PPE Donations Received

Although we’ve been extremely lucky to be have been able to source regular suppliers of PPE (personal protective equipment) sometimes from as far a field as China we’ve been very fortunate to receive generous donations too.

Last week Roger O’Brien & AMAP -University of Sunderland  donated 250 face shields. They will be going straight out to protect our keyworkers and wonderful North Tyneside customers.

In addition  John Devitt and Recovery4Life  kindly donated hand sanitisers and PPE masks to our care teams again these will be used by our care givers in Extra Care Schemes and when they visit our  customers .

John said

“We’re delighted to help and wish we could do more. We really appreciate the great work you all do. Keep safe and well”

We’d like to sincerely thank SOS Industrial Ltd too for their generous donation of ear protection equipment for our keyworkers who are supporting customers who are among the most vulnerable during Covid19 . SOS provided 250 items within 12 hours which is incredible.

Food Parcels

Some of our own customers also benefitted from food parcels kindly donated thanks to crowd funding organised by local public figure Vicky Pattison. We’ve received some wonderful feedback regrding the positive impact this had on our customers .

Mrs H said “thank you for the food parcel it is much appreciated, thank you all for all the work you are doing and I know you are there if I need you thank you again”.

The delivery of 350 food parcels was made possible by the support of our IT partner Aspire Technology Solutions

Covid19 Service Update 26.04.2020

Staff Absences

Our staff absence continues to show no real change, currently we have 10% of the workforce absent which is now the lowest it has been during lockdown. As a result all services continue to run normally.

Customer Update

Very sadly, one of our Dementia Connections customers died earlier this week in his care home (Ethoian Homes). It’s a very distressing time for his family who continue to be in our thoughts as well as those who cared for him.

Apart from this gentleman there is one other change to the number of customers reporting COVID 19 symptoms, which is a positive one, this customer is now reporting to be very well which is fantastic news.

Business As Usual

Since lockdown was extended we have continued to receive a very steady number of calls to our Customer Services Team who continue to offer the service 7 days of the week.

The nature of these calls continues to be for information, advice and guidance with referrals to our essential shopping service and telephone befriending. We have additionally been able to take on new care packages.

Both new services are getting busier each day, and we continue to be comfortable with our capacity to deliver these vital services.

Food Parcel Donations

We delivered 350 essential food parcels to older people across the borough supported by Aspire Technology Solutions.

We will continue to target those older people in greatest need. We’ve had some wonderful feedack from very grateful older people following receipt of their parcels. Additionally Care Scheme Managers fedback that they’d seen a marked up lift in the spirits of their residents.

PPE Update

To ensure the continued safety of our key workers and our customers we have again replenished our stock of PPE. We were very fortunate to receive donations of face shields from AMAP: University of Sunderland who donated a further 250 for which we are extremely grateful.

Exit Strategy

Our Leadership Team continues to work on our Exit Strategy which we expect to communicate internally before the next Government Announcement about lockdown on 7 May 2020.

Jake Towers’ Donation

Jake Towers a young engineer from Blyth was recently furloughed during COVID-19, appreciating the need for PPE within both the NHS and local care providers he set about making face visors with his 3D printer at home.

Crowd Funding

The operation was made possible by generous donations from the USA, Germany , the Netherlands and locally from Blyth and Cramlington.

Jake who has a degree in chemical engineering wanted to help make a difference while he had time available.

So far the generous young man has made 1400 visors which are in use locally with the NHS and social care provision. Jake kindly donated 200 to  EveryDay Care at Home.

Jake & his visors

April 17th CE Update

Continued Lockdown

The Government has confirmed that “lockdown” will remain in place for another 3 weeks. For our organisation this means we will continue to operate as we have done over the last couple of weeks. Any changes in service provision will be communicated and shared as we’ve done throughout COVID19

Staff Absences

The Leadership Team reported a further decrease in staff absence this morning which is fantastic news.

Customer Update

Very sadly, the number of customers reporting  COVID 19 symptoms has increased to 10 over these last two days, 3 are supported through our Dementia Connections Team, 1 at Linskill Park, Rowan Croft, Care at Home in the North West, Crossgates, Fontburn Court, Thomas Ferguson Court and EveryDay Living.

Our thoughts are with their families at this time.

Employee of the quarter award

Our Leadership Team have discussed the Employee and Team of the Quarter Awards, and have agreed not to identify any one individual this quarter as we are inundated with stories and fantastic examples of how our team members are all going above and beyond.

