WIRRAL Council has outlined what it would do if an outbreak of E.coli happened on the Wirral. The UK Health Security Agency is currently investigating an outbreak of Shifa toxin-production escherichia coli.

The outbreak was first identified in England on May 22 and between May 25 and June 24, 275 confirmed cases were reported. It’s believed sandwiches containing lettuce are considered the likely main cause of the outbreak though a government update on June 24 said cases were declining.

During a Wirral Council adult social care and public health committee meeting, councillors were updated on the local authority’s health protection response to different public health issues on the Wirral including potential outbreaks. While COVID-19 is no longer considered a priority, the council will be developing a new delivery plan for the next year addressing a number of issues from cancer to air quality to reducing the risk of measles outbreaks.

Cllr Tony Murphy, referring to “environmental threats to health,” asked about “certain incidents across the country of pollution of water and e-coli because of either runoff from farms or from dumping of raw sewage” and what the council was doing to be prepared.

Director of Public Health Dave Bradburn said: “If there was anything that was linked to the national outbreak that you’re referring to, that would get notified directly to me if it was affecting Wirral directly.

“I would then make sure that we escalated our processes to make sure all the partners were involved.”

He added: “In that situation, we would investigate, confirm, and put any control measures in place and then communicate to whoever needs to be communicated with.”

Councillors also approved a number of different policies including policies for autism and supported employment, and a number of different budget reports. One report updating councillors on the local authority’s current budget position said there was an overspend of £2.5m. A report said this was driven by increasing demand and costs for social care.

Charmaine Holland, care service manager from Beloved Homecare, raised concerns about the local authority’s in-house Able Me care staff getting paid “significantly more” and given more benefits than what Beloved’s contract with the local authority provides for. She asked the council to increase rates to close this gap but Wirral Council said it did not compete with already existing services and they were not directly comparable.

Ms Holland said: “We want to know what is the criteria for them to get that pay because currently I would say domiciliary companies are working at a disadvantage,” adding: “We are expected to do so much more.” 

Cllr Mike Sullivan who previously worked in the care sector interrupted to say he sympathised with the firm, adding the council’s response “really wasn’t good enough” given pay issues in the sector. He said he hoped the newly elected Labour government tackled the issue after budget cuts since 2010, adding: “This dereliction has been going on now for far too long.” 

He said good staff would move to the council because it pays better, adding: “We’re all going to be in a position one day where we might not be able to cope so what I would say is I’m hoping that the council are going to look at this. We’ve got to pay people and the council are paying for services but we’re not paying enough.”