July 2020

21 July 2020 - Registrar's Service Resumes

Now that we have some restriction on lockdown regulations, council services are getting back to business. The Registrar's team are now registering births.

Fiona English, City Registrar said:  "We've made some changes to the way we work.  We're taking appointments to register births in order of birth date.  This will allow us to deal with the vast backlog that we had as birth registrations were suspended nationally during lockdown.

"Staff are now in a new 'normal' as we have screens in place between ourselves and the public. A new system has been put in place to ensure the safety of staff and new parents are met. We've had some very positive feedback from members of the public about the safety measure we have in place."

Fiona added: "We're still registering deaths remotely and will continue to do that for the foreseeable future. We're also dealing with a lot of enquiries from couples who were due to be married and are now rearranging ceremonies. This is a huge task as we have had to respond very quickly to changing government advice as lockdown measures ease.

"We're asking the public to remain patient during this period as our workload has increased considerably as we take on more services.

"Some of our services remain suspended as we await guidance to reopen them. These include Citizenship Ceremonies, EUSS Settlement Scheme, Extract Requests and our Family History Centre in the Mitchell Library."

The team have also been praised by Elaine Galletly, Head of Legal and Administration in the Chief Executive's Department.  Elaine said: "I'd like to thank all the team who have worked tirelessly throughout the recent period. They have had to deal with difficult issues in a challenging and ever changing landscape, and have worked exceptionally hard to keep delivering a key critical service.

"I'd also like to thank key staff who have volunteered to help support delivery of the service and who have been a great help to the core Registrars team."

More information/make an appointment

If this service applies to you, or someone you know, visit glasgow.gov.uk/birth

Find out more about the Registrar's Service here

13 July 2020 - Officers seconded to support Test, Trace and Protect

Six Environmental Health Officers from Neighbourhoods and Sustainability have been identified as a key group in the implementation of the Scottish Government's Test, Trace and Protect strategy, launched in May.

The officers have been redeployed to assist the NHS for a period of up to three months to carry out this critical role. 

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGG&C) is responsible for implementing the programme within the Glasgow area. The NS Environmental Health management team has been working very closely with NHSGG&C to deliver this strategy on time. 

A key pillar of the strategy is contact tracing which is a well-established public health method to reduce the spread of infection, and to provide important information and advice to those who might be newly infected.  It involves contacting individuals who have been confirmed as having a contagious illness, in this case Covid-19, and trying to establish who they have been in contact with during the time which they were infectious.  Once contacts have been identified, steps will then be taken to contact these individuals too.  The implementation of this strategy is seen as one of the key steps towards easing of lockdown restrictions. 

Billy Hamilton, Environmental Health Group Manager said: "Environmental Health Officers are deemed to be public health professionals and are trained in dealing with the containment of infectious diseases in the community. The national campaign is critical to suppressing levels of infection by Covid-19.

"Our EHOs are ideally placed to support the NHS in this work. We're delighted to be able to contribute to this vital initiative which will support the work that's going on to keep us all safe and help us get back to something close to normality."

The six officers who have been seconded are: Joanne Bell, Kate Cairns, Nicole Hume (photographed), Tim Lush, Liam Petrie, Christine White.