Event: COVID Impacts – sharing lessons learnt hosted by NEBOSH
This NEBOSH seminar was attended by VSNW. Lasting two hours it takes a long time to view. There is a section that can be ignored – unless you want to know how the British Safety Council test Covid visors. This interesting, but not very useful, section takes place between 50 minutes and 75 minutes into the session. It did make for a little light relief when drinking a mug of decaff.
The first session, 45 minutes, dealt with office return. Much is obvious; much is already known. The most interesting comment (25 minutes in) is that visors are not PPE – they are Community Protective Equipment (CPE) which was a phrase I had not heard before.
The final session – Mental Health and Grief in the workplace has many useful bits and pieces of information within it. This is well worth watching. The “funding professional” in me had ears pricking up at the suggestion for community based services. Here we have an expert sating that we are needed – a lovely clip to put into a funding proposal (and 9.22 into this section). They also made the point that there is a lot of “odd” stuff on the internet and that legitimate sources of support should be used.
All in all a good use of time. The office return section may be useful to staff (re)induction as this takes place.
Download the presentation slides
Andrew Rainsford
VSNW
Aug 2021
The Government's Covid Action Plan Summary July 2021
On the 5th July, the Government announced their action plan for Covid-19 moving forward. Below is a useful summary:
Headline
“Test, Trace and Isolate has an important ongoing role in managing the virus and reduces the risk of potentially dangerous variants spreading. The Government expects the Test, Trace and Isolate system will remain necessary through the autumn and winter.” – para 22.
Details
The Covid-19 Response has action in 5 areas.
1. Reinforce the country’s vaccine wall of defence through booster jabs and driving take up.
Bring forward second dose for under 40s to 8 weeks after first dose.
Booster doses for most vulnerable. If possible, delivered alongside Flu
Consider JCVI advice on vaccination of children
Vaccination as condition of deployment for staff in car homes, consult on widening settings
2. Enable the public to make informed decisions through guidance, rather than laws.
Remove all legal restrictions on social contacts, life events and open all remaining settings
Covid-status certification not required in law. Organisations can ask visitors for proof, which government will enable
Remove legal requirements on face coverings.
End 1m+ and 2m rules. DsPH can advise on targeted time-limited rules if necessary.
No longer advise work from home. Covid-secure regs replaced by ‘working safely’ guidance. Encourage hand washing, ventilation, and outdoor space.
Encourage QR codes for customer check in using App, not a legal requirement
End school bubbles and routine tracing by schools. Tracing in schools triggered by an outbreak.
Under 18s who are contacts exempted from self-isolation in line with full vaccinated adults. More detail to follow.
Lift limit on 5 named visitors in care homes. Guidance on safe visits.
Keep guidance on ventilation, face masks, hand washing, covering nose and mouth when cough or sneeze, stay home if unwell, consider your individual risks.
3. Retain proportionate test, trace and isolate plans in line with international comparators.
· Symptomatic testing, tracing and isolation will remain key to monitoring and containing the spread of the virus, augmented by use of the NHS COVID-19 app (though checking in or providing contact details to venues will now be voluntary).
· Regular asymptomatic testing will continue focused on those not fully vaccinated, education, higher-risk settings such as the NHS, social care and prisons. Regular rapid testing offer continues. Community testing continues.
· Exempt fully vaccinated from the requirement to self-isolate if they are a contact. Further details will be published in due course
· Until at least the end of September, self-isolation enforcement and support will otherwise continue as it is now.
4. Manage risks at the border and support a global response to reduce the risk of variants emerging globally and entering the UK.
Retain robust controls at the border. VOCs pose biggest threat.
RAG country system continues with regular reviews of list.
Arrivals from amber countries who are fully vaccinated will no longer need to isolate. Details to be announced shortly.
Working with G7 on global vaccination. Developing new global pathogen surveillance network.
5. Retain contingency measures to respond to unexpected events, while accepting that further cases, hospitalisations and deaths will occur as the country learns to live with COVID-19.
Significant risks remain, particularly VOCs. May need to take measures to manage the virus during winter – will prioritise strengthened guidance and seek to avoid restrictions.
Will maintain contingency plans for restrictions at local, regional or national level – as last resort.
Maintain current regulations that allow LAs to respond to serious threats until 28 September.
