I hope you and your families continue to keep well and safe.

It’s hard to believe it has been 4 months now since we suspended some of our service provision and moved into lockdown. I am pleased to see that we are moving through the phases of lockdown and as many of you will be aware, we have been able to gradually increase our service provision beyond essential services and many of our normal one to one supports are back up and running at least in some capacity.

This has been done safely, in line with national guidance and in collaboration with our staff teams and those we support and I would like to say a massive thank you to all of the people we support
and their families for your continued patience and understanding as we have moved through these months.

I have enjoyed speaking with many of you over the months of lockdown and hearing about all the creative ways our wonderful staff have ensured it has had minimal impact on the people we support. The leadership team and wider staff team have been instrumental in ensuring we continued to support everyone who needed it safely, creatively and in the most person centred way and I am immensely proud of how you’ve all achieved this whilst also supporting each other as a team.

Thank you all for everything you continue to do. We are moving in the right direction but as you know we are still operating in a world where COVID 19 exists and we need to make sure that we
continue to understand the risk and do everything we can to keep ourselves, each other and those we support safe. Government guidance and is as important now as it has ever been so let’s keep
going!

As we continue to anticipate more easing of lockdown measures and respond to the needs of people we support many of whom have had service reductions for several weeks, we will continue to review and monitor this with a view to increasing our service delivery in line with latest guidance. This will mean that some of you may return to delivering services that you delivered before lockdown, or work in other services. I would like to reassure everyone that any changes or reintroductions to service delivery will be done in line with all latest government and NHS guidelines and will be fully risk assessed to ensure we minimise risks to both our staff and the people we support. I am confident that together we will be able to make the right decisions at the right time to ensure everyone receives the appropriate level of support.

The following is brief summary of the latest updates:

COVID-19 Testing

As previously mentioned, anyone can now be tested if they experience symptoms or live with someone who has symptoms. This can be arranged via your Team Leader so please continue to
report these issues as soon as you become unwell or become aware of a person you live with experiencing symptoms. The link in the next section provides advice and guidance on COVID-19
testing. The link below provides useful information on the testing of keyworkers:

https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/DC20200325guidance.pdf

PPE

We continue to access stocks of PPE and these are delivered to relevant services on a weekly basis. We issue PPE in line with latest NHS/Government guidance and the latest PPE guidelines can be
found at the link below.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878750/T2_poster_Recommended_PPE_for_primary__outpatient__community_and_social_care_by_setting.pdf

The latest guidance advises that Nitril gloves should be used for all personal care tasks and these are being issued on an ongoing basis to all services. Please be reminded however that vinyl gloves
should be used for all other tasks such as cleaning and non personal-care related tasks.

Reusable Face Coverings

Face coverings are now mandatory in shops and on public transport. You will have received an email to let you know we have a stock of these at the base so if you or a person you support requires one please email or call the business support team to request.

Social and Leisure Provision

You will be aware that our Connecting You social and leisure groups remain closed for now due to Government guidelines. As mentioned in last months blog we moved our entire programme online via Zoom and this is open to any of the people we support who want to join in. Timetables and joining instructions were posted out to everyone however if you need this information sent out
again please get in touch and we will get this out to you. This has been a brilliant initiative organised by Team Leaders Suzanne and Ryan and the facilitators who normally attend Fernhill and
Nethercraigs so a huge well done and thank you!! Activity packs have also been sent out to those who have attended so far.

We know everyone will be missing their friends at the groups so I hope that this provides a space for people to connect while we work hard on preparing for the next phase and increasing what we will be able to offer when we are allowed.

We were fortunate enough to receive funding from the Wellbeing Fund recently which has enabled us to put together activity packs for social and leisure groups among many other things that will
assist us during this time. It also enabled us to purchase technology that will be loaned out to people we support who may wish to join our online programme but not have access to a device. This is an important piece of work and we plan to continue our commitment to ensuring that everyone is digitally included and has access to technology if they so wish.

Zoom

Just a reminder that I continue to host a weekly zoom session for all staff every Wed @ 6.30pm and this provides an opportunity for you to come and ask questions and hear the latest updates. The link for these meetings is https://us04web.zoom.us/j/433474829?pwd=SWtORW0zQ3F4ZjhEc3RMTlk1NEpYQT09

There is also a weekly zoom session where I catch up with the people we support, please do encourage anyone you are supporting who might want a chat to join. They are every Wed @ 1pm
and the link is included in the Social and Leisure timetable.

Kenny McLiver Award

Please don’t forget to submit your nominations for the Kenny McLiver awards for 2020. The deadline is 31st July. The three categories are Empowering, Innovative and Encouraging in line with our organisational values. Information on how to nominate will be sent out in the coming days but in the meantime please do give some thought to nominating a colleague/team who you feel deserves to be honoured in this years awards.

AGM

Our Annual General Meeting will take place this year on the 17th September. Unfortunately due to restrictions on events and gatherings it looks likely we will have to use Zoom to facilitate the
meeting. Invites will be going out in the next couple of weeks.

Mobile Phones

New mobile phones are being ordered and for those staff who haven’t been issued a new phone in the last year we will be getting in touch to arrange your new handset. Once they arrive the Business Support Team will be in touch to arrange swapping over the phones. We will prioritise those with the oldest phones most urgently needing replaced first and then get in touch with everyone else.

Guardian 24

Can I ask everyone to please ensure you are logged on to G24 every shift when you are working. This forms part of our Lone Working Policy and all staff should have their work mobiles fully charged and switched on when working.

Take Care and Stay Safe
Fiona Dunwoodie
Chief Executive