Covid-19 – update

We continue to see the reopening of some services and businesses across the district with many shops beginning to open their doors this week. We hope that you, your councillors and residents stay safe.

You can keep up-to-date with all our public messaging by following our social media accounts or checking the coronavirus updates on our webpage

Changes to lockdown restrictions

The Cabinet Office has updated its guidance on what you can and cannot do. This includes information on changes to the restrictions on people in the NHS shielded group.

You must now wear a face covering if you are travelling on public transport, although you are advised to avoid it and walk, cycle or go by car if you can. Here’s some advice on how to make and wear a face covering.

Track and Trace – Local Outbreak Plan

Councils will be responsible for managing and enforcing any localised outbreaks or lockdowns, linked in with the national programme run by Public Health England, as part of the new test and trace procedure.

Worcestershire County Council will be the lead in our area and have been given £2.7million from a national £300 million fund to develop and action their plan. Worcestershire Regulatory Service officers will be involved in the response to any local outbreak. The money will be distributed at the end of June when local plans are expected to be in place. Work is continuing to get arrangements in place locally including IT systems to track incidents/outbreaks.

Localised early warning indicators are also being developed to help give us more information on the potential for future outbreaks. The current thinking is while we may have some localised outbreaks during the summer, the risk of a second wave of the virus is greatest from September onwards leading into the winter months.

Support for those affected by flooding

Virtual roadshow events are taking place to help people who were affected by flooding during the autumn and winter, particularly February’s severe weather event.

They are open to residents and business owners who will be able to speak to representatives from the National Flood Forum, Worcestershire County Council, Malvern Hills District Council, the Environment Agency and Severn Trent Water.

Advice will be on offer on a wide range of flooding issues including insurance and property re-instatement.

Sessions will take place on the following dates:

• River Severn and Powick –  Monday 22 June
• Tenbury and Teme Valley – Friday 26 June

To attend one of the sessions you need to book a slot by calling the National Flood Forum on 01299 403101

Places of worship reopening for individual prayer

From Monday 15 June places of worship are permitted to reopen for individual prayer in line with social distancing guidelines. Communally led prayer, worship or devotion such as services, evensong, informal prayer meetings, Mass, Jummah or Kirtan will not be possible at this stage.

New guidance will be published shortly. This will recommend the thorough cleaning of shared spaces, hand cleansing at entry and exit and asking worshippers to bring their own items such as a prayer mat or religious text, instead of sharing or using communal ones.

Places of worship still have discretion over when they consider it safe to open and may decide to remain closed or reopen at a slower pace if they wish.

Planning and development management

In a previous newsletter, we mentioned that the Government has announced a series of measures that have implications for both the district council and local councils. This includes allowing builders to agree flexible construction site working hours with their local council, such as staggering builders’ arrival times to ease pressure on public transport. We have now produced a guidance note on this.

People Make Places Fund (Malvern Hills)

Helping our local economy and our communities to rebuild is important to our overall recovery plan for the district. As part of that plan, we want to get behind projects that have the support of the community and make a positive difference.

We have pre-selected some groups and organisations, including those signed up to the Good Neighbour Network, that we know are providing important services and support and would benefit from additional financial help. These groups will have access to our Spacehive crowdfunding platform to unlock and raise funds to continue their vital work.

The district is full of people with great ideas who come together to make things happen to support their communities. People Make Places Fund helps to connect those ideas that make a positive difference with supporters, to raise funds to make projects happen. You can find out more about the fund by emailing: . Details of local projects that are using the crowdfunding platform will be shared over the next month.

Bike Security Marking

The Malvern Hills and Wychavon Joint Community Safety Team are running five bike security marking events next week. We have had a fantastic response so far and the event in Malvern on Monday 22 June is now fully booked.

There are still spaces available at the following events:

• Great Witley Village Hall Car Park, Friday 26 June, 11am-2pm
• Pershore Civic Centre, Tuesday 23 June, 1-4pm
• Evesham Viaduct Car Park, Wednesday 24 June, 1-4pm

If you would like to book a 15 minute slot to get your bike security marked, please email: .

Keep on running…

Our Health and Wellbeing officer, Rachel Nichols, would like to work with our Parish and Town Councils to come up with an accessible walking/running route in each parish over the next few years.

