Hertfordshire Unveils Blueprint to ‘Build Back Better’ after COVID

From helping pupils catch-up to enabling residents to be fit and healthy to supporting workers and businesses to get back on their feet, the Covid-19 recovery Strategy has something for everyone in Hertfordshire to ‘build back better’.

It is in-part under-pinned by a £9.7 million dedicated Covid-19 Recovery Fund to help drive local recovery and an ambition to be innovative in making services the best they can be for residents.

Richard Roberts, Leader of the Council said: ‘The pandemic has had a monumental impact on all of our lives, but as we look to restore our county to its pre-pandemic environment it is imperative we rethink how we work and continually improve so we can build back better.

‘Our Covid Recovery Strategy demonstrates how we will achieve this ambition, by recognising and directly responding to the impact COVID-19 has had on Hertfordshire and its residents and addressing the inequalities in our society that were amplified by the pandemic.

‘Focusing on the priorities we believe matter most to Hertfordshire, the health and wellbeing of our people, ensuring our places thrive and protecting our precious natural environment, we will support our county’s social and economic recovery whilst creating a cleaner, greener, healthier Hertfordshire, now, and for the future.’

The Covid-19 Recovery Strategy brings together a series of projects designed to support health and wellbeing and economic recovery over the next two years with the new funds being split across three key priority areas: Health and wellbeing, the environment and sustainable growth. Some of these projects are already up and running, and have been embedded into team practice while others are new initiatives that use the Recovery Fund.

Highlights under each of the priorities include:

Health and wellbeing

• Adult Care Services projects receiving £3m, including money dedicated to fighting homelessness, alcohol, mental health and domestic abuse. £285,000 will support over 700 adults with disabilities in finding education, work and volunteering opportunities that has been more challenging through the pandemic.
• Carer projects, as part of Adult Care Services, will be receiving £258,000 to counter the loneliness, digital exclusion and mental health effects heightened through the pandemic. Funding will enable the council to continue the carers’ support package including the Carers’ Hub meetings, telephone support offered by Carers in Herts, mentoring, wellbeing and training sessions.
• Expanding community protection with £60,000, enabling an increase in Safe and Well visits, targeted at the most vulnerable and disadvantaged Hertfordshire residents. There has been an increase in vulnerability, social isolation and domestic abuse during the covid pandemic. The money allocated will enable more of these ‘one stop shop’ visits to people’s homes, keeping them safer and signposting them to further support such as advice on fuel poverty, stopping smoking, weight loss and mental health.
• Supporting families in or at risk of falling into poverty with joint programmes between Children Services, Public Health and Adult Care Services. One is the ‘Good start in Life’ project, receiving £228k over the next two years to develop services for vulnerable families who have become pregnant or have young children during the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes the New Parent Drop in project which will reduce isolation, develop local peer support and support early intervention of physical and mental health needs in families and support parents returning to work with monthly sessions being held in 38 venues across Hertfordshire.
• Helping residents stay active and maintain a healthy weight, including a new pilot linking physical activity with good mental health. The Never Too Late campaign aims to increase physical activity for those aged 55 and over, and four-hour activity sessions for young people who receive free school meals. There will also be a pilot with the NHS to explore the role hot food takeaways play in obesity.
• Schools ‘coming back stronger’ and mental health support enabling additional educational psychologists’ and Speech and Language capacity to support children and young people and additional investment in counselling schemes to help address the mental health impact of Covid-19 on children and families. £1.2m will is dedicated to these projects.
• Addressing inequalities across the county by offering advice on home adaptation, fuel tariffs and managing utilities. There will also be new food welfare initiatives, and work with partner organisations to increase finance/benefits advice to those leaving care of families with disabled children.

The Environment

• Cutting food waste disposal by raising awareness of the financial and environmental costs. Food waste disposal costs Hertfordshire’s taxpayers around £7.1 million each year. The Hertfordshire Food Waste Initiative has been allocated £65,000 as part of a campaign to promote food waste prevention measures to residents.
• Restarting Environmental volunteering programmes encouraging residents to get involved to make their county a better place to live and expanding the Hertfordshire Health Walks across the county. It is anticipated this will include wood wardens, health walks and conservation volunteers.

Sustainable Growth

• Supporting pupils and schools catch up after the pandemic are a number of initiatives, including £120,000 into a schools mentoring pilot and targeted work with children most at risk of exclusion.
• Focusing on residents’ wellbeing when considering planning and delivery of growth projects. The initiative involves working closely with the health sector to ensure new developments are places that enhance residents’ lives.

Most projects currently fall under the Health and Wellbeing priority, reflecting both how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted needs in this area and the council’s aims to address this first.

A recovery roadmap has been developed to structure this work, setting out the priorities for recovery and rationale for areas of focus. It looks to respond to COVID-19, restore to our pre-pandemic environment and rethink how the council works to deliver services.

The strategy also seeks to modernise operations within the council, to enable staff to deliver a forward-thinking programme of recovery which best addresses residents’ needs, and retains and nurtures talent. Proposals are due to be presented at Cabinet Panel on October 1. The final strategy is due to be presented to full council on 19 October.

To find out more about the strategy and what is means for you, go to: Agenda for Resources and Performance Cabinet Panel on Friday, 1 October 2021, 10.00 am | Hertfordshire County Council