The UK’s largest bereavement charity, Cruse Bereavement Care, has launched a new training webinar for employers to support employees through bereavement. They have transformed their long-standing Loss and Bereavement workshop, into a new 2 hour interactive webinar which can be tailored to the needs of each organisation and will help attendees gain an understanding of grief and bereavement, become aware of the impact of loss, communicate with bereaved employees and develop an understanding of support organisations. Read more here.
The Coronavirus pandemic poses a serious challenge to the operations of charities of every type. That’s because the lockdown restrictions brought in to get the pandemic under control make charity fundraising very difficult indeed: charity shop networks are closed, and fundraising events have been cancelled. Digital fundraising, including virtual events, has become the only option for many charities, and that means service delivery activities will inevitably be impacted.
But the story gets worse – because normal service delivery channels are directly impacted by COVID-19 as well. With lockdown restrictions in place, it is all but impossible to deliver services face-to-face. And on top of this, many staff members have been furloughed or are working from home, meaning that charities have had to make drastic and sudden changes to the way they manage staff, teams, and projects.
ONLINE SERVICE DELIVERY
The good news is that many agile charities have been able to make rapid switches to online service delivery. For example, the National Childbirth Trust is now offering antenatal online courses to mums-to-be, St Barnabas Hospice has put together a digital bereavement guide, Shooting Star Children’s Hospices is providing online support groups via Zoom, and many other charities are offering telephone- or internet-based support sessions for individuals or groups.
INCREASED REACH
But there is more good news as well. There are signs that the sudden forced change to charity operations, and the move to online service delivery, may produce valuable benefits that will last long after the pandemic has ended.
For example, by moving to online channels for service delivery, and perhaps by adopting a different tone to suit the medium, some digital leaders have succeeded in reaching new audiences for their services. When things get back to a more normal footing it will be possible to go back to traditional service delivery channels, but also to retain this new online customer base.
Dingley’s Promise, a charity which supports under 5s with additional needs and disabilities, has ramped up its use of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram as well as print media and radio during the pandemic. “We have been forced to quickly shift to digital, remote support and information sharing and are finding that we can reach more people, and have an even bigger impact than before, said Catherine McLeod, the charity’s CEO, on Zoe Amar’s blog. “As such, we are likely to continue with a number of the online activities even after the end of lockdown,” she added.
STREAMLINED AND MORE FOCUSED
The difficulty of using traditional service delivery methods is having other impacts too. Some charities are being forced to take a long hard look at what they have been doing, and are returning to concentrating on their core activities. By looking at what the real needs are and working out how these can best be delivered during the pandemic, many of these are likely to emerge more streamlined and focused on meeting the needs of those they seek to help.
DIGITAL TOOLS FOR INCREASED EFFICIENCY
Charity staff are key to effective service delivery, and the move to home working means that many have had to become familiar very quickly with online tools such as Zoom, Slack, Miro, Monday, Trello, Asana and Microsoft Teams to communicate and work on projects together. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some – or even many – charity staff feel that communication has actually improved thanks to these tools.
At the very least, it’s true to say that most staff are now familiar with these and other online tools, and if their continued use improves operations and efficiency, speeds up digital transformation, and makes service delivery more effective in the long term, then that will be a big win for charities.
TIME FOR TRAINING
Some charity staff may find they have spare time on their hands thanks to the pandemic, perhaps because some of their normal activities are no longer possible, or maybe because they have been furloughed.
This type of training has the potential to result in a general upskilling of charity staff, which could result in more effective service delivery once the pandemic is over.
ENLARGED TALENT POOL
Finally, the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced charity staff to work from home is likely to have a positive impact on service delivery long into the future for two important reasons.
Firstly, it means that valuable staff who move away, or potential hires with valuable skills who do not live locally, can still contribute to the charity: charity leaders should now have the confidence to allow flexible working because it has proven to be effective.
But perhaps more importantly, an acceptance of remote working means that charities themselves can change for the better. Since online trustee meetings are rapidly becoming the norm, that means that there is an immediate enlarging of the talent pool from which charities can draw for trustees.
“Being able to join board meetings virtually will open trustee opportunities up to a much wider range of people, such as those who don’t live in London or can’t take lots of time in the day to travel and attend meetings,” explains Clare Laxton, a trustee at the National Children’s Bureau. This could open the way for a new generation of more tech-savvy (but time-poor trustees) to join charities of many types, with all the positive implications for service delivery that digital technologies can bring.
Essex County Council is pleased to be working in collaboration with our residents to manage need in the time of Covid-19. While the arrival of Covid-19 in our county has brought with it many challenges it has also opened up new ways for us to support and work together with our residents.
To help us do this, Essex has become one of a small but growing number of local authorities to invest in a digital first approach and the latest tool we have invested in is Tribe.
Tribe is an intelligent app which was developed to address the issue of care dark spots in the UK. In a nutshell, it is Uber for the care and volunteering sectors. Community driven, it places the power in the hands of residents to ask for the help that they need and be matched with people to provide that help.
