Communication from Liverpool Council could have been better around Covid-19 according to senior councillors.
Members of the local authority’s audit committee admitted that they felt during the onset of the pandemic, engagement from officers could have been improved as the city wrestled with how to deal with the virus. Committee chair Cllr Kris Brown said while he felt Liverpool’s response to coronavirus had been excellent, lessons could be learned.
He said: “Around the women’s hospital incident, I felt the engagement with elected members was actually very well done. On a personal level, I didn’t feel that so much with covid, in the earlier days.
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“As a backbench councillor, it felt quite removed from it. That engagement with us as elected members is crucial in terms of understanding communities more and I hope that continues as we learn from these unfortunate incidents and work with us moving forward.”
Jamie Riley, Liverpool Council emergency planning unit manager, said the city and the council is "still responding and recovering from covid" and that it is a "marathon, not a sprint." He added that the virus has been "so broad" and "protracted" in its impact.
Former cabinet member Cllr Paul Brant said there was "less clarity" at the start of the pandemic in terms of communication but that was owing to the reliance on "instructions from those above us" and praised the city's overall response to the virus.
On lessons learned, former acting mayor Cllr Wendy Simon, said the city found out which communities were strong and which were weaker. Some were able to step up right away during the onset of covid, she said.
A report to councillors ahead of the meeting said: “the ongoing COVID-19 crisis remains, to date, the biggest challenge to peace time resilience.” Mr Riley was appearing before the committee to discuss how the city and council prepares for events like pandemics and terror attacks.
The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) places several statutory duties on councils to prepare and maintain robust civil emergency response and recovery plans. Mr Riley said the city's emergency plans are not just there for "rising tide or long-term events" but for "sudden impact events" like the attack on Liverpool Women's Hospital last year.
He said plans are regularly reviewed and updated and in light of recent crises “covid being the most obvious one” the council was bracing for “the potential impact and ongoing impact on the community of people coming into Liverpool from the Ukraine crisis and potentially horizon scanning for cost of living issues and supply chain issues.”
