BLAENAU GWENT has officially ended its emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Executive committee on Wedesday, March 2, councillors looked at the council’s Covid-19 recovery plan.

The document explains that bouncing back from Covid-19 will become part and parcel of everyday work for the forseeable future.

The council’s managing director, Michelle Morris said:

“Over the last two years we have been largely in an emergency response situation. I’m pleased to say that those arrangement are stood down now.

“Work has been going on this recovery plan for some months in parallel with the emergency response, we had anticipated that we would reach a point where we would need to turn our thoughts to the future, and this sets out how that will be done.

“We felt it was more appropriate to integrate this with our governance arrangements and business planning and performance than to have specific plan that’s monitored separately.”

She added that the Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee supported the approach, and a lot of their dicussion was on how to support business and to minimise the economic impact of the pandemic on the borough.

Council leader Cllr Nigel Daniels said:

“I know executive members have been fully involved in various strands of the work that been undertaken and the recovery themes.”

“We were kept well abreast right throughout and indeed were part of it.

Cllr Dai Davies said:

“The work right across the council has been second to none.

“We’ve come out of it now in a position where we can grow.”

The executive voted unanimously to approve the report.

The report explains that the approach will cover four sectors: Economy, Social Services, Education, and Blaenau Gwent council workforce.

On Social Services, the report says that the council hopes to get staffing levels up to “pre-pandemic levels” so that face-to-face assessment and engagement can be done, along with “unrestricted access” to support services.

For Education, the hope is that schools and education providers are “fully operational” and able to cater for all pupil and student needs.

This would allow pupils to “effectively transition” through the different educational stages.

On Economy, the report says that the intention is to “provide a framework” allowing the council to support “creating the conditions” for Blaenau Gwent to “recover, prosper and develop sustainable in a post-pandemic economy.”

The hope is “as a minimum” the unemployment rate in Blaenau Gwent will fall to the Wales national average, and that shoppers will return to the towns which will help increase wages in the county.

On the Blaenau Gwent workforce, the report says that the council hopes the absence rate will fall and that the agile working hubs become fully operational.