Resolved – That

Council be recommended to adopt the draft revised Constitution (attached as Appendix A to the report) at the Annual Meeting of Council to be held on the 28th September 2020, subject to:

(1)  The amendment of Part 3(B) of the draft revised Constitution by the monitoring officer

(a)  to clarify:

(i)  that standing sub-committee numbers are a minimum expectation and not set;

(ii)  that the Local Plan Steering Sub-Committee is time-limited and will be dissolved on the adoption of the Local Plan currently in development (para 4.2(a));

(iii)  that the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee is responsible for air quality issues (para 5.2(a));

(iv)  that the Housing Committee is responsible for the Authority’s relationship with Registered Providers of housing (para 6.2(a));

(b)  to include that the Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee’s responsibility for “preventative services” also covers responsive services and includes those services concerning domestic violence (para 2.2(e)(viii)); and

(c)  to include the terms of reference for the Joint Governance Committee of the Northern Local Government Pension Scheme Investment Pool (para 15); and

(2)  The inclusion of any further amendments, prior to its adoption by Council, that the monitoring officer considers will correct errors and omissions or (on notice to the Governance Member Working Group) will otherwise aid in the draft Constitution’s future operation.

Under the new Coronavirus Contingency Planning Procedures, as approved by the Leader of the Council, the executive (Leader and Cabinet) priorities of the Council are amended to simply be:

(i)  preservation of life;

(ii)  supporting the vulnerable;

(iii)  safeguarding children;

(iv)  aiding the Borough’s businesses and economy; as well as

(v) maintaining the health and safety, and support the wellbeing, of our staff.

In view of the Leader’s decision to agree that

(i)  the Head of Paid Service is authorised to take any action in furtherance of the priorities set out above, acting in consultation with the Leader, Cabinet member and/or Group Leaders wherever it is reasonable and practicable in the opinion of the Head of Paid Service to do so; and

(ii)  the Head of Paid Service and each Director is authorised to take any action that officer consider is reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of individuals.

The following decision has been made:

That the current contract with Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust for the provision of integrated infection prevention and control services be varied  so as to increase the contract sum payable to the Trust by  additional funding of £684,262 from 17.08.2020 to 31.03.2022 in return for the provision of the following additional services from the Trust.

·  Enhanced infection prevention and control (IPC) support to care homes and community settings with a strong focus on advice, training and improvements in environmental standards. 

·  Additional staffing from the Trust to include senior visible IPC leadership to work closely with the Council to advocate and influence in order to:

(a) achieve higher IPC standards;

(b) enable an enhanced IPC offer to be delivered to Wirral care homes and community setting;

(c) to provide targeted support with a strong focus on training and environmental standards to drive improvements and;

(d) offer a greater level of support, scrutiny, monitoring and compliance.

·  Implementation of an online quality assurance framework for care homes to enable the Wirral system to track improvements in IPC standards over time.