Through industry-leading ArtificialI Technology, Tribe has inbuilt capabilities to learn and respond to resident and community needs giving deep insight into where help is most needed. All of this is supported by a full suite of analytics which allows organisations and commissioners to undertake predictive needs analysis in real-time.
Tribe was originally identified as a potential solution to a number of public wellness issues in Essex. A pilot project to beta test a small localised rollout was already under discussion when Covid-19 emerged. Kirsty O’Callaghan, Head of Strengthening Communities realised that as well as being the solution to a number of existing problems, Tribe also had the potential to be an innovative solution to new issues emerging during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Early-stage trials were quickly mobilised and the rollout is now underway for the newest tool to support our residents.
The Tribe project is co-collaborative and invites local authorities using the technology to contribute to future development needs so that the software continues to meet the needs of our residents.
Tribe has the highest level of authentication from the NHS and Google. Microsoft has also offered their support to ensure continuity of service for the app.
A full overview can be found on the website and in the brochure.
An online platform called PriorityMe is being used to register the patient when they contact Essex Welfare Service (EWS), and then to assign tasks initially to the Community Response Hubs (CRH) to provide support and assistance to those vulnerable people; this could be shopping or collecting prescriptions. If the CRH is unable to assist, EWS assigns the task to a volunteer registered with EWS and they complete the task. All CRH’s and EWS volunteers are undertaking training on how to use PriorityMe, which typically lasts one hour.
PriorityMe ensures every person that is registered with EWS receives the right level of support for them. The online platform tracks when a patient is registered, what their need is, who is going to support them (CRH or EWS volunteer), what the outcome is, when the task is complete and case closed.
Across the county individuals and organisations have offered their time and resources to help support communities, with offers ranging from spontaneous support helping neighbours to organisations offering fleets of vehicles and members of staff. To make sure these offers of support are connected to those who need the support, a volunteering Tactical Co-ordination Group (TCG) has been established. The group is made up of representatives across the Essex system including Police, Fire and voluntary sector and has drawn in expertise and best practice from outside of Essex.
Over the last two weeks the TCG has produced a code of conduct and tasking framework, and a strategic co-ordination approach to bring together offers and requests for support. The code of conduct has been made available for those organisations recruiting spontaneous volunteers to set out expectations and ensure our volunteers can help the effort safely. The tasking framework offers guidance to those coordinating volunteers as to the appropriateness of using volunteers for certain activities and levels of checks that are advised based upon associated risks (whether fraud or safeguarding).
To ensure join up on strategic offers and requests for support across Essex, the group have been establishing a clear pathway and offer that ensure immediate needs are met efficiently and that there are clear processes in place to provide join up and take this forward on an ongoing basis. Some of the immediate support from the group includes bringing together volunteers and Ford to support the movement and set up of hospital beds. The insight and experience that has been shared from across the system has helped us start to understand the immediate impact and longer term effect of the pandemic on the voluntary and community sector in Essex. Next steps will be to use this insight to support recovery planning as we work together towards a strategic response that supports sustainability going forwards.
We believe now is a great time to reignite your inspiration and the best way to do this is through live webinars. With the UK’s weekly mobility index increasing by 10% (Posterscope), meaning that people are moving outdoors more, we’re excited to announce that we have two live webinars coming soon to help prepare you for the return to Out of Home!
How to make the most out of Digital Out of Home
June 3rd at 11:00
Learn everything you need to know about Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising. From understanding the benefits of innovative digital formats, to discovering how to increase people’s motivation to act upon your marketing message, you’ll see how digital can grow sales or increase brand awareness.
June 11th at 11:00
We understand that the Education sector is encountering significant media and public attention concerning the safety of pupils and discussions regarding how quickly the sector can bounce back. Hear how the Education sector has continued to reach parents and students using Out of Home advertising and discover how you can use digital advertising to deliver the most important messages to your community.
The Government has launched a plan to tackle loneliness and social isolation during the coronavirus outbreak and period of social distancing.
As part of this plan, national organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections are invited to apply for a share of £5m funding.
The second draft of the CRA’s Reopening Pack is available for download. The pack consists of helpful guidance for when the green light to open up shops begins to shine, and provides some suggestions of things to think about in the meantime.
As the pack is being updated regularly in response to feedback and as government guidance changes, please do send the CRA any comments and feedback.
As you know, we have all been working hard to ensure people who may need a bit of extra help to protect their health and wellbeing during this extended period of lockdown and in response to COVID-19 are able to get it. We are happy to announce the Essex Welfare Service has now been expanded to offer a wider range of specialist support. This now includes caring responsibilities, matters concerning children, young people and families, mental wellbeing, learning disabilities and autism, dementia care, sensory impairments and staying physically active.
We are hoping to further expand the range of services on offer during the upcoming weeks, including a digital directory for information, advice and guidance, and access to support. This will be accessible to the public and practitioners/professionals and we will continue to build the content over the coming weeks and months.
You can download a briefing on this extended offer, what it entails and what it means for you.