Right, hello again

A collective and despairing sigh from everyone I'm sure after last nights announcement.

This is just a brief email to explain that we have decided to cancel today's 121 community visits to give ourselves the necessary time to gather information and our thoughts so we can hopefully make some wise decisions moving forward.

It's obviously very disconcerting for everyone to learn that there's a new more aggressive strain out there and that Schools are being forced to close again. We are currently seeking advice from local authority as to whether they are encouraging services to return to a remote support model (Zoom, Facetime, phone calls, emails) or whether they are wanting adapted community support to continue where possible.

I personally feel we are in a position to continue with the planned 121 community visits but with the exclusion of car transport. This is of course if clients feel comfortable to do so and are willing to be supported from home or be dropped off at a nearby park / green space.

From a logical viewpoint, everywhere should be a lot quieter than our planned Tier 4 support so the risk for both clients and staff will be greatly reduced with a national lockdown in place.

I feel we have a responsibility as key workers to continue to safely supporting clients 121 in the community, especially during a time of year when the weather and darkness can significantly impact on people's mental health and feelings of isolation. However, the challenge for us as a service is to strike a balance between reducing the physical risk of virus transmission and ensuring the mental health needs of our clients are met, whilst running a small business ethically and in alignment with local authority guidance.

This is what we'll be working on today.

How have you all interpreted this latest guidance and how do you feel about continuing with 121 support?

We would really like to hear everyone's views, so we'll be calling you all at some point today to see how you feel about the current situation and continuing with 121 support during the new national lockdown.

Thanks and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, I've also attached the latest National Lockdown guidance from the Governments website for your reference,

Jason