The report of the Director of Public Health (Document “C”) provides an update on COVID-19 communications and community engagement work delivered in the Bradford West Area and specifically that delivered by Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD), Racial Equality Network (REN) and Urban Reach Partnership CIC.

Recommended -

That the contents of the Document “C” and the important work that is taking place or planned by the 3 organisations represented, as part of the system response to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic be noted.

                                                            (Liz Barry – 07582103101)

The report of the Director of Public Health (Document “C”) provided an update on COVID-19 communications and community engagement work delivered in the Bradford West Area and specifically that delivered by Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD), Racial Equality Network (REN) and Urban Reach Partnership CIC.

The Head of Public Health was in attendance accompanied by delegates representing CABAD and REN who were also in attendance to give the committee an overview of Covid communications and engagement activity to date specific to Bradford West.

At the invitation of the Chair, the Head of Public Health was requested by the Chair to give a synopsis of the report to the committee. She explained that:

·         In June 2020, the Government announced local authority allocations for the Test and Trace Service Support Grant, for Bradford £3.8m. The funding was provided to enable local authorities to develop and implement tailored local COVID-19 outbreak plans through, for example, funding the recruitment of additional staff where required, contact tracing capacity for complex situations such as hard to engage groups, and developing communications to promote the system equally to encourage communities and individuals to follow government guidance;

·         In planning to deliver against the Test and Trace Service Support Grant, Public Health officers contacted Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD) and Race Equality Network (REN) to connect to the VCS network and ask them to present a proposal on how the VCS could support Council objectives in managing COVID-19 response through reach into communities;

·         Council for Mosques (CfM) had been engaged on previous campaigns and had been successful in their reach. They were therefore also engaged with a view to looking at how to use religion and Mosques to engage with local communities and individuals;

·         However, no contract was awarded to CfM as the organisation, instead, identified to the Council their Community Interest Company (CIC) Urban Reach Partnership (URP) as the contracting entity, which had been newly set up by CfM to administer contracts for such purposes;

·         The process of awarding the contracts followed the Councils Contract Standing Orders and COVID-19 urgency guidelines issued by the Cabinet Office. Following guidance on procurement, the 3 organisations each submitted applications which included details of how they could deliver the work required and providing response to other due diligence questions/declaration; and,

·         Contracts were then awarded as Exception to Competition to CABAD, REN and URP.

Following the latter, the Chair invited the delegates in attendance to give an outline of the contracted engagement work carried out to date in the communities.

A Project Manager on behalf of REN gave an overview of the ongoing community engagement work being delivered to communities. She explained that in August 2020, REN were awarded £3000k by Bradford Council Public Health to deliver an 18 months’ project with the aim of tackling the immediate impacts of COVID-19 as a starting point by raising awareness on test and trace, infection control and outbreak management amongst these communities working jointly with Black, Asian, ethnic minority, CEE led and focussed community organisations.

The engagement work undertaken by REN, amongst others:

·         REN Covid Prevention Project - We are using a Hub and Spoke model with Community Anchors (Hubs) and Community Champions (Spokes). The Hubs are 4 organisations selected for their reach, capacity and ability to deliver the objectives of the project and Spokes support the Anchors with schemes which are bespoke to meet particular community needs; and,

·         The 26 organisations had been allocated £183,706 of funding from REN. Anchors had received £20k (each) to support REN to meet the objectives of the project. Spokes had received up to £5k through small grants to engage with their communities to ensure clear messages and guidance is disseminated on a range of platforms (social media) and languages on Covid rules, test and trace process, infection control, outbreak management, recruiting volunteers and community champions. 

The CEO of CABAD then commenced with her synopsis of the work undertaken by the organisation within the Bradford West area. She explained that the project was commissioned for 18 months (July 2020 to December 2021) to specifically support Test and Trace activity i.e. hands, face, space messaging, home testing and more recently increasing the usage of LFT tests.

Once the vaccination engagement programme had commenced, the work entailed, amongst others:

·         CABAD was given permission to develop own tailored work to cover vaccinations. Community Action was asked to mobilise this work as soon as possible and therefore the organisation utilised the skills and expertise of other organisations currently undertaking similar activity;

·         The already existing Community Partnership Network helped CABAD with a good geographical reach (demographics were covered by other provision) and where some organisations did not wish to participate, CABAD engaged with other local partners. The purpose of selecting this route as these organisations had already completed some level of due diligence, were well respected in their neighbourhoods and were ready to work immediately; and,

·         Once REN had secured their network and the Inclusion Health group was established, CABAD engaged a further 4 organisations that worked with disabled and learning disabled adults as this group of individuals were under-represented.

Following the two verbal presentations, the Chair expressed his concerns as to the absence of Urban Reach CIC. He then went further by requesting the background and validity of the organisation as he had never come across this organisation during his years’ community work within the Bradford West constituency. The committee too, echoed the Chair’s sentiments.

In addition, clarification was sought as to what means, was it possible, for a newly established organisation, without any track record of undertaking any form of similar engagement activities, to be awarded a contract of such importance, associated with significant public funds. The Assistant Director to the office of the Chief Executive, explained to the committee that Urban Reach was one of three companies commissioned to deliver Covid communications and that no further details were available at present due to the absence of the Director of Public Health. However, the company was listed in Companies House.

The committee expressed deep concerns as to the non-attendance of a delegate from Urban Reach and therefore no information could be obtained or clarified on the work undertaken by the company. That £200,000 was a significant amount of public funds and the fact that a representative had not attended the committee was an alarming matter.

The Chair concluded the discussion by stressing to the officers present for the necessary representatives accompanied by the Director of Public Health attend the next meeting, and therefore:

Resolved –

(1)       That the contents of Document “C” and the important work undertaken or planned by Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD) and the Racial Equality Network (REN) as part of the system response to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic be praised.

(2)       That Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD) and the Racial Equality Network (REN) return to the Bradford West Area Committee with an update report in six months’ time.

(3)       That a report be presented to the Bradford West Area Committee in July 2021 by Urban Reach Partnership CIC that gives detailed information on the important work that has been undertaken to date and the planned work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That the report further includes the details of the recruitment process of the Programme Lead.

ACTION: Director of Public Health