COVID testing, ‘transformational’ budget, Local Government Pensions Scheme, & forthcoming Health Scrutiny Meeting

Report dated 19/9/20

This week I had a stream of residents contact me over the seeming impossibility of getting a Covid test now the schools are back and children are picking up viruses from each other. Pillar 2 testing (the national testing system) had been pulled out of Cornwall to go to other places with higher Covid-19 numbers and local Public Health and NHS tests (Pillar 1) only had about 100 tests per day extra capacity. This has been happening nationally too. Unfortunately, initially, our Cornish MPs did not seem convinced the problem was a real one and thought people were asking for tests when they didn’t need them(?!). After gathering and providing evidence they quickly accepted the problem. It would be more helpful if Cornwall could grasp the nettle and set up its own Testing and Tracing system rather than meekly wait for instruction from central government. We have had 1,086 Covid cases so far in Cornwall. If we do not have adequate testing we will lose our grip on how many cases we have and our ability to cope with local outbreaks.

This week the Cabinet discussed and passed the ‘transformational’ budget. There is a full council meeting on Tuesday when the capital programme will be updated and constitutional issues voted on. The link to the agenda and webcast is here -https://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=584&MId=9693&Ver=4 The 3 motions about the planning system, hybrid meetings and my Call In motion are in that agenda too.

I was also at a Pensions Committee meeting of the LGPS (Local Government Pension Scheme) meeting last week. If you are a member of the LGPS and feel strongly about divestment/Responsible Investment principles and your organisation has declared a Climate Emergency or committed to the Paris targets or de-carbonisation by 2030, please contact the scheme managers to let them know this and ask your organisation to do so too.

Contact
Cornwall Pension Fund
Fourth Floor, South Wing,
New County Hall,
Truro,
TR1 3AY
Online
Benefits:
pensions@cornwall.gov.uk
Investments:
pensioninvestments@cornwall.gov.uk


Next week there will also be a Health Scrutiny meeting - https://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1153&MId=9518&Ver=4 We will be discussing the budget and integration of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust and the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Also, do you or anyone you know work in Care and not get paid properly if you have to be off work isolating due to Covid-19? Please let me know if so.

Jayne Kirkham