Council staff on receiving end of public's 'frustrations of what’s happening with Covid'

Councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council Audit and Governance Committee called for mental health support for council staff to be a priority as people continue to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chris Little, director of resources and development at the council, said working groups have been set up to help ensure staff get the support they need.

However he noted concerningly over the past week some council staff had ‘been on the end of people’s frustrations’, which he said was not acceptable.

Mr Little said: “At the start of Covid the public were really supportive of council staff across a whole range of services.

“Regrettably over the last few weeks I think council staff are starting to be on the receiving end of some people’s frustrations of what’s happening with Covid and the length of it going on, and some negative comments are coming back.

“To some extent you can understand that perhaps the public are starting to become frustrated with what’s happening, but it’s completely wrong that the council staff who are just going about doing their day jobs are going to be part of where people decide to lash out.

“It’s not going to be acceptable and that’s something we’re going to keep an eye on just in case that becomes more of an issue. It’s about protecting our staff.”

He added strategies are being developed by the council’s acting director of public health to help support the mental health of staff during this time.

It came after Cllr Brenda Harrison called for mental health to be a priority for the council, noting how stretched certain services will be due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said: “The mental health issue is a very important one but it obviously goes a lot further than the staff.

“Some of the services are going to be very stretched, I’m talking about people suffering from mental health who perhaps wouldn’t normally have suffered from mental health, but definitely due to this particular pandemic.

“It is a really important issue and something which needs to be a priority, making sure everyone is working okay so that they can deliver those services to other people who need them.”

Mr Little also noted measures are in place to support staff working from home, and praised the efforts of managers for their communication.

He said: “I think there’s a good approach from managers, keeping in touch with the staff, and I think that’s been one of the most important parts of that, the regular dialogue between managers and their teams.

“The corporate management team have set up a series of working groups to look at various aspects of working from home and the support staff would need.

“We’ve got a lot of ways for dialogue with the staff and hopefully that’s got that communication which we need.”

A message from the Editor:

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to the Hartlepool Mail website and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit here to sign up. You can subscribe to the newspaper with 20% off here. Thank you.