Peterborough city council’s community hub has helped more than 1,000 residents

Members of Peterborough City Council Cabinet met online this week (Monday, June 22) to assess the response to Covid-19.

Looking specifically at the Peterborough Hub which went online on April 2, Cllr Peter Hiller asked: “What have been the most frequent requests for help and has this changed as time has gone on?”

Over 2,500 volunteers have signed up to the Covid-19 Coordination Hub set up by the city council and Cambridgeshire County Council to help vulnerable residents.

Executive Director People and Communities, Wendi Ogle-Welbourn, said: “The hub has received over 1,100 contacts with the majority of them initially for food supplies/deliveries and medication deliveries.

“More recently, as shopping for food has returned to something like normal, contacts have been for support with mental health, befriending for those struggling with self-isolation and support with domestic services such as cleaning, gardening, dog walking.

“A bank of volunteers who support the hub and local organisations has been set up and a framework is currently being developed to offer guidance, training and support to volunteers across the city.

“Moving forwards, the Hub is preparing to support those residents who have to self-isolate due to test and trace and supporting those who have been removed from the shielded list.

“A task/finish group has been set up to look at health inequalities with national data suggesting there are people at higher risk of exposure to the virus due to their occupation eg a healthcare professional, taxi driver, security guard and bus driver with other factors including their lifestyle and living conditions playing a significant part.

“We’ve had to adapt as time has gone on to things that, at the beginning, we probably would never have considered such as help with house maintenance and loneliness from isolation and not getting out to see friends and loved ones.”

The city council officers who run the hub are in the process of gathering local data and then developing from it an action plan to respond to identified needs with part of this work including looking at the areas in Peterborough that have seen the highest rate of registered deaths due to Covid-19.

From that, it’s hoped the creation of a targeted communications campaign supported by over 60 local voluntary/charitable organisations, parish councils, the city council services and Cross Keys Homes, all linking in with other registered social landlords, city faith communities, the City Leadership Forum and City College will result in a stronger-than-ever support mechanism than can be offered to vulnerable residents as we enter the ‘new normal’.

If you need support from the Covid-19 Coordination Hub or want to help there are more details here