Tell us about Care Advice Centre and what you do.

Care Advice Centre is a friendly, approachable team of independent social workers with vast experience of working within Adult Social Care. This gives our assessors a good understanding of the care and support system which can be complex and difficult to navigate. Some of our services include completing Mental Capacity Assessments, Benefits Advice, Needs assessments in line with the Care Act 2014, to mention a few. More of the services we provide can be seen on our website.

What challenges have you / your clients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As social work is involved with helping people live better lives, this is usually carried out in discussion with the person and pre-COVID this has always been in their specific living environment. During this pandemic it has not always been possible to visit people in their own homes or in care homes therefore a need to be creative with arranging assessments has been the new way of working.

Remote working has been a valued method of carrying out assessments. The virtual assessments have not always been appropriate for some people due to different reasons and therefore this has meant work needed to be postponed until such a time that access to the different environments can be gained.

Some of the care homes or family representatives have not always been able to facilitate virtual meetings, however for those that have been completed virtually this has been a useful tool.

How have you helped your clients overcome these challenges?

One of the biggest aids during this time has been the ability to have virtual meetings with those that are able. Some care home have been able to facilitate this with appointments arranged days in advance.

For some people it has been possible to meet in their back yard or socially distanced within the home environment.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could you offer?

Initially there might be a reluctance by people to meet in their homes and care homes might still be wary of having visitors in their care environments.

Support could be provided to people by reassuring them that as a professionals we consider other people’s health as well as our own and will continue to follow government guidelines.

What have been your highs and lows during the last 3 months?

The highs have been the willingness of some people trying to facilitate meetings even when they have not worked out as anticipated.

People appear to have been more tolerant during this time as they realise that everyone is in the same position.

There has been good joint working with professionals and family members.

There has also been a lot of phone advice with people calling back and requesting further support from Care Advice Centre.

There have been a lot of people realising they need to plan for the future and a surge in the number of people making contact for these different services.

Tell us about MacIntyre and what your role is.

My name is Lorraine Devereux and I am Corporate and Events Fundraiser for MacIntyre, a national charity that provides care, support and education for more than 1,200 children, young people and adults with a learning disability and/or autism.

What challenges have MacIntyre faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges have your supporters faced as a result?

There have been many challenges for MacIntyre over the last 3 months and we continue to face them.  Many people we support have been in lockdown and shielded and continue to be at the present time, missing regular contact with friends and family and adjusting to a total change of life overnight.  For the majority of the adults we support daily routine offers stability, a sense of feeling safe and happy so the impact on lives has been huge.

For those supported through our day services and outreach, learners have missed regular sessions and routine and we have worked hard to try to support them and their families remotely. 

At MacIntyre School, children who are supported term time have also not seen friends and family, for those children who went home before lockdown, we have continued to provide support to them and their families.

Technology for all of these services and the people we support has proved invaluable – sadly not all services have enough of that technology available, so fundraising has been working hard to secure additional funding and equipment to keep people connected with friends and loved ones.

On top of all of this, operational struggles in sourcing hand sanitiser, PPE and ensuring our staff stay safe and well has been truly challenging and we are not yet the other side of this.

How have you overcome these challenges?

Our Senior Management team have held weekly meetings to ensure a co-ordinated response to the changing situation.  For the Fundraising team, our immediate response was to support the organisation in sourcing vital equipment which at that time was in short supply. From hand sanitiser from a local distillery to masks from a local school whilst at the same time, looking at the impact on fundraising and what we could do, moving cancelled events online and exploring new ways for people to stay connected with us and fundraise.  Support from our local communities and local businesses has never been more needed.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could help?

As lockdown gradually lifts, the emphasis shifts slightly to helping people we support with feeling confident about resuming day to day life, when many have not been out for months.  We are working with people we support on social distancing and what that means when out and continuing to adapt how we offer the best support we can alongside government guidelines.

Support from community, business and local authorities remains critical for us as we enter the next phase – fundraising remains a challenge, events are unlikely to resume in the way that we know them for some time so we continue to look at all we do and be creative in what we can do to engage our communities and their support.  

What message would you pass on to others?

Firstly our thanks to all those who have supported us over the last few months – from coming along to our virtual quizzes to Moving with Macintyre during May, to donating iPads and tablets and also Community Foundations and COVID response organisations who have supported and granted us with funds to buy technology etc. that we needed to keep people feeling connected.

A huge thanks also goes to those people who joined us on a temporary basis by working for MacIntyre when their own situation changed.

We hope that people will continue to support all that we are doing at MacIntyre and people can do this in so many ways – from supporting and fundraising for us as a business or as an individual, joining us at one of our online events, buying something we need from our Amazon Wish List, to sharing our stories and posts on social media, it all helps.

Lorraine Devereux, Corporate and Events Fundraiser at MacIntyre | T: 01908 230100 | E: lorraine.devereux@macintyrecharity.org

Tell us about Cynthia Spencer Hospice and what your role is.

Cynthia Spencer is a hospice for the care of adults suffering from a life-limiting illness and provides inpatient and community care and a wellbeing service. I am the Fundraising Manager for the charity that raises money to fund and expand the hospice’s services.

What challenges have the hospice faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges have your supporters faced as a result?

Our main challenge has been how we generate income when many events throughout the year, both those generated by our charity, nationally run challenges and activities taking place in the community, have been cancelled and our shops have been closed.

How have you overcome these challenges?

Where we are able, we have adapted our events so they can take place virtually and we have encouraged our supporters to raise money virtually at home, by giving them suggestions of fundraising activities or we have asked them to pledge support at a time when they are able.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could help?

Our main difficulty will be keeping our volunteers, customers and supporters safe while we begin to interact with them again to encourage fundraising.

What message would you pass on to others?

When you work as a team, communicate well and consider the needs and priorities of your stakeholders you can overcome the most challenging circumstances.

John Helm, Fundraising Manager at Cynthia Spencer Hospice| T: 01604 973342 | E: john@cynthiaspencer.co.uk