|
Requests for help and support coming into the countywide hub have continued to rise over the past fortnight.
The hub has received a total of 2,101 telephone enquiries over the past four weeks. The team has resolved a total of 5,856 individual requests for help and support, which include delivering urgent food supplies to 832 people. A further 129 people have been provided with more specialist food, for example that is suitable for people who are seriously ill.
There are now almost 15,000 people on the registered shielded list across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and around a third of this group have told us that they have no support in place and will need our assistance.
Adrian Chapman said: “We believe the increase in demand is down to the fact that we have been contacting people who need to shield who have not yet registered – a nationally commissioned service has also been doing the same thing. In addition, more names are being added to the shielded group by local GPs and medical services.
“All shielded people are receiving regular telephone contact from our case officers to ensure their needs are being met. We are also contacting everyone less often by email or letter, to ensure they know we are here and that nobody is missed whose existing support arrangements break down.
“We now have a further 112 case officers trained who are now fully operational and able to help us with this work.”
Around 5,000 shielded people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are receiving a national food delivery over the course of this week.
Every day the government sends us details of people who have responded to the request to shield by NHS England or their GP.
We make contact with these people to find out if they have what they need and if they don't how we can supply those needs, discuss other issues and anxieties, and make arrangements for at least weekly telephone contact.
Every week we are supporting thousands of people to access food and medicines, to help them beat anxiety and loneliness caused by isolation and in many other ways. Some people may choose not to have a weekly call - we still make email contact every couple of weeks, in case their arrangements change.
In addition, there are others who have been contacted by either NHS England or their local GP or clinical lead who are advised to shield but haven't yet registered. The Government has set up a national hotline which is contacting these people to encourage them to register. We have some details of this group, although limited and not comprehensive, and we have written to them ourselves (about 12,000 people).
This week we have been passed the details of 6,000 people who the NHS believe should be shielding who have not yet registered, despite repeated contact being made. We are now planning for how we contact these people to establish whether they need our support or have their own arrangements in place. This may include visits in person to addresses.
If you know someone who is shielding from the virus, who we have not yet been in touch with, please contact the countywide hub by visiting www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/coronavirus or www.peterborough.gov.uk/coronavirus
It can also be contacted Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, and Saturdays 9am to 1pm on 0345 045 5219.
Many local volunteers are supporting people who are self-isolating so can’t get to the shops for food and other supplies but able to pay for their goods.
However, finding safe and secure ways for people to pay for items without exposing themselves, or the volunteers, to risk of harm, is a national challenge.
To support this, the Countywide Coordination Hub has been researching a range of payment options, so they can advise people, and the volunteers who are supporting them, who can then choose the most appropriate method for them.
The payment methods include:
- Supermarket ‘click and collect’ schemes – for customers with online accounts, however delivery slots are in high demand
- Paying the shop over the phone by card –using a pre-agreed password when the volunteer goes to the till
- Buying volunteer cards online from Asda, Marks & Spencer or Waitrose and sending to the volunteer to use
- Buying gift cards from Morrisons, Sainsbury's or Tesco for the volunteer to use
- Paying the volunteer with a cash machine via a bank card – using contactless
- Paying the volunteer for the shopping via online banking
- Using the Post Office ‘Payout Now’ to access cash
More detailed information will be shared with our partners across Cambridgeshire as this is not specific to the shielded group. For further information, please email communitycv@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Organisations across the county have joined forces to launch a wellbeing campaign and additional mental health support for people during the coronavirus outbreak.
‘Now We’re Talking’, encourages people to get talking to combat loneliness whilst self-isolating, and to seek help if they are struggling with their mental health.
The campaign, led by the local authority, NHS and third sector also directs people to increased mental health support available including:
-
Lifeline Plus - a mental health and wellbeing helpline for people aged 18 and over living in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, is available Monday-Friday between 9am and 2pm via freephone 0808 808 2121. The line will support people to manage their wellbeing, provide self-help advice or signpost to other organisations for particular concerns.
-
Lifeline - 7 days a week, between 2pm and 11pm the same number is Lifeline, managed by Lifecraft who provide support for those in mental health distress: 0808 808 2121.
-
Qwell - an online wellbeing support, including educational and self-help articles and peer-to-peer support via forums. Adults are also able to receive help from qualified counsellors via drop-in or scheduled online chat sessions. www.qwell.io
-
Keep Your Head – this website brings together all the mental health support available across the county - www.keep-your-head.com/now
‘Now We’re Talking’ comms toolkit to use for your own updates:
Following the launch of our Now We’re Talking campaign this week, please find here a toolkit so you can share the details with your town or parish council colleagues. Please feel free to use the news article (short or long) and any of the images in your own newsletters, on your websites or social media.
