Coronavirus: Library staff trained to support Peterborough and Cambridgeshire residents shielding at home

In the past six weeks the county’s Countywide Hub has focused on meeting the basic needs of people who are shielding, providing essential supplies for those that have no other support available.

The hub has now developed a new service working with the Red Cross and Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council’s place-based coordinators, using staff redeployed from the libraries service and elsewhere, to enable it to support people’s wider health and wellbeing.

The first training sessions for redeployed staff took place this week, with initial requests expected to be fulfilled in the next few days.

This is likely to include support with things like shopping, running errands, gardening and skills development services.

Adrian Chapman, service director for communities and partnerships at Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “This is another great example of how we are making best use of staff whose usual roles have changed during lockdown to ensure that the people in our communities who need help and support the most are being looked after.

“We know that for many people all that they require is food and perhaps a phone call, but many of the people we speak to need support in other ways to reduce their anxieties and support their wellbeing. They may be concerned about the state of their garden or need an item posting – if they have nobody else to ask to do this, we want to be able to help.”

The hub is also developing a set of leisure, pleasure and learning opportunities for shielded people to take part in. This will include aligning the food deliveries from the hub to a healthy eating class, either online or via recipe cards for those that do not have digital access. Further details will be announced soon.