Ideally the route will:

• be under 5km
• be circular
• have few stiles
• avoid busy roads and private land
• have somewhere to park at the start

You may also want to take the opportunity to showcase a piece of local heritage, like a beloved church, as part of it too. The route could be part of an already established public right of way and this could just be an opportunity to promote it as an accessible, family-friendly walk or a running route.

Claire will be supporting Rachel with this project. We are hoping the walks will become waymarked routes with some also featuring on our walking app.

If you would like your parish to be included in this project and have an idea for a route then please let Claire know by emailing  before Thursday 30 July at

Here 2 Help update

As of the 3 June 2020 there have been 2,920 requests for help and over 2,000 offers of help. If you are aware of anyone who is vulnerable and in need, please make sure they fill in the form or call the number on the Worcestershire Here 2 Help website.

Funding support for community groups and charities

Each week we are adding new sources of funding support available to community groups and charities who are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak or who are working to support vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19.

Visit support for community groups and charities page for more information.  Please promote this support to relevant groups in your parish/town.

Visit the Virtual Village Hall

Anyone looking to beat the boredom of isolation is invited to visit the Virtual Village Hall, a new programme of online activities to join in with at home.

Designed by the Royal Voluntary Service, the Virtual Village Hall is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and features themed video sessions led by expert tutors, TV and radio personalities, and Royal Voluntary Service activity co-ordinators and volunteers.

Live and pre-recorded sessions take place daily and include exercise and dance, music and singing, relaxation and meditation, arts and crafts, cooking and baking, technology skills, gardening and more.

Keeping well at home

Here is the latest social prescribing newsletter from South Worcestershire Citizens Advice, with tips on how to keep well at home. Please feel free to share this with your residents.

Key Messages

As stated previously, 97% of Primary Schools are open for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils. Up to 60% of eligible pupils attended last week but due to staffing and space constraints, some smaller schools have re-opened on a part time basis.

• Plans are being finalised for the phased return of pupils in year 10 and 12 in secondary schools, sixth form and further education colleges across the county from Monday next week (15 June). Risk assessments have been taking place on a school by school basis to ensure pupils and staff will be returning to school safely.
• Face-to-face birth registrations by appointment only resumed this week at four sites across Worcestershire – Worcester (County Hall), Bromsgrove, Redditch and Kidderminster, and by the end of Saturday, the offices will have registered 226 births which is a fantastic achievement.
• The Regional Testing Facility at Worcester Warriors can process approx. 600 tests per day. Capacity is managed within the DHSC system, with availability being released to meet demand as required. Review of “pop-up” locations underway as businesses and sites start to re-open.
• 10 of the 11 Household Recycling Centres in Worcestershire are now open. As expected, these are extremely busy and therefore additional traffic management measures have been put in place.
• The level of infections in Care Homes in Worcestershire remains stable and in line with levels across the West Midlands. All staff and residents in Care Homes with positive cases of COVID-19 have been tested.
• The Test and Trace service is live. A team of Environmental Health Officers and Public Health Practitioners will provide this locally in Worcestershire. The COVID-19 Outbreak Control Plan is being developed
• Plans under way to facilitate the phased re-opening of Libraries next month. Risk assessments being undertaken to ensure social distancing rules can be observed.
• Pressure continues to ease on the Acute Trust with the number of active cases and new admissions still falling. Only 29 new cases have been identified in the past 10 days.
• No significant issues with PPE. Now responding to calls for PPE from Dental Surgeries in light of plans to re-open next week.
• Plans to support businesses as we begin to enter the economic recovery phase are being developed jointly by the County Council, the District Councils and partners. Government grants continue to be distributed to ensure businesses benefit from the additional funds.

Key Service Areas

Adult Services

Increasing concerns re the financial viability of Care Homes linked to a reduction in admissions.

• As with school capacity issues, adherence to social distancing guidance will impact on Day Care capacity provision.
• Worcestershire County Council Care Home Support plan has been published and is available at:

www.worcestershire.gov.uk/downloads/download/1437/worcestershire_s_covid-19_care_home_support_plan

• COVID-19 restrictions have enabled a review to commence on how service provision could be delivered differently in future.
• In addition to Libraries, exploring opportunities to re-open Museums and Registration Services.

