1 fte qualified H&S Adviser, Environmental Health Officer or Public Health Practitioner to promote best Health and Safety practice and respond to Leeds Schools and FE College’s queries in order to prevent and manage the spread of COVID-19 (S02). Approximate cost £13,026 (7th December 2021 to 31st March 2022).
• 1 fte Qualified Occupational Health Adviser to support staff in educational settings who have individual risk factors, conduct risk assessments, and ensure staff can safely be in the workplace. Thus reducing transmission of COVID-19 and enabling nurseries, schools and Further Education settings to continue to operate safely (PO4). Approximate cost £26,138 (30th November 2021 to 31st March 2022).
• 1 fte Health and Safety administrator/co-ordinator role to manage an effective process to respond to schools in a timely and prioritised way, communicate and archive the guidance effectively, and triage enquiries (C3). Approximate cost £8,208 (1st January 2022 to 31st March 2022).
To continue to temporarily increase the capacity of the LCC Business Administration service by seconding:
• 1 fte COVID Response administrator role (SO1) to Children and Family Services at SO1 to manage the collation and communication of the DCS alert Covid 19 notifications from educational establishments. Approximate cost £18,608 (1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022).
To continue to temporarily second:
• 3 fte Support and Prevention team members (SO1) to undertake proactive audit work, infection prevention control session planning and social media work with Early Years, Schools and FE settings. Approximate cost £37,258 (1st December 2021 to 31st March 2022).
To continue to temporarily second:
• 1 fte COVID Champion post (PO1) (1st March 2022 to 31st March 2022) and 1 fte administrator post (B3) (7th December 2021 to 31st March 2022) from Leeds Learning for Life team to support and manage the process to enable Early Years settings to effectively manage COVID-19 incidents and outbreaks. Approximate cost for 1 month extension to Champion post is £3,560 and 4 month extension to administrator post is £8,309.
• 1 fte COVID Champion post (SO2) within early years learning improvement team to support and manage the process to enable Private and Voluntary Nursery sector to effectively manage COVID-19 incidents and outbreaks. Approximate cost £16,903 (1st November 2021 to 31st March 2022).
• COVID-19 Coordinator roles Children Residential Care Settings (LCC). Approximate cost £83,893 (1st September 2021 to 31st March 2022) to include the following posts:
- 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. Approximate cost £53,323.

- 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. Approximate cost £17,387.

- 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. Approximate cost £8,370.

- 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. Approximate cost £4,813.

- All of the above are existing posts that have been redesigned to enable the service to respond to COVID.
Where secondments are agreed for fixed terms, arrangements for backfilling will also be considered where necessary and appropriate. In addition, all those that are seconded for this purpose on a temporary basis will have the right to return to their substantive post.
To increase the capacity to effectively manage COVID-19 in education settings as detailed above, the approximate cost of £215,903 will be achieved through LCC internal transfer processes based on actual costs recharged on a quarterly basis from 1st September 2021 to 31st March 2022. .