Decision details

Due to the global Public Health emergency COVID-19 pandemic, the Leeds Outbreak plan and the Test and Trace programme there is a need to scale up the Information & Intelligence team. 

The Director of Public Health has key responsibilities on behalf of the Council to manage the outbreak plan and due to the significant increase in tracking and reporting of Covid intelligence approval is sought to immediately increase the Public Health Information & Intelligence Team by 2 x PO4 Public Health Intelligence Officers on a temporary basis for 12 months.

To increase the capacity of the Health & Care Hub Information & Intelligence team by recruiting 2 x PO4 Public Health Intelligence Officers on a temporary 12 month contract to support the daily tracking and reporting of Covid intelligence. Including response to Cllr and media enquiries, Incident Management team support and technical support to any future establishment of a local contact tracing service.

These posts are exempt from the current recruitment controls due to being funded by the Test and Trace ring-fenced grant and the post holders will be performing a statutory service in the reporting of Covid intelligence.  The posts therefore fall within a permitted category for recruitment under the Recruitment and Staff Cover Control Guidance dated 10^th June 2020.

In line with this Guidance, approval for this proposed recruitment has been obtained from the Head of HR, Head of Finance and [Nominated Chief Officer].  Prior to advertising these posts, the HR Resourcing Team will assess whether the posts may be able to be filled via redeployment.  If not, the posts will be advertised across the internal workforce prior to any external advertising.  The recruitment to the post will be a non-discriminatory recruitment process taking into account the Equalities Act 2010.

There is an essential requirement that the postholder is educated to degree level in relevant subject (Sciences, Engineering, IT, Maths / Statistics) or equivalent experience.

The Government has provided £300m to Local Authorities in England for the Test and Trace programme, Leeds has received a £4,141,249 non-recurrent ring-fenced grant.  The costs for these two posts for 12 months will be approximately £98,732 – £106k.

These posts are integral to increase vital capacity within the Information & Intelligence Team in order to support the daily tracking and reporting of Covid intelligence for Leeds.  These posts will provide public health intelligence expertise and technical support to any future establishment of a local contract tracing service. The response required is not straight forward and will likely require a high level of public health intelligence expertise.

Approval is sought for post release and external advertisement of the vacancies on the condition that an attempt is first made to fill the post internally within the Council through redeployment and internal advertisement.

It is anticipated that the approximate annual cost of each post will be approximately £49,366 including on-costs.  There will be additional costs for travel expenses and the purchase of IT equipment for 2 of the posts.  Funding for the 2.0 FTE temporary 12 month posts will come from the Test and Trace ring fenced grant.

It is essential that the LCC Public Health, Information & Intelligence Team has adequate resource to provide a resilient, effective and responsive service that can manage the increased demands of COVID -19 on a more sustainable footing during the pandemic.

There is significant work needed to respond to the pandemic and this includes the implementation of the Test and Trace programme and managing local COVID-19 outbreaks across the city. In order to do this we need to rapidly increase the existing capacity of the LCC Information & Intelligence team, as directed by the national COVID -19 Test and Trace programme in Leeds.

If these posts are not approved, Public Health will not have the necessary capacity to support key aspects of Information & Intelligence Team as there is no additional capacity within the existing team to do this. 

This will directly affect the delivery of the Leeds Outbreak plan specifically Public Health’s ability to provide public health intelligence for the city.

There are no adverse effects on people or teams relating to equality, diversity and pay.

Consultation regarding this request has been undertaken with the Public Health

Information & Intelligence team, the Director of Public Health, the Chief Digital & Information Officer, Resources & Housing and the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing & Adults.

Executive Member – Cllr Charlwood – briefed by Skype Meeting on 18-09-2020

Chief Officer/Consultant in Public Health – Health Protection -17-09-2020

Chief Digital & Information Officer 16-09-2020.

Consultation with Trade Union Colleagues took place on 16-09-2020

Head of Finance - Adults and Health – 17-09-2020

Head of HR – Adults and Health – 17-09-2020

Principal Legal Officer – 17-09-2020