The Director of Public Health noted and agreed
that:-
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 Health Protection 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 need for specialist support and advice approval is
sought to immediately increase the Public Health, Health Protection
team by 2 x PO4 Advanced Health Improvement Specialists (Health
Protection) on a temporary basis for 12 months.
These posts are exempt from the current recruitment controls due to
being funded by the Test and Trace ring-fenced grant, in addition
the post falls within the boundaries of the recruitment and staff
control guidance set out on the 10th June 2020 as the posts will
lead on statutory and preventative work and services for Health
Protection.
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 £98k
– £106k.
To increase the capacity of the LCC Public Health, Health
Protection Team by recruiting 2 x PO4 Advanced Health Improvement
Specialists on a temporary 12 month contract to deliver infection
prevention elements of the Leeds Covid-19 outbreak management plan
including the new national COVID-19 NHS Test and Trace
programme.
A brief statement of the reasons for the decision[1]
These posts are integral to ensuring existing health protection
arrangements are in order to prevent and manage infection and
outbreaks in Leeds. These posts will provide public health
expertise and coordination to the prevention and management of
infections and outbreaks in the community, responding flexibly when
needed. The response required is not straight forward and will
likely require a high level of public health expertise,
coordination and management depending on local need.
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 £48,996-£52,856 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.
We need to ensure that the LCC Public Health, Health Protection
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 will include implementing 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
Health Protection team, as directed by the national COVID -19 Test
and Trace programme in Leeds.
If these posts are not approved, Public Health will not be able to
take forward and deliver the key aspects of Health Protection as
there is no additional capacity within public health.
This will directly affect the delivery of the Leeds Outbreak plan
specifically Public Health’s ability to provide public health
expertise and management and prevention of outbreaks in high risk
settings and communities of interest as such this poses a risk to
the city.
There are no adverse effects on people or teams relating to
equality, diversity and pay.