Children’s Services

• Awaiting several guidance notes from the Department for Education on:
  • Home to School Transport
  • Summer Activity Clubs
  • Autumn Term commencement
• There remains a level of parental anxiety surrounding the phased re-opening of schools, which accounts for the lower turnout than expected.
• To ensure social distancing measures are in place, it is estimated that there will be a significant reduction in pupil capacity, although this will obviously vary by school.
• Attendance at school is still to be voluntary and online learning will continue to be available pupils not in schools.
• Home to School transport being provided to those entitled to subsidised transport. Whilst too early to say, it is likely that transport expenditure will increase

Community Services

• The Here2Help Contact Centre has scaled its opening times to reflect the reduction in calls for assistance.
• Frequently Asked Questions paper being developed relating to testing within the community.

Economy & Infrastructure

• Highways surface dressing and maintenance returning to “Business as Usual”. Construction work on the county’s major infrastructure projects are restarting.
• The vastly improved Kidderminster Rail Station opened 6/6/20
• In accordance with recent guidance from Transport Minister Baroness Vere, contractors are required to comply with the Highway Sector’s recently issued Site Operating Procedures which require personnel with symptoms to stay at home and sets out clear hygiene and travel procedures for those attending site.

Workforce and Training

• Working from home will be the norm for the foreseeable future. We remain committed to ensuring staff are supported and that any action we take is mindful of wider considerations such as future transmission risk, social distancing measures, school closures, childcare needs and transport/travel concerns.
• Self-assessment of home workspaces is now under way and all requests for additional equipment will be delivered by 12 June.

Communications

• Developing messages around Test and Trace
• Working with the Worcestershire Association of Carers, celebrating National Carers Week.

Finance

• £2.7m funding allocated to support Test and Trace.
• The return to MHCLG on our expected spend / lost income due next week, with an increasing concern over Social Care and Home to School Transport.

COVID-19 STATISTICS

Official statistics and information are available on the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-track-coronavirus-cases

Some key statistics being:

Number Testing Positive in Worcestershire	1423
Number Testing Positive in UK	292950

 

UK	8/6
Number of Tests carried out on the day	193253
Daily Increase in Cases	1541
Cumulative Deaths	41481

 

WHERE CAN I GET FURTHER INFORMATION, HELP AND ADVICE?

Reminder that the Here2Help website www.worcestershire.gov.uk/here2help is the first point of contact if people want to offer assistance or gain support. The other option is the telephone contact number which is staffed 8am-6pm 6 days a week – 01905 768053.

Carers who support a family member or friend who require support should contact the Worcestershire Association of Carers on www.carersworcs.org.uk  or call the Helpline 0300 012 4272.

http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/coronavirus

NHS Website for information on Coronavirus

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Covid-19 – update

We are beginning to see the reopening of some services and businesses across the district. We hope that you, your councillors and residents continue to stay safe.

As we were unable to hold a Parish Forum in the spring we are considering arranging a virtual session. This will follow a similar format to the normal forum style where we provide you with a district council update, you request a speaker/topic and we also hold a virtual workshop with us splitting into smaller groups to discuss things in a bit more detail. If you and your councillors would be interested in attending and would like to request a topic, please let Claire Vaughan know at or tel: 01684 862449.

You can also keep up-to-date with all our public messaging by following our social media accounts or checking the coronavirus updates on our webpage

What is and isn’t allowed under the new rules

The Cabinet Office has provided a detailed FAQs list for people on what is and isn’t allowed following changes to the lockdown restrictions.

Track and Trace System

The Government has launched a new NHS Test and Trace service across England.

Anyone who tests positive for Coronavirus will be contacted within 24 hours by the NHS Test and Trace service via text, an email alert or a call and will be asked to share information about their recent interactions. This could include household members, people with whom they have been in direct contact or within 2 metres for more than 15 minutes. They will be given instructions on how to share details of people they’ve been in close, recent contact with and places they have visited, and will be asked to provide this information online via a secure website or over the phone with an NHS contact tracer.

Anyone identified to have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Coronavirus will be alerted by the NHS Test and Trace service via text or email. They will then need to log on to the NHS Test and Trace website. If this isn’t possible, a trained call handler will contact the identified person about what they need to do.

The Government has also expanded testing availability for children aged under five, to help support the phased opening of schools and childcare settings in England from 1 June.

All symptomatic individuals in England can now access a test if they need one.

Visit www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works for more information.

