Doing all we can to keep your loved ones safe (updated December 2020)
We’d like to reassure you that together, the Agincare team is continuing to support those who depend on us. Whilst 2020 has presented its unique challenges, we continue to offer safe care keeping abreast of government guidance.
We have provided ongoing updates to people via our locations, our website and our various social media channels.
We continue to advise our employees to stay safe and continue to work within the current care home guidelines regarding the 2 metre social distancing rules and safe use of PPE. People using our services are now able to enjoy family visits (to stay within the criteria of the family ‘bubbles’).
The safety and physical and emotional well-being of our clients, our team members and their families are uppermost in our minds. We are doing absolutely everything we can to keep them safe. This includes practical daily support, lobbying as necessary on critical areas such as PPE, testing and areas of well-being and advocacy for those we give care and support to.
Following the latest guidance
Our dedicated frontline teams, alongside the NHS and other key public services, are still desperately needed out there every single day. Our directors are constantly monitoring the evolving situation, making sure that we are following the guidance coming from Government, the NHS and Public Health England.
We are working flat-out to make sure that our care teams are equipped with the necessary PPE to continue to care safely for those who have, or are suspected of having coronavirus-type symptoms. Our communities have provided awe-inspiring support to us, with schools and other organisations generously donating goggles, gloves, aprons and other PPE items to our frontline care teams.
Our care and support teams always maintain high standards of hygiene and follow robust infection control guidelines, but during this outbreak we expect team members in all our care settings and our offices to be extra vigilant about handwashing, coughs and sneezes, and keeping clients’ homes and our care and nursing homes clean.
We have also enabled many of our care teams to have regular testing to reduce the risks around transmission for people who may not have symptoms. Any person with a positive test result is told to leave the work environment and return home to self-isolate following government guidance.
There is light at the end of the tunnel with the new vaccine and Agincare are proud an Agincare care worker was the first person in Dorset to receive the COVID vaccine.
One team, working together
We have robust business continuity and contingency planning policies and procedures in place to be able to carry on supporting the most vulnerable members of our communities.
We are also sending our care and support teams regular emails with the latest information on personal protective equipment (PPE), Government guidelines and wellbeing support, and are supporting any members of staff who have been advised to self-isolate.
Amidst the challenges, we continue to celebrate the wonderful care being provided across our many locations and the fabulous feedback from those we provide care and support to. And we still have lots of new team members joining us to help with much-needed demand for our services.
Keeping in contact
We also take our social distancing responsibilities extremely seriously, whether that’s supporting people with live-in or home care, enabling safe visits to our care homes, or offering home working where possible to our office-based teams.
Social interaction and being part of our local communities are fundamental to our approach to care. Social distancing has presented us with some new challenges. However, we are not daunted by the restrictions and have been encouraging our clients to try different ways to keep in contact with their friends and families – be that video calls, using social media or writing letters.
We even appealed to members of the public to become pen pals with our care home residents, and more than 230 joyful and colourful messages came back, brightening our residents’ days across the country.
You can keep up with the latest news from across our services on Facebook and Twitter.
Because we care
Social care is needed more so than ever in these times. We all work for Agincare because we care – the whole Agincare family keenly feels our duty to keep our critical services going, despite the challenges.
We are incredibly proud of our teams and their commitment to supporting people through this extremely difficult time. They really are social care heroes.
We hope you are staying safe and well, in the knowledge that you can continue to depend on us.
Please follow our updates and FAQs in the coronavirus section of our website.
Raina Summerson
Agincare CEO
