As for the majority of organisations across Scotland, Shared Care Scotland is monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak and following the advice set out by the NHS and Scottish Government. We are doing all that we can to minimise the impact on our staff and our work, but we recognise that there are inevitably changes that we have to make to our working practices. This statement sets out our current position. We will update it as required over the coming weeks and publish updates on our website – www.sharedcarescotland.org.uk
Access to information and support
First and foremost, we acknowledge that these are worrying times for carers and those that they care for. Furthermore, it is clear that there will be significant changes to short break services and the support that they are able to offer over the coming weeks. The Scottish Government Carers Team has recommended the following:
- For the latest verified information and advice visit NHS Inform and the Scottish Government website
- Carers who don’t have an emergency plan in place may want to talk to family and friends who could take on their caring role if they become ill or need to self-isolate;
- Where carers and family or friends are unable to provide essential care for someone, they should contact their local social work department;
- Carers should also make sure that they have key information about the person that they care for readily available for anyone who may have to step into the caring role;
In addition to this many carers centres are no longer operating regular groups or face to face support sessions, however some are offering alternative forms of support such as telephone counselling. You can find details of your local carers centre through our interactive short breaks information map.
The team at Shared Care Scotland are committed to continuing to deliver our work programme and are well-placed to work remotely. We can be contacted through our main office number on 01383 622462 or through our office@sharedcarescotland.com email address.
In terms of short beaks we are working on pulling together information on a range of alternative short breaks that can be accessed from home. This will include phone support services and online forums, online subscriptions, distance learning, and a range of resources that may be of use to those who are spending time in isolation. We will make this available via our website and on our social media channels. Find us @CareBreaks across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We will also be moving our different practitioner networks to online forums and using webinars instead of face-to-face meetings.
Short Breaks Fund
The Short Breaks Fund team is working as usual and aiming to minimise the impact on current and future grant holders. The team are preparing information for both currently funded projects and for those that are awaiting the outcome of their application to the most recent round of Better Breaks funding.
We will email all projects directly by the end of this week (Friday 20 March).
Respitality
For all our Respitality Delivery Partners, please keep referring to our Workplace group and we’ll keep you posted of any developments there. This is an extremely difficult period for our Scottish hospitality, leisure and tourism industry and we are thinking about them. We send our good wishes to the many businesses that have generously donated breaks through the Respitality scheme.
Many thanks indeed.
Don
Don Williamson
Chief Executive