The Conservative lead County Council balanced its COVID account in 2020/21 proving once again that it is one of the best managed Councils in the Country, throughout the crisis we have attracted widespread praise for the approach we have taken and many of our initiatives have been replicated elsewhere in the Country. As a result of the leadership it has provided, Hertfordshire has been widely recognised as an exemplar.
The Council has spent over £173 million on its overall COVID response and despite these COVID pressures has not had to dip into its reserves or use its contingency protecting taxpayers from the financial impact of the pandemic.
The Hertfordshire response to the pandemic has been a partnership between the public, private and community & voluntary sector. Conservative Councillors would like to give a big ‘shout out’ the thousands of volunteers who stepped up, the NHS professionals and all the County Council Staff – thank you to you all. The management of the whole County’s response has been led by the Hertfordshire Health Protection Board.
The Council’s response so far has included:
- 60,000 visits by social workers to support families
- 700 early year settings, schools and colleges were supported by the Covid-19 response team
- 8500 keeping-in touch calls to local family carers
- 1700 plus trading standards compliance checks
- 600 care homes and care providers and 35,000plus social care staff supported through our new Care Provider Hub
- 3000 referrals to our Money Advice Unit raising £16.5m in additional benefits for residents
- 1 million downloads from our e-library
- 130,000 plus enquiries dealt with by Hertshelp community helpline
- 9 million pieces of PPE delivered
- 42 rapid testing centres – offering 20,000 residents tests each week
- 8 large vaccine centres delivered and supported
- 7,129 community volunteers deployed to support our communities
- Controlling test and trace in the County
- Controlling surge testing in Broxbourne which was recognised by Dido Harding recently as being exemplary.
- 132,000 food and medicine packages delivered made up of:
- 114,789 food parcels delivered to individuals
- 11,323 food parcels delivered to other organisations to dispense including food banks
- 6,266 medicine deliveries
