Dear Colleague,

The Coronavirus position in the UK continues to worsen and the UK Government and Welsh Government has now confirmed that schools will close for the foreseeable future. This position is unique in our lifetime and we have to respond accordingly as a public sector organisation that many will depend on.

To date, you have all responded to the pandemic with your usual high levels of care and commitment. However, over the next few weeks and months, we will need all our staff, across all Council services including schools, who are sufficiently fit and well to undertake a wide range of tasks to help ensure that key services to our most vulnerable residents continue to be provided.

We are already experiencing a significant level of staff absence with staff having to self-isolate in accordance with the advice and guidance provided by Public Health Wales. Therefore, over the next few days, we will have to close other services. We will then reallocate staff to work in the community, possibly working with volunteers and the 3rd sector delivering food and medicines to the vulnerable, providing free school meals to children, or phoning isolated individuals to check on their well-being, or other essential tasks as we face this National Health Emergency together.

Over the next week or so, we will be in contact with staff that have been displaced by service closures, and ask them to either support other services still operating or to help out in the community and support volunteers.

We again thank you for your continued support and encourage you to continue to follow Public Health Wales guidelines on personal care and look out for each other.

Thank you and take care.

Councillor Andrew Morgan Chris Bradshaw

Leader of the Council