Therefore, we have nominated and recognise every staff member.

Emergency Food Parcels

We have been notified of a donation of 150 food parcels from reality TV personality Vicky Pattison (ex Geordie Shore/Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here) which is incredibly generous.

We will be supported by Aspire (our IT support company) to deliver the packages to older people across the borough. They have put 3 of their vans and drivers at our disposal

Our gratitude goes to Vicky and to Aspire for their support.

Amazing Information & Advice results

In addition our Information and Advice team reported its final year end outcomes which were incredible. The team which comprises both staff and volunteers achieved some amazing results for older people in North Tyneside.

The total benefit gain achieved was £1,778,026 not only smashing our target of £1,178,487, but breaking the record of the highest benefit gain to date.

Customers supported to maximise their income are on average better off by £140.62 per week, as we know securing this extra income has a huge impact often allowing a person to remain independent for as long as possible in their own homes.

We have supported;

o          831 individuals through face to face office based appointments

o          Carried out 462 home visits

o          Resolved 3764 enquires via telephone and

o          996 individuals have been supported by just popping into the Bradbury Centre

o          In total approximately 3619 individuals have been supported through the I&A project resolving over 6200 enquiries

EveryDay  Care customers can utilise the Information & Advice service . To access this service Tel: 0191 2808484

Covid19 Service Update 14.04.2020

The emails have been pouring in this morning applauding our EveryDay Professional Care & Support staff for being so responsive over the bank holiday weekend, here is just one of those messages:

Message of thanks

“Hi Kerry, Can I ask you to send through a massive thank you message to all your team. Our Emergency Duty Team and Gateway have told us Age UK North Tyneside’s homecare service was incredibly helpful and responsive over the Easter weekend. And they will be clapping extra hard for you on Thursday. Thank you so much

Feedback

We’d welcome your feedback here https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care

Proud

We are so very, very proud and a thank you goes to everyone who was working over the weekend supporting older people.

Charity Update

The numbers of people requesting our essential shopping service is slowly increasing and the telephone befriending service continues to be busy.

Dementia Connections

Our Dementia Connections team continue to support existing and new customers, and we can see that there are some very distressed carers struggling during lockdown. Very sadly, we now have a customer within this service diagnosed with the virus and who now is on an end of life pathway.

His wife is not allowed to visit him which is obviously very distressing for her, and our team are supporting her. Our thoughts are with them at this absolutely awful time

We’d like to extend our sincere gratitude to  SOS Industrial who today offered to donate 250 face mask clips to ease the pressure on the ears of our key workers who are working in PPE constantly now.

We have received another shipment of PPE this weekend and our stock has once again been replenished which is further great news as new guidelines were circulated this weekend for it’s use.

Please stay safe and help us to continue to support North Tyneside and Newcastle’s most vulnerable and of course our fantastic care team.

Easter Service Update

With Easter fast approaching and lockdown highly likely to be extended over the Easter weekend we continue to operate steadily, and are well prepared for an increased demand on our services.

Staff Absences Reduced

We’ve seen a decrease in staff absent or self-isolating which is fantastic news. Our absence figures are very small considering the circumstances.

Sadly, the number of customers reporting virus symptoms has increased to 7 from the 3 reported last week. Our thoughts are with their families at this time.

Projected Peak Period

As we move towards the projected “peak period” for the virus, we have implemented additional controls for our teams working within our Extra Care Housing Schemes, which go above and beyond the Government’s most recent Guidance.

Business As Usual

All of our care services continue to run without any disruption which is a fantastic achievement, we are reliably informed that we have further increased our reputation as a quality care provider as not all providers have coped as well as EveryDay.

Councillor Gary Bell (Cabinet Member with responsibility for Adult Social Care) has tweeted his “heartfelt thanks” and appreciation for our care staff, which is so well deserved.

Charity Services Update

Our Charity services also continue to run smoothly, those that continue to run “virtually” include Dementia Connections, Older Offenders, Information & Advice and Strength & Balance.

The new services, which include Telephone Befriending, Essential Shopping, Emergency Food Deliveries and Patient Transport, all have capacity.

Existing customers are currently very well supported, but this may change if/when lockdown is extended.

Reaching Out

We are reaching out to older people in the most deprived areas of the borough with high levels of older people living on their own, which we expect to increase demand for these services in the coming weeks.

And Finally

We do not need to make any efficiencies or lose any jobs because of COVID 19. Our  leadership team is now planning our Exit Strategy for when lockdown is lifted and as always we will ensure that all of our stakeholders remain informed and updated.