Recovery plan for Malvern Hills District Council

Our recovery plan was approved at Executive Committee on 26 May. The plan sets out how the council will help its communities and economies recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as how the organisation will get back on track. The approach to recovery is based on four pillars:

1. Our communities and the local economy
2. Resetting the business of the council
3. Recovery of the organisations
4. Councillors and democracy

Discretionary Grant funding

A grant from the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is available for Malvern Hills businesses not eligible to receive either the cash grant for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses or the small business grant.

Guidance has been issued by the Government and the types of business that are expected to benefit from this new funding are:

• Businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces. Examples could include units in industrial parks, science parks and incubators which do not have their own business rates assessment
• Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent, who do not have their own business rates assessment
• Bed & Breakfasts which pay Council Tax instead of business rates
• Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief

We have put together a policy to help us distribute this money in the fairest way possible and to help us support as many businesses as possible. Unfortunately, the money will not be enough to help every single business that does not qualify for the two main grants.

Business should ensure they have read the guidance before completing the application form.

The application form is available here. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 26 June 2020. Payments will be made after the funding round closes.

Businesses occupying rated property that are eligible for the Small Business or Retail Hospitality and Leisure grants but have not applied are still able to apply via the MHDC website.

Covid-19 Memory Bank Project

Malvern Hills District Council has launched the Covid-19 Memory Bank Project.

The Covid-19 outbreak is undoubtedly a significant moment in human history and we are keen to capture information about what happened locally to inform future generations.

People are encouraged to send in messages of goodwill they have received from neighbours, rainbow pictures they have drawn, messages of thanks they have left for key workers, diary entries the may have made during lockdown, video blogs, pictures, video footage, poems, songs or artwork.

The subject can be anything from how people felt during this time to the way the community pulled together, the weekly clap for our carers event, response of key workers on the frontline and the challenges or joys of home schooling.

The information received will be used in a future art project or exhibition and then handed over to the archive at The Hive or locally for preservation.

You can find out more about the project and upload any contributions you may have our Covid-19 Memory Bank web page.

Guidance on social distancing in outdoor spaces

The Government has issued new guidance on what people can and cannot do outdoors following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Guidance has also been issued to help owners of parks and public spaces help people to follow the rules on social distancing. You will find it at www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19

People Make Places Fund (Malvern Hills)

Helping our local economy and our communities to rebuild is important to our overall recovery plan for the district. As part of that plan, we want to get behind projects that have the support of the community and make a positive difference.

We have pre-selected some groups and organisations, including those signed up to the Good Neighbour Network, that we know are providing important services and support and would benefit from additional financial help. These groups will have access to our Spacehive crowdfunding platform to unlock and raise funds to continue their vital work.

The district is full of people with great ideas who come together to make things happen to support their communities. People Make Places Fund helps to connect those ideas that make a positive difference with supporters, to raise funds to make projects happen. You can find out more about the fund by emailing: . Details of local projects that are using the crowdfunding platform will be shared over the next month.

Funding support for community groups and charities

Each week we are adding new sources of funding support available to community groups and charities who are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak or who are working to support vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19.

Visit our support for community groups and charities page for more information. Please promote this support to relevant groups in your parish/town.

Here 2 Help reminder

A reminder that if you are aware of anyone who is vulnerable and in need to please make sure they fill in the form or call the number on the Here 2 Help website.

Pledge to help flood hit communities

Residents and businesses devastated by February’s severe flooding will be able to access help, advice and support at virtual roadshows.

Held by the National Flooding Forum, the roadshows in Malvern Hills will run on the following dates:

• River Severn and Powick – Friday 19 June River Severn and Powick – Monday 22 June
• Tenbury and Teme Valley – Friday 26 June

Anyone wanting to attend one of the virtual sessions needs to book a slot by calling the National Flood Forum on 01299 403101. Once interest has been registered, joining details for the online sessions will be provided. Click here for more information.

New training courses for clerks and councillors

Worcestershire CALC has just released a host of new training options for parish clerks and councillors. Visit www.worcscalc.org.uk/ to find out more.

Finally…

Did you see our Community Environmental Protection Officers Dan and Jude on Channel 5’s Filthy Britain SOS (formally known as ‘Grime and Punishment’) on Sunday evening? If not, then you can watch on catch-up and they also feature in the second episode on Sunday 7 June. It’s not all as filthy as the title would have you believe, with Dan and Jude demonstrating several of the tasks they regularly undertake to keep our streets clean including enforcement work and education.