Lancaster City Council in national spotlight for shaping future national policy
The positive way in which Lancaster City Council worked with local businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic has been spotlighted on a national stage.
Steve Sylvester
The council’s public health team was invited to share its learnings from lockdown at the PROTECT Covid-19 National Core Study’s symposium, alongside the Health and Safety Executive’s chief scientific adviser, professor Andrew Curran, and UK government chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, who spearheaded the UK-wide research programme.
It is hoped that improving the understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) is transmitted from person to person, and how this varies in different settings and environments, will help shape practice in the future.
At the PROTECT event earlier this month, Steve Sylvester, the council’s commercial protection manager, shared how the council successfully worked closely with local businesses to ensure safe practice, helped avoid the need for enforcement and how it translated the Covid-19 regulations - making it easier for business owners to understand continually changing legislation.
Mr Sylvester said: “It was great to be invited to such a high-profile event and I was impressed by the ingenuity of some of the research projects.
“Sharing our experience as a public protection team working closely with businesses and the public is valuable feedback to scientist engaged in research.
“The scientists need to understand how their conclusions can translate into practical, simple, useful advice to businesses and the public to help control the spread of the virus.
“The feedback from teams on the ground enforcing the rules, will help to ensure any future emergency legislation is clear, effective and fair to businesses, while helping to save lives.”
It comes after Fiona Inston, head of public protection, was asked to be a representative of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in national discussions with senior officers of the UK Health Security Agency on the future model of health protection.
Last updated: 24 May 2022