Question
Please could you give us an update on Wokingham's community response to Covid 19?
Minutes:
Question
Please could you give us an update on Wokingham's community response to Covid-19?
Answer
I can confidently say that I have been amazed and humbled by the speed and quality of the response the Council and its community partners have delivered at this difficult time. It is a real credit to Wokingham that we have been able to support our vulnerable so well and I would like to thank every single person who has been involved.
The Wokingham Borough Community Response (WBCR) provides a single point of contact for residents to access support during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citizens Advice Wokingham provides a ‘One Front Door’ service for residents. Wokingham Borough Council staff and Citizens Advice staff and volunteers, take phone calls and respond to emails requesting support. They work together to asses residents’ needs, provide advice and get people support from the right scheme and directing them to services such as:
· the Link Visiting Scheme’s Talking Buddies programme for people feeling isolated and lonely;
· the Wokingham Foodbank for those struggling to access food;
· Wokingham Volunteer Centre have supported collecting and delivering pharmacy prescriptions as well as helping to track down other volunteers; and
· First Days Children’s Charity has supported the Food Hub to deliver food parcels across the Borough.
Wokingham Volunteer Centre and The Link have supported the recruitment of 600 additional volunteers. AgeUK has expanded their Home from Hospital Service to provide additional support.
Now to give you the latest up to date figures, because obviously the figures which are in the press pack are going to be two weeks out of date. So far we have helped:
· 1,922 households;
· Delivered nearly 3,700 food parcels to 872 households;
· 677 people aged 70 or plus have received food parcels;
· 438 households have received regular deliveries;
· Dealt with 744 prescription referrals;
· Called almost 7,500 people basically on a regular basis to check that they are ok.
· Those people who needed welfare support and 45 people supported at home on the Home to Hospital Scheme.
You find out what a community is all about basically when it is an issue like this and I know from comments I have had from other people, outside of this Borough, what we have here is something we should all be very proud of.
Supplementary Question
I would like to echo your thanks to all those amazing organisations and individuals that have gone out of their way to help in this very difficult situation. Whilst the situation continues are there plans going forward on how we can deal with this?
Supplementary Answer
We have been working on a plan for probably the last month now in conjunction with our voluntary sector partners to extend this support towards the end of the year because the reality is that some people are going to need it. Trying to encourage people where possible to seek other routes but providing support for those who cannot find it anywhere else. We have done the hard part and we are not going to let these people down now.
Aside from that just before Covid, in the pre-Covid days, we had spent a lot of time trying to work with the voluntary sector to work towards a plan where we could work together more effectively going forward. Now this scheme has shown how well we can work together when we have a common purpose at heart. So discussions are going on longer term about how to button the voluntary sector in wherever possible to our Voluntary Care Strategy and to try and continue this level of co-operation going forwards.