We know that one of the challenges for people who are self-isolating is being able to keep busy in their own home.
As a result, the countywide hub is developing a set of leisure, pleasure and learning opportunities for shielded people to take part in.
This could include aligning the food deliveries from the hub to a healthy eating class, both online or via recipe cards for those that don’t have digital access.
The food delivery from the hub will include all the ingredients needed to cook the meal that will be taught online or via the recipe card.
The hub is also considering putting sewing classes online, or taught through instruction cards for those that have no internet access, that again could, with the food deliveries, see a delivery of materials and instruction to learn how to sew.
This could take the form of, for example, learning to sew ‘scrub’ bags that can be donated to the NHS for their staff to use.
Further details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Jonathan Harwood is an emergency response officer for Cambridgeshire and Suffolk British Red Cross.
“A day in the life of an emergency response officer is usually very varied. Some days I am sat at my desk completing administrative tasks, whilst others I am training volunteers in emergency management, providing rest centre training to our local authority partners or, as at the moment, responding to major incidents.
The everyday emergencies that the British Red Cross can attend might be domestic fires or floods, supporting the National Crime Agency on modern day slavery incidents and attending power and water outages, but the key element to all our work is supporting people in crisis.
I am also the 3rd Sector tactical advisor to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum, working with the county’s emergency planning teams in preparing for incidents, so that the voluntary and community sector can be at the heart of an incident to provide much needed supplementary support to our category one partners, both during an incident and as part of the recovery work, to return the communities to a sense of normality.
Covid-19 has seen a massive demand on the voluntary sector over the past few weeks. At the county food and PPE distribution warehouse we have seen the British Red Cross, Beds & Cambs 4x4 Response Group, Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue, Served by Emergency Response Volunteers, Raynet and Team Rubicon UK all come together to ensure the vulnerable people in our county are being fed and the organisations that need PPE are able to keep supporting our county’s vulnerable people through the work we are completing in partnership.
Local voluntary and community sector groups such as the Peterborough and Cambridge CVS, Hunts Forum and Cambridgeshire Acre are taking a lead in the local volunteering efforts to ensure that local communities are supported, not just in food distribution, but are connecting people to ensure that community resilience is strong and that once Covid-19 is a thing of the past, we will be living in stronger communities with people who will be there for each other.
I would like to thank all volunteers for everything that they are doing to support the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Hold your heads up high and be proud that you are a volunteer because without you we wouldn’t be where we are today."
|
A project to support people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who are carers to friends and family has seen hundreds of people contacted to enquire whether they need support.
Family carers are currently delivering unprecedented levels of essential care and support to people with care needs in the community who are impacted by the pandemic.
In response Cambridgeshire County and Peterborough City Council have re-deployed more than 30 staff who are unable to fulfil their usual role due to the Covid-19 outbreak, to contact those family carers currently known to adult social care, check that they are coping, provide preventative advice and connect them to sources of support where this is needed.
In Cambridgeshire 1,557 carers were identified and are being contacted. Of those contacted so far 56% or 429 carers have told staff that they are coping.
Feedback from staff making the calls is that carers have been extremely grateful to be contacted and have taken contact details in order to access support should this be needed in the future. One carer told us “I enjoyed chatting to you and both my husband and I are impressed with the initiative set up by the council. Thank you.”
So far 57 carers contacted by the redeployed staff have been referred for support as a result of the calls, examples include accessing help with shopping and medication collection, both for themselves and the adult that they support, and amendments to the care and support being provided to the cared for person due to changes in their circumstances.
The staff making the calls have had information regarding a wide range of preventative services and have also been able to connect carers to support from services like occupational therapy and the technology enabled care team, as well as raising awareness of help available through Caring Together, previously known as Carers Trust.
In Peterborough the experience is very similar, more than 423 carers have been contacted and provided with information and advice to date and staff are working through a further list of 214 carers.
Adrian Chapman, service director for communities and partnerships, Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "We know that many carers don't recognise themselves as a carer and may be reluctant to ask for help for themselves for many reasons. As a result we know we need to encourage this group of people to accept support.
"It's essential that carers are supported appropriately in order for them to continue in their caring role and to ensure that this does not have a negative impact on their own health and well-being. But now more than ever, it is important carers know that support is available to them.
