Across the world, Covid-19 is challenging services in a way never before seen and this has been the case with our local authorities too. As a Councillor within North Lanarkshire Council, I have been thoroughly encouraged by the effort of our staff and in particular heads of service who were quick to implement our detailed resilience management arrangements. The Gold ‘strategic’ and Silver ‘tactical’ groups were set up with the Gold group chaired by the chief executive and comprises of all heads of services who meet daily, including weekends, since it’s implementation in early March. The Silver group includes representation across services and is chaired by the Head of Regulatory and Waste Solutions, who has the corporate responsibility for resilience.

Across Scotland, councils have adopted emergency decision-making structures including Glasgow City Council suspending regular committee meetings with urgent matters being dealt by a new city administration committee. Officers will have power to authorise decisions on a wide range of matters but any issues that are not in line with current council policy will be dealt by the new administration committee. Edinburgh has set up a similar system to Glasgow, whereas Aberdeen and Dundee have opted to continue meetings with the situation to remain under review at this point.

There have been national announcements regarding schools that are primarily the responsibility of councils to manage, therefore the way in which these aims are to be achieved have been largely left to local authorities to factor in local circumstances. Considering this, as the UK moves from the Contain phase (where testing of suspected cases and testing was in place) to the Delay phase, the priority to slow the down the spread of the virus became crucial to reduce the number of cases at the peak and protect groups at most risk. However, factors such as ensuring that childcare does not become an issue for critical/key workers (e.g. NHS staff) has meant that at this point school-based staff, including teachers, who are not self-isolating are still expected to report to school to ensure that these children are being looked after whilst their parents are at work.

Within North Lanarkshire, as it stands for now, to support vulnerable children, schools will still be providing food at schools to those eligible for free school meals. There are also other circumstances that lead to children being vulnerable therefore a key principle for our local authority is to use school buildings as a focal point for community support.

Through my role as a Councillor, I have opted to use my time to support local community groups to identify and provide meals for those self-isolating within my ward. We have begun fundraising and organising teams to cook and distribute the meals; the response from the community to help has been fantastic. Within two days we had already met half our fundraising target. In Cumbernauld, a Facebook group to organise and support our community through this crisis had over 5,800 people join within a matter of days with many offering to support neighbours however they can with shopping or other errands.

I have been truly inspired by the response of the community and the staff working at a local authority level at this time of crisis for the world. We are all directly affected by this situation in relation to our health, loved ones and financially but the selflessness of the community has been awe-inspiring for me. The leadership shown on a local authority level through our staff has affirmed my belief within our workforce who have gone above and beyond to respond to the situation we find ourselves in. Coronavirus provisions have already been made following the decision of North Lanarkshire Council’s special meeting (19^th March) to decide on the allocation of £6.0m of additional funding provided by the Scottish Government with further specific coronavirus funding to be delivered to all local authorities soon. We will get through this together; I have confidence within Councils to deliver the action we need to see ourselves through this crisis.

This article was originally published in the Scots Independent (April 2020)