Dear Fair Deal staff,

I hope you and your families are all well and keeping safe. I would like to say once again a huge thank you to you all for your continued efforts as we move through the current situation. I have very much enjoyed speaking with many of you at our weekly Zoom sessions and will continue these over the coming weeks. I have the following updates to share and in the past week there have been some useful updates from external organisations detailed below.

Scottish Living Wage
We expect to hear about when we will receive the funds to pay our frontline colleagues the new Scottish Living Wage in the coming days and I will communicate this as soon as I can confirm a date for this to be paid.

COVID-19 Testing
We are now able to have staff 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.

Important information for all staff working Social or Community Care and Residential Settings including PPE
Information and Guidance on COVID-19 Social or Community Care and Residential Settings, including PPE requirements, can be found on the HPS website here.

COVID-19 Guided Self Help Booklets
The Scottish Commission for Learning Disability have published a series of guided self-help booklets developed to support people with mild to moderate learning/intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 outbreak. These may be useful for staff when supporting people and can be found here.

Activities for people self-isolating at home
Each Tuesday and Friday at 2pm a new video is posted on the Luminate@Home website. Facilitators take viewers through a range of activities including crafts, poetry, music and dance which some of you might find useful in keeping the people you support active whilst remaining at home. You can view these videos here.

Fiona Dunwoodie
Chief Executive