Peer Team Recommendations

Overall approach and Living with COVID 19

1. Widely articulate and engage staff in a medium term contain strategy for the coming winter (and beyond), articulating what ‘living with COVID 19’ looks like for NYCC

This will support contingency planning, minimise uncertainties and bolster efforts to maintain public engagement.

2. Consider how system-wide ownership of this strategy could sit within the Integrated Care System (ICS) governance framework

This will help engender collective and system ownership, ensure it fits into the new ICS governance framework and that health protection has a strong place within it.

Governance and leadership

3. Consider the speed at which a crisis management governance approach should transition to business as usual and the factors that influence that

Agreeing clear milestones will enable a managed return to the previous democratic decision-making processes.

Communications

4. Encourage clear ownership of - and investment into - communications across all Council departments. Maintain a focus on developing and delivering clear and consistent messages of what North Yorkshire’s post pandemic aspirations are. Ensure that these messages are shared by the council and its various partners at a time of change for North Yorkshire as a place. This will further strengthen the quality and balanced output across departments which will be important in continuing public engagement in public health messages.

Insight-driven health response

5. Consider how to make most effective use of intelligence to evaluate outcomes and inform ‘living with COVID 19’ strategic planning

By considering high-level place-based objectives alongside operational considerations this will support ‘whole place’ strategic planning.

6. Continue investment in health protection, building on lessons-learned and the valuable skills developed

This will enable NYCC to adapt to future stages of the pandemic by sustaining valuable population-based health knowledge, skills and capacity.

Resilience and capacity

7. Create space for staff to reflect, recharge and celebrate what has been achieved

This will support both personal and organisational resilience and recovery.

8. Bring together efforts around organisational resilience

This will mitigate uncertainties, risks and further support staff welfare.

Care settings

9. Provide assurance around what local government reform means for health and social care

By building on learning of what has worked well in increased engagement with care users, this will provide clarity and help mitigate users’ concerns.

System-wide learning

10. Develop an approach for embedding the transformative, collaborative, and more empowered ways of working

This will ensure learning from across the pandemic response informs the design of the new Council as well as business as usual