STATEMENT

As the situation with COVID-19 continues across the country, at Care in Mind our priority is the safety and wellbeing of the young people in our care, and our staff who are caring for them.

Our COVID-19 task group continue to meet regularly and oversee the situation within Care in Mind to ensure we make the appropriate adjustments where needed, and in-line with government guidance. Internally, we are regularly issuing updates to staff and young people, including sharing updates in an easier to read format, for those who find this helpful.

We recognise that national guidance is being regularly updated and will continue to respond and adapt our processes and advice to young people and staff in line with the latest guidance. We understand that the pandemic is a long-term situation, and thus, we are ensuring our processes are robust and adaptable as things change.

Above all else, we remain committed to providing the highest quality of care to our young people whilst also ensuring their safety.

Sharron Amri, Managing Director

FAQs

Our rules surrounding visiting young people and the homes remains in-line with government guidance. Additionally, we are supporting young people to use technology and other options to remain in regular, social-distanced contact during this time.

Microsoft Teams is being used across the organisation to support meetings with external stakeholders, MDT meetings, CPAs etc.

Clinical sessions are conducted face-to-face with the relevant social-distancing and safety measures put into place. These meetings continue to be held in this way due to being classed as an essential part of our service. Where necessary, Microsoft Teams is also being used to support clinical sessions, if a face to face session isn’t possible due to isolation guidelines.

To reassure our candidates, all of our recruitment interviews are being held over Microsoft teams to support social distancing measures

Our training is being completed online wherever possible, but where face to face sessions have to take place, large rooms are being utilised and numbers in the classroom reduced.

Technology is also being used to set up a forum for young people across all our services; this will host a variety of games, activities and other engaging content as well as facilitating contact between young people in different homes across the service. The aim of this is to help our young people to stay connected, reduce isolation and encourage peer support.

All services have been issued with stock of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and training in the use of PPE. We have also introduced weekly testing.