During the Coronavirus pandemic, Surrey Choices staff have been working hard to take care of the people they support from home following Government guidance, offering online sessions for them to continue learning at home as well as volunteering with local care providers who were in need of staff.
From Monday 6 July – Sunday 12 July Surrey Choices is celebrating Co-Production Week, highlighting the brilliant work the people we support and our staff have achieved by working with other people and organisations in our community. What better week to find out that since March 2020, Surrey Choices staff have offered over 1,500 days of support to people in need all over Surrey due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Surrey Choices staff have been providing additional support all over Surrey, from elderly people’s care homes to local community projects such as delivering meals to vulnerable people. Surrey Choices staff have offered support to other care providers whose staff teams had been affected by Coronavirus, to ensure the people they support could continue to receive the services and care they needed.
Many of them worked evenings and weekends, in new environments and were committed to supporting their communities in an inspiring way. Even when some homes had residents with Coronavirus, staff did not hesitate to put on their full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), knowing how important it was to work safely to provide the best care.
As the support Surrey Choices staff offered to external providers comes to a close in July, staff will return to their new normal, here is a summary of the work in the community carried out by them during lockdown and as you can see it is over 1,500 shifts in either Surrey Choices customers homes, Surrey County Council (SCC) homes or other providers. A huge thank you to the staff who volunteered to be on the front line offering support – often at very short notice.