Covid-19 Updates from West Oxfordshire District Council

Revenues and Benefits:

We have received additional funding to help those working age customers in receipt of Council Tax Support. Up to £150 will be credited to these customers’ Council Tax accounts during this week and the early part of next week. The number of qualifying households clearly changes on a daily basis but the headline figure is that 660 West Oxfordshire households will benefit by a total of £99,000.

Customer Services:

Customer contact is now back to normal levels, so our Customer Service advisers are starting to assist with Covid community support tasks on top of their normal duties.

Housing:

Homelessness presentations are higher than normal and the situation is being very closely managed by Housing and Homelessness Teams. We are working closely with Housing Associations to ensure that the newly accommodated rough sleepers (who would not normally be in priority need) are safely accommodated as we come out of the crisis

Waste:

The exact position in relation to West Oxfordshire as of 30th April is that bulky waste collections have been reinstated and all other services are running as normal – two crews being staffed for container deliveries today. Trade waste collections are suspended for those customers who aren’t operating as per government guidance. 15 staff are self-isolating.

Waste recycling centres: The Local Government Secretary has asked councils to plan for the organised reopening of waste and recycling sites. Updated guidance will be published shortly to support local government to open sites safely during the pandemic.

Community support/resilience hub

This week has seen a continued emphasis on the shielded list of residents making more proactive ‘safe and well’ calls. The latest shielded list contains 1772 residents and continues to increase slowly. We are expecting a significant increase over coming days as the details of the non-responders to national list are passed to us to make contact to establish that they are indeed supported appropriately. We are introducing more resources to this team to deal with this increase in demand.

New free online learning platform to boost workplace skills

A new online learning platform to help boost the nation’s skills while people are staying at home has been launched by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Free courses are available through a new online platform hosted on the GOV.UK website, called ‘The Skills Toolkit’. The new platform gives people access to free, high-quality digital and numeracy courses to help build up their skills, progress in work and boost their job prospects. For more information see the announcement https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-free-online-learning-platform-to-boost-workplace-skills and the Skill’s Toolkit https://theskillstoolkit.campaign.gov.uk/

Stay safe online

The government has published new advice to help people, particularly children, stay safe online during the coronavirus outbreak. The guidance https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-staying-safe-online sets out a four-point plan and recommends reviewing security and safety settings, checking facts and guarding against disinformation, being vigilant against fraud and scams, and managing the amount of time spent online.

75th Anniversary of VE Day

The government announced today revised plans to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day on 8th May in a manner consistent with the current measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. The new programme will allow members of the public to remember and give thanks to the Second World War generation from the safety of their own homes. See details of the programme: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/her-majesty-the-queen-to-send-a-message-to-the-nation-to-mark-75th-anniversary-of-ve-day and find out how members of the public may take part https://ve-vjday75.gov.uk/get-involved/ .

Public Access

Our receptions/front desks remain closed, until further notice. We have procedures in place to assist any emergency cases but are guiding all other customers to our website and telephone lines whilst Coronavirus demands we protect our staff.

Website information

Our website and social media channels have all the latest information concerning how we are operating in the midst of this emergency situation. We encourage you to follow them and check the website regularly.

Website: http://www.westoxon.gov.uk/coronavirus

Twitter: http://@WODCNewsFacebook http://@WestOxfordshire

Please note that the coronavirus webpage includes links to other pages of interest, including the community support page.