Food vouchers for the Christmas holidays

Following KCC’s response to offer vouchers to families of children entitled to Free School Meals over the October half term, the Council will be using part of its £4.5m allocation under the government’s £170m Covid Winter Fund to provide vouchers over the Christmas holidays.

Whereas the October scheme, of necessity, required an application, the greater time for preparation means that families should be able to receive the vouchers (one £15 per week voucher for each eligible child) without the need for an application process. This scheme for both the Christmas holidays and the February half term should cost some £2.5m, leaving a further £2m for schemes that support low-income families with pre-school children and other similar households, including those without children. 

I am signing off the formal Council Decisions required to bring this into effect and to enable the Council and schools to exchange the information needed for the voucher scheme. 

It is good that we were able to support families during half term, and better news still that we will be able to do so over the Christmas period. 

You can find KCC‘s press release here.

Kent in Tier 3

Today’s government announcement that Kent as a whole is being placed in Tier 3, the highest level of Covid-19 restrictions, comes as a severe blow to residents and businesses across the County. 

Covid cases have risen sharply in Kent in recent weeks. Up until around the middle of October, Kent’s incidence (cases per 100,000 over 7 days) was far below the national average, and even below the South East average. As of 21 November, however, Kent’s figure was 274.3, compared with national average of 207.1 and a South East average of 157.3. (Neighbouring Medway, however, stood at 423.9). The acceleration began in Swale and has taken in much of northern and coastal Kent. Swale’s rates (528.4) and Thanet’s (492.3) are among the highest in the country. Rates across other parts of the county - in particular, in Districts and Boroughs such as Tunbridge Wells, Ashford and Sevenoaks – are much lower. The county-wide nature of the restrictions has generated anger and bewilderment in those areas with lower rates. 

Our focus – as made clear in a statement issued today – is on getting the county out of Tier 3 as fast as possible. That is a task for us in local government (and our localised delivery of test and trace, in support of the national system, starts tomorrow) but also for all our residents. The quicker we get infection rates down, especially in the most affected parts of the county, the sooner these damaging restrictions can be lifted. I will be taking part in a press conference tomorrow afternoon with our Director of Public Health, Andrew Scott-Clark, and colleagues from Medway and from the NHS, tomorrow afternoon.