Will publish an updated Covid-19 contain outbreak management framework in due course.
Covid-status certification not mandated for now, possible could be introduced in autumn or winter as a way of keeping events and business going.
The Government will continue monitoring data and will assess preparedness for autumn and winter later in the year.
Pulse Check Report May 2021
Pulse Check reports are carried out by the VCS Emergencies Partnership. They are used to gather information from VC organisations approximately every two weeks, so that the issues are understood and strategic responses can be developed.
The latest report focuses on how the new covid-19 strain, which has spread across a lot of the North West, Midlands and London has affected communities and the capacity of the sector to function.
A brief summary:
· 43% of respondents in London, 17% in the Midlands & East, 32% in the North, 6% in the South East and 10% in the South West reported significant or major concerns about unmet needs in their area in the 14 days prior to data collection
· Mental health/isolation, hardship and volunteering were the most frequently mentioned unmet needs in the 14 days prior to data collection
· 22% of respondents reported significant or major concerns about the capacity of the voluntary sector to respond to local needs in the 14 days prior to data collection
· Funding/sustainability, increased demand and volunteering were the most frequently mentioned issues affecting voluntary sector capacity in the 14 days prior to data collection
The Pulse Check May 2021 Report.
Past reports available here.
Women & Covid-19: An IPPR North Report
‘Women in the North: Choosing to Challenge Inequalities’
The latest IPPR North report, written by Amreen Qureshi & Sarah Longlands, was released at the end of April 2021. Their premise for the report circulated around wanting to investigate how women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. They have taken an intersectional approach to the investigation, which encompasses the impact of pre-existing economic and social inequalities in combination with the disproportionate impact of corona on women. Their view is that the pandemic has further exacerabted pre-existing inequalities across the North for women.
What has been the impact?
Women are more likely to earn less and save less
Challenges in the North exacerbated by austerity
Health and Social Care workers are at higher risk of infection and death (in the UK 77% Health & Social Care workforce are women)
Gender pay gap in the North is wider than other areas of the UK
In response to school closure, women with the lowest income are 9x more likely to report job losses
Unpaid care work has a negative impact on mental health
The pre-existing social and economic inequalities which affected minority ethnic women has made them “less resilient to the pandemic” than other demographics
There has been an increase in domestic violence- (women with insecure immigration status have had particular issues accessing support services)
Policy Responses to Covid-19 for Women in the North
North West Relevant:
Greater Manchester Combined Authority launched the ‘Women and Girls’ Equality Panel’
Lancashire County Council commissioned Northern Power Women and Groundswell Innovation to create ‘Two Zero’: Female (business growth programme supporting female-led Lancashre based businesses)
Salford introduced ‘Tech She Can’
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority launched the ‘Fariness and Social Justice Advisory Board’
Recommendations for Building Back Fairer for Women
The report is explicit in it’s statement that economic recovery should not disregard the importance of furthering gender inequality.
They have 3 thematic recommendations:
Income
The Government’s “plans for jobs” should use targets to focus on employment for support for disadvantaged women and recognise caring inequalities faced by women
Introduction of targets set to level up the North’s gender pay to match the rest of the country
Understanding
There should be a shift in understanding of what constitutes the economy:
Equality impact assessments should be innately part of covid recovery policies
Government and Equalities Office should be more proactive in putting gender equity at the fore of policy development and make it a requirement for departments to publish data in relation to gender
Representation
Every recovery strategy designed by Combined Authority’s should have dedicated components considering more support of women e.g. gender equality panels should represent the diversity of women in the North
Politcal infrastructure gender balance
Devolution and recovery white papers should assess impacts of policies on women
Manchester Deaf Centre Vaccine Clinics
Manchester Deaf Centre are hosting a Covid-19 vaccine drop in clinic with British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter support. They are encouraging any deaf person, disabled person, person with a learning difficulty, person with long term health condition, PAs and carers from Greater Manchester to attend.
It will be held on the 29th April from 10am-3pm.
Information regarding the pop-up clinic in BSL:
Video made by Sign Health RAD in collaboration with other deaf organisations regarding COVID and saving lives:
VCSEP Seminars
The Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP) are hosting two seminars to discuss the role and purpose of Local Resilience Forms (LRFs), which have been instrumental in organising public sector response during the pandemic. Having an in-depth understanding of how LCFs work will help arm the sector with the knowledge to strengthen their response to the crisis.
