Title

PUBLIC HEALTH

It's time to focus virus 'contain' funding on families and streets

We need to recalibrate and resource the Contain Outbreak Management Fund activity on preparing for a series of hyper-local responses that directly focus on families and streets, says Cllr John Fuller.

‘When the facts change, you need to alter your position' - so says Warren Buffet, the legendary long-term investor.

And much has changed since the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) was unveiled last October, yet the guidance for using it remains unchanged. The Prime Minister's roadmap promises an additional £400m into our local effort, with this new investment we need a new outlook.

There is no more talk of regional lock-downs. Over 100  MPs registered their displeasure in December and there is no suggestion that that number has reduced.

Instead, as the economy contemplates emergence into the bright spring sunshine, the narrative is about hyper-local, highly flexible and customised bespoke approaches.

In South Norfolk we are conducting such testing of 9,500 residents and workers in the lovely Market Town of Diss, and others have done likewise. This is the canvass on which we will now fight this disease.

It's critical that everyone gets jabbed.  Whilst our NHS is responsible for the injections within the precincts of the vaccination centre, it's the local councils that are convening the whole ecosystem that gets people to their appointment. This is a task made more complex by the extensions to the clinically extremely vulnerable group.

Until now the elderly and vulnerable have been only too grateful to turn up, and on time.  It's becoming clear that, as we move down the vulnerability scale, this is a task that can only get more difficult.

There are groups in our community who will need to be coaxed to get immunised. Only if they become protected can we all start to taste freedom again.

There will be 80% of the effort getting the last 20% into the vaccine centre.   Once again, this is final mile, doorstep work that district councils are organised to perform.

So, to face this new normal, now is the time to recognise that things have changed since October and to recalibrate and resource the COMF activity on preparing for a series of hyper-local responses that directly focus on families and streets.

The review has been a long time coming, but time to further procrastinate is not a luxury we can afford.

Cllr John Fuller OBE is chairman of the District Councils' Network

@JohnFullerOBE

PUBLIC HEALTH

Pension funds urged to engage with pools ahead of law change

By Dan Peters | 26 September 2025

Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds should engage with their pools now ahead of changes from the Pensions Schemes Bill passing into law, a consultan...

PUBLIC HEALTH

Labour looks local

By Cllr Bev Craig | 26 September 2025

As Labour delegates prepare to head to the party conference in Liverpool, Cllr Bev Craig outlines the key reforms impacting local government and signals a re...

PUBLIC HEALTH

Whatever the structure, residents remain the same

By Heather Jameson | 25 September 2025

Heather Jameson says: 'Councils are scrambling to act before Government imposes financial restrictions ahead of reorganisation. Is this central diktat once a...

PUBLIC HEALTH

Move to transfer Surrey assets ahead of reorganisation

By By Paul Marinko | 25 September 2025

Surrey districts are moving to transfer community assets to parish councils and community groups so their future is secured ahead of local government reorgan...

Popular articles by Cllr John Fuller OBE