Our telephone lines are operational during the

Bank Holiday Easter weekend

Tel: 0191 2877028

Weekly Update on Service Provision

In an effort to ensure that all of our stakeholders remain informed of any updates and changes in service provision we will continue to share a weekly update .

PPE no problem

Our order of PPE has arrived so all of our stock has been replenished which is great news for both team and customers alike. We anticipate another delivery on April 4^th.

Staff Update

The number of staff absent with COVID-19 symptoms has decreased and the number of those who are self-isolating has also fallen. There has been no interruption to service provision across North Tyneside.

Customer Update

We have three customers sadly reporting COVID-19 symptoms, although one of these has been in hospital for a long period of time so has not contracted the virus from the extra care scheme where they would usually reside.

Another of our customers is supported usually by the Dementia Connections service and this customer is now in hospital.

The third customer would have normally used our wellbeing centre service.

Our thoughts are with our customers and their families at this difficult time.

Enquiry Support

Our Customer Service team is still delivering over 7 days of the week. The queries received are largely for information, advice and guidance, essential shopping, telephone befriending and people wanting to volunteer with us.

The team triages the enquiry and refers into service providers across North Tyneside. VODA are co-ordinating a sector wide response to COVID-19 with North Tyneside Council and we have committed to taking all referrals for older people.

Website Updates

There is a vast amount of detail on our webpages which we know from the analytics are being utilised. Views and users have increased quite dramatically due to COVID-19 issues

Operations

All services running are operating normally and without any disruption. We delivered a number of leaflets to local sheltered housing schemes this week to offer essential support to the most vulnerable who may be self-isolating or shielding.

The leaflet briefly outlines the essential services were are running which include, telephone befriending, essential shopping, emergency food and information, advice and guidance.

We have a number of volunteers going through the registration process who will be ready to support these services.

At the moment we have capacity within our staff teams to support an increase in demand.

All referrals continue to be directed to the main telephone line Telephone 0191 2808484

Stay In Work Out

With an ageing population and a Government agenda focused on keeping people in their own homes for longer, wellbeing for older people plays an essential role in the UK health economy.

Sport Works qualified instructors deliver a range of mobility and strength classes, including chair based exercise, to directly enhance health and wellbeing.

Classes cater for a range of abilities and fitness levels and play an important preventative role in developing healthy communities.

Regular Exercise Reduces Falls

EveryDay is very lucky to partner with Sport Works who (under normal circumstances) deliver exercise classes in our three wellbeing centres and our five extra care schemes in North Tyneside.

What you can do at home

Due to the COVID-19 situation we have had to postpone temporarliy all of our joint exercise classes. Generously and to encourage our customers to continue with their sessions from home whilst self-isolating  Sport Works  has uploaded a full stretch and flex video for you to use.

Sport Works also shares daily work out videos on it’s social media

Twitter 

Facebook

Instagram

It’s important to remain mobile to reduce the instance of falls by improving mobility and balance .

Compliments During COVID-19

Our amazing team of key workers continue to make us proud delivering an uninterrupted service during COVID-19.

It’s especially uplifting when we receive a simple thank you from customers who do recognise the effort they are making and the passion they demonstrate daily.

Received W/C 23.03.2020

Dear Kerry,

On behalf of Andrew I would like to thank ALL his carers who have been assisting with all his care needs, not only in the caring role but also in a lovely friendly manner, having a chat and making his day brighter, especially Trish Bowman who has been coming from day one and was still here until the last day.

Andrew has gained more confidence in the last few years, which will stand him in good stead in his new bungalow.

Thank you also to the team behind the scenes, everyday services should be proud to have such a great team of carers in their employment.

Andrea, Miah, Claire, Garry, Tracy, Jordan, Claire & Phil Taws, all main carers for Andrew.

Also, thank you to everyone else who have assisted Andrew over the years.

Kind regards,

Catherine & Andrew Morton

We will continue to #clapforourcarers

Thankfully today’s service provision update is short and sweet.

Staff absence is reducing which is fantastic news but we are not being complacent and remain ready for the next challenge!

We have no changes to highlight and all services which are running are operating without any disruption over the weekend. Another amazing achievement for our teams. Thank you all for your continued passion in these challenging times.

We do hope that everyone has had a chance to read the letter from the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Matt Hancock applauding the work of carers in social care.

Until tomorrow, stay safe and well