"As a result, there is currently a great deal of work happening across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough to support those with a caring responsibility and this work continues to develop. If you are a carer and you would like to talk to us about the support on offer, please call the countywide hub on 0345 045 5219."
Instructors from Grafham Water Centre (GWC) have been adapting their skills and joining projects set up to support essential services.
The centre’s outreach program has placed instructors in schools throughout the county providing outdoor education to those children attending school, delivering both education based and sporting activities, such as archery.
Elsewhere, instructors are using their experience working with vulnerable people at the GWC to provide much needed support for the homeless in Peterborough. From assisting with welfare checks to delivering food, the instructors are working hard as part of a Government project to ensure that some of the most vulnerable within the community are continuing to be cared for during this difficult time.
The success of both these projects highlights the importance of togetherness, particularly in this current climate, with the instructors demonstrating how the community can continue to work as a team whilst following the official lock-down guidance.
|
Wisbech Town Council members have been identifying vulnerable residents and businesses at this difficult time and offering their support.
The team, co-ordinated by Leader of the Council, Councillor Samantha Hoy, has been shopping and delivering vital food necessities and medication across Wisbech and neighbouring villages and offering a friendly voice to those simply needing to chat.
Councillor Hoy said: "It is great to see people pulling together to support others at this difficult and unprecedented time. I have always been aware of the community spirit within our great town, but the current situation has made me realise how strong it is. I would personally like to thank the team for the fantastic support they are giving and to all of the other groups that are helping.”
Hundreds of vulnerable people across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire who live in social housing are being supported by Cross Keys Homes (CKH).
CKH has contacted more than 900 residents aged over 70 who live in its general needs housing to make sure that they have support from family or friends. At their request, CKH colleagues are making welfare calls every week to around 150 of them.
Regular calls are also being made to 190 tenants who are under the age of 24 with children and 200 other vulnerable residents who have asked for this weekly support. Of those living in CKH retirement housing and extra care schemes, in the region of 1,200 residents receive daily contact.
As well as these welfare calls, the housing association has been supporting residents with food shopping, medication deliveries and providing craft bags to keep young children entertained.
CKH has also launched a £1million welfare fund to support residents experiencing difficulties with the impact of Covid-19. Its ‘Be Kind’ fund is ring-fenced exclusively to offer help to those living in CKH homes who have been impacted financially, socially or physically by the coronavirus crisis.
If you’re talking to CKH residents who need support please email their details to customerservices@crosskeyshomes.co.uk or refer them to apply for the ‘Be Kind’ welfare fund at www.crosskeyshomes.co.uk/be-kind.
Peterborough City Council and the Light Project Peterborough, supported by the city’s Safer Off the Streets partnership, has delivered around-the-clock services to rough sleepers while they are housed during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Within 24 hours of the government advising that all rough sleepers should be given temporary accommodation as they are a vulnerable group, the city council and the Light Project Peterborough had housed a total of 25 rough sleepers in individual hotel rooms to encourage social distancing and then mobilised partners who are essential for supporting guests in the hotels including drug and alcohol services, mental health support, medical and prescription services. Currently, support is being provided to 90 rough sleepers and homeless people.
An army of 90 volunteers have kicked into force, many of whom are redeployed council staff, delivering 24/7 services within hours to help the former rough sleepers settle into their new temporary homes and self-isolate to protect themselves from the Covid-19 virus. This includes liaising with multiple food outlets and donors to co-ordinate over 1,500 meal per week for 80 former rough sleepers who are now housed.
Steven Pettican, chief executive officer at the Light Project Peterborough, said: “Providing three meals a day has been a military operation – particularly for charities like ours who rely on volunteers and have effectively had their fundraising dry up during Covid-19. We’ve also been providing a listening service, encouraging them to reflect on their current situation and to ask themselves if they really want to return to the streets once they press ‘play’ on their lives again. The feedback we’ve received from individuals who genuinely want to turn their lives around has made this worth it.”
Peterborough Soup Kitchen and The 3 Pillars have also been active in supporting this to provide breakfasts and lunches, and when needed the Peterborough Foodbank has helped with supplies. Aspire has been able to engage with adults with substance misuse issues to provide drug and alcohol support.
The Garden House, run by Light Project Peterborough, continues to operate an emergency service for anyone finding themselves homeless, 10am-2pm Monday to Friday. Citizens Advice Peterborough and the Homelessness Prevention Team continue to provide advice and assistance to clients threatened with homelessness remotely.
|
