490 SOT council workers redeployed on coronavirus response

Almost 500 city council workers have been redeployed to work in services to support residents, communities and businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has revealed that 490 workers have moved from doing their regular job to support the response to the pandemic in the past 12 months, as the year anniversary of the first lockdown is set to be marked next Tuesday (23 March).

Council leader Abi Brown said: “It has been an incredibly tough 12 months, and we know that locally there have been more than 18,000 coronavirus cases, and more than 1,300 deaths reported at Royal Stoke and County hospitals.

“One of the many amazing things to come out of this pandemic is to see how local people have adapted and shown community spirit. This is most definitely true for many council workers. I’d like to thank all of our teams who have worked through the pandemic, providing important services for the city in really difficult circumstances.

“I particularly want to thank the 490 staff who have taken on new work specifically in response to the pandemic. They have filled really important roles, from taking contact tracing calls and working at our community test venues, to those who have trained as bin men and vitally those who are helping in our care settings. Many workers are still in their redeployed roles and we definitely could not have responded as quickly to support the city over the past year without their help. Some staff are considering career changes as they are enjoying their new roles so much.”