VCSEP are running two sessions and invite anyone, regardless of current knowledge to attend:
Register for 6 May (2-4pm)
Register for 10 May (12-2pm)
The Baobab Foundation Report
‘Digging Deeper Report: Insights on tailored funding to organisations led by black people and communities experiencing racial injustice in 2020’
As stated in a previous article, The Baobab Foundation has been set up in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the stark inequalities further exposed by the global pandemic. The foundation aims to reestablish how black and ethnic minoirty-led VCSE organisations are funded and expose how the funding landscape has “enabled” or “limited” the work of these organisations.
Their report spoke to 26 respondents from 19 organisations.
Findings:
Rise in funding but exposure of limitaitions of support that would bring about systemic change, proportional investment
Focus on emergency response, not long-term solutions to tackle racial injustice
Some funders are putting social change as a priority, but more needs to be done to “integrate a racial and intersectional lens across funder strategies”
Thoughts:
Baobab do not use acronyms, as they regard them as an oversimplification of the lived experiences of individuals
Need to use ‘Intersectional approach’ as a framework to understand inequalities. Intersectionality which considers the various plethora of contexts and backgrounds that contribute to a persons lived experience, needs to be taken into account to build knowledge and resistance.
Funder Progress:
Increased availability & flexability of funding
“Shift towards participatory funding models”- including funders listening to experts on racial injustice
Investment into “lived experience funders and organisations”
Community issues now:
Progress remains limited, due to inhibted long-term and scaled flexible investment:
Funding doesn’t go beyond March 2021
Funding has failed geographical and intersectional disparities across UK
Groups still struggling with historic underinvestment
Moving towards an anti-racist & intersectional funding approach:
Funders need to be explicit about racial inequities
Understanding that racial injustice spans many social change strategies
Funders need to increase equity and transparency
Funders need to adopt risk-taking behaviour to generate innovations
Funders need to consciously work with groups outside of London
Trauma-informed approach to reduce harm in funding process needed
Call to Action to Funders:
Long-term and flexible funding (5+ years)
Address dispairites for groups outside of London
Build strategic partnerhships with organisations led by black people and communities experiencing racial injustice
Use “transforamtive policies and practices”
Adopt a trauma-informed approach across funding
Full report here.
Brief report here.
Digital Training for Not-for-Profits
Many VCSE organisations have had to suddenly adapt to working online and many with dwindling resources pushed to the edge. At a time when the sector is needed more than ever, in order to help protect our communities face this pivitol moment in our lifetime, we need to provide organisations with the necessary tools to carry out this vital work. Beyond are offering free digital training to all nonprofits working with covid-affected communities in England.
Examples of courses available:
Developing a Cyber Resilient Organisation
Equity by Design
Prototyping in Practice
Digital Safeguarding for your Services
Building Strong Relational Skills to Sustain Organisational Change
Working and Being Together Online
Design Thinking for Times in Crisis
The Joseph Roundtree's Annual Poverty Report 2020/21
Much of the studies and reports undertaken at the moment have surrounded the impact that the pandemic has had on increasingy poverty levels since the start of lockdown.. However, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation’s annual report has highlighted that actually many members of our communities were already at high risk of poverty. The pandemic has exacerbated these poverty risks and have “hit the hardest” those already struggling.
Their report shines light on the changing nature of poverty since the pandemic took hold and includes insights from the Povert Action Group.
Their main recommendations include:
“We need as many people as possible to be in good jobs. Unemployment is expected to rise in the coming months, and we need to see further bold action to retrain workers and create good quality new jobs.
We need to improve earnings for low-income working families and ensure more people are in secure, good quality work. Government must support people in the lowest-paid jobs, or people working part-time, to move into higher pay and access sufficient and secure working hours, including bringing forward the Employment Bill.
We need to strengthen the benefits system. At a minimum, we need the temporary £20 per week increase to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit to be made permanent, extending this same lifeline to people on legacy benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
We need to increase the amount of low-cost housing available for families on low incomes and increase support for households who have high housing costs.”
These recommendations should be taken into account during the upcoming local elections. We need politcians to listen to reports such as this and implement socio-economic strategies which address these issues in order to curb further rising inequalities.
Full report can be found here.