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.
Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual campaign which aims to get people talking about their mental health and reduce the stigma around mental illness.
Research from Time to Change found that 9 out 10 people have faced stigma due to mental illness, and this stigma can have a negative impact on recovery time.
For 2020, the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is kindness.
Find Services Near You
The Essex Map is a community asset map which aims to help people to find the groups, services, and activities which work to benefit the community. The website can be used to find guidance and counselling for a variety of mental illnesses, and there are over 130 listings dedicated to emotional and mental health.
Mind in West Essex have built a dedicated online learning platform, designed to help you understand and manage the symptoms of common mental illnesses.
The Mind in West Essex Academy includes a free course on Intro to Anxiety, as well as courses for parents and carers of both young children and teenagers to support their emotional wellbeing.
More courses will be added in the coming weeks, and are due to include topics on working from home, depression, sleep, and stress.
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Mind in West Essex have adapted the services they offer and have created support groups using Zoom.
Sessions are available for stress/anxiety and bereavement, and will consist of a 1-hour session per week for 6 weeks, facilitated by 2 members of Mind in West Essex staff.
Stress/Anxiety Groups:
Tuesdays 10:30-11:30
Thursdays 10:30-11:30
Bereavement Group:
Thursdays 11:00 -12:00
Spaces for these groups are limited. For more information, and to book your place, please call 01371 876641 or email [email protected]
Accessible Counselling
To help people who are self-isolating and want to talk to someone about their mental health, Mind in West Essex have adapted their counselling sessions so they can be accessed via telephone or video call.
For people with a hearing loss, the systems have been tested to work with a variety of speech-to-text applications including Phonak’s myCall-to-Text phone transcription app.
For those who don’t want to have a formal conversation around their mental health, but are feeling isolated or lonely, Essex Befriends offer a free befriending service facilitated by volunteers.
During the coronavirus outbreak face-to-face befriending has been temporarily stopped, however telephone and email befriending is still available.
Essex Befriends is a cooperative project from Action for Family Carers, Mind in West Essex, Independent Age and Hamelin Trust.
If you’ve ever tried to recruit volunteers, you’ll be aware that the “feel good factor” often isn’t enough to get as many volunteer applications as you might need.
A number of organisations across Essex are finding that “payment in time” via projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank are a great way to encourage new volunteers to sign up.
What Is It?
With “payment in time” projects reward volunteers by giving them vouchers for each hour they volunteer. These vouchers can then be used for a variety of activities across the county.
How Does It Work?
As an organisation, you register with projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank and then record the number of hours each of your volunteers complete in a given time period (a month, for example).
Your in-house facilitator will then distribute the vouchers to the volunteers, who can spend them directly with the activity of their choice.
What’s the Difference Between Time Credits and Time Bank?
In short, not a lot. Both programs work in a very similar way, but may have different rewards available to volunteers. It’s best to have a look and see what rewards are available in your area before you make your choice.
You may find that some of the rewards are currently unavailable, but volunteers are able to save up their vouchers to spend later or use for an online activity.
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