Local context

Hampshire Library Service

Hampshire County Council’s library service has loaned 25,000 items to more than 5,000 customers in the first week since branches reopened (6 July). More than 4,700 people have used the new Ready Reads service and around 18,500 people have made use of the online library, which was expanded in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. The online library now offers more than 63,430 eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers, eComics and eMagazines. The library service continues to support vulnerable customers who may not be able to visit a branch or access online services through the Home Library Service, and the Good Neighbour Scheme.

Energy Projects

Hampshire County Council’s Cabinet has agreed the first new projects to be launched which will impact on Hampshire’s carbon reduction and climate resilience targets as part of the Hampshire Climate Change Strategy. In the press release, Councillor Rob Humby, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, is quoted: “Hampshire’s Climate Change Strategy … clearly demonstrates the County Council’s continued commitment to climate change, despite the challenges of Covid-19 and the extreme financial pressures on local government.”

The three initiatives include:

Telephone and Online Advice for Residents on Climate Change and Sustainability: The Environment Centre will offer support to residents with advice on how to take action in their homes on climate change and wider sustainability.

Establishing a Community Energy Network across Hampshire: This will stimulate growth of the community energy sector.  

Targeted Solar Group Buying Scheme for Hampshire: Local councils are collaborating with iChoosr to organise the scheme for homeowners and small and medium-sized enterprises (non-domestic), targeted to about 125,000 residents who can register for the Solar Together group-buying scheme.

Supporting vulnerable residents

The HantsHelp4Vulnerable helpline has, as of Monday 13 July, received a total of 14,702 calls. A total of 6,095 Local Response Centre referrals for voluntary support with food, medicine or other support have been made. The districts with the highest number of referrals from the contact centre were: New Forest (967), Basingstoke (942) and Havant (914). The district with the lowest number of referrals is Rushmoor (283). Help with food shopping, and prescriptions consistently remain the top two reasons for residents seeking support.

Smart Living

In Hampshire, a quarter of food waste that is thrown away could have been eaten.

A new campaign has recently been launched which engages with two key audiences, parents and 18- 35 year olds, to help them maintain the good food waste prevention habits established throughout lockdown. An animation which promotes reducing food waste has been shared across social media platforms and has been well received. The animation has gained over 5,000 thruplays and has led to 300 clicks to the Smart Living website.

Smart Living, Hampshire’s waste prevention and lifestyle initiative has promoted a range of additional waste reduction ideas to residents throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The ideas and tips have been closely aligned with national restrictions easing and have also signposted residents to national campaigns – for example information on donating unwanted clothing following lockdown clear outs as charity shops re-opened.

Local Covid-19 data

The Local Government Association’s LG Inform produced the below Covid-19 tracker using Public Health England data. The LG Inform reports show both the current data for authorities, as well as data over time. The information has also been combined with population data, to create a rate per 100,000 people and demonstrate relative rates of infection between authorities.

The figures relate to confirmed cases of Covid-19 following a positive test and do not cover all cases of Covid-19 which may exist – for more information on the methodology see LGA and Gov UK.  For more detail and to view other charts with Hampshire specific data see LGA LG Inform.

National context

Communities

Prisons

The guidance on preventing and controlling outbreaks of Covid-19 in prisons and places of detention has been updated to include new information relating to controlling outbreaks, transition of prisoners or detainees into the community and court appearances during outbreaks.

Fund for domestic abuse charities

The Home Office has published a bidder clarification document for the second round of the £2 million fund for domestic abuse charities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Youth justice

The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has published Covid-19 recovery guidance for Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). This guidance supports YOTs to return to delivering activity which worked prior to Covid-19, but also to incorporate some of the innovative practices which councils have developed with their partners during the pandemic.

Economy and business

Eat Out to Help Out

HMRC has collated all guidance and information on the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme for both businesses and customers onto one page. The service to help customers find participating restaurants will be available week beginning 20 July.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme 

HMRC has published statistics on all Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claims submitted by employers from the start of the scheme up to 30 June. It includes statistics on the claimants themselves and the jobs supported.

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

HMRC has published statistics on the number of individuals claiming the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant up to 30 June by age, gender, industry sector and geography.

Local authority grant payments

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published data on the local authority grant payments up to 12 July, showing the total amount of money that each local authority (districts and boroughs) has received from central government and distributed to SMEs to date. As of 12 July, £10.7 billion has been paid out to over 872,500 business properties.

Cultural venues and holiday parks

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published a set of questions and answers on the 14 July announcement on preventing loss of cultural venues and planning conditions for holiday parks.

Self Assessment payment

HMRC is reminding Self Assessment taxpayers that they can automatically defer their July payment on account until 31 January 2021.

Children and education

Attendance in education settings

The Department for Education (DfE) has published a summary of attendance in education settings up to 9 July.

ApprenticeshipsThe DfE has updated the guidance on providing apprenticeships  to confirm that from 13 July providers can welcome back 19+ apprentices into educational settings. The guidance also confirms that the flexibility to suspend functional skills for level 2 apprentices has been extended and provides more information on support for redundant apprentices.

Free school meals

The DfE has updated the guidance for schools and local authorities on free school meals arrangements with information on the temporary extension of free school meals eligibility to NRPF groups. This includes the increase in the income threshold from £16,190 per annum to £31,500 per annum for London and £28,200 for areas outside of London.

Adults' social care and public health

Face coverings 

The Government has announced that face coverings will become mandatory in shops and supermarkets from 24 July. Under the new rules, people who do not wear a face covering may incur a fine of up to £100, in line with the sanction on public transport. Children under 11 and people with certain disabilities will be exempt from wearing them. The liability for wearing a face covering lies with the individual.

New guidance on face coverings has been published, which contains information on their role in reducing the transmission of Covid-19, the settings in which they are recommended, and how they should be safely used and stored.

PPE deliveries

New statistics have been published which show that in the 7 days to 12 July, DHSC distributed over 118 million PPE items for use by health and social care services in England through the PPE Dedicated Supply Channel, NHS Supply Chain and other routes.

Imperial College London testing programmeThe initial findings from Imperial College London’s testing programme have been published. The research, which examined levels of infection in the general population in England, shows the rates of infection fell during May, the last month of lockdown, halving every 8 to 9 days. There were on average 13 positive cases for every 10,000 people, with an overall reproduction number of 0.57 – lower than previously reported. The report provides an insight into who was infected with the virus between 1 May and 1 June over lockdown, comparing geography, age, sex, ethnicity, key worker status and symptoms.

Drug and alcohol services

The guidance for commissioners and providers of services for people who use drugs or alcohol has been updated with new information on PPE supply, NHS test and trace, accessing treatment and meeting of groups inside and outside.

Cleaning non-healthcare settings

Public Health England has updated the guidance on cleaning non-healthcare settings outside the home with advice on cleaning and waste management that does not relate to a suspected or confirmed case.

Environment, place and travel

Transport useThe Department of transport has published the weekly statistics on transport mode.

National Covid-19 data

Latest R number range

The R number range for the UK is 0.7-0.9 and the growth rate range is -5% to -2% per day as of 10 July 2020. The data is available to view online.

Cases

As of 4pm on 15 July, the total number of lab-confirmed cases was 291,911. The daily number of lab-confirmed cases was 538. The total number of Covid-19 associated deaths was 45,053, with 85 new deaths reported on the day. The data is available to view online.

Additional links