Pboro City Council COVID-19 update

Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council communications team will be providing a daily media update with a round-up of any changes to council services arising from the Coronavirus. Please note – all information is correct at the time of publishing.

UPDATE: Thursday, 30 April 2020

Royal Navy’s Submarine Service helps our Countywide Hub – Simon Cartwright, Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service, tells us how he is using his military planning skills to assist the Countywide Hub.

Simon said: “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic I was an instructor for an organisation known as Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), preparing submarines for pending deployments. I have served my country for almost 18 years and I continue to do so to assist in the response phase, leading into the recovery phase for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As part of the MoD’s response and contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic, military planners have been deployed all around the UK in order to assist the Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) in dealing with planning operations.

“I have been a part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LRF for almost four weeks now. I began my work setting up the food distribution hub, supplying food to people on the shielded list. Considering we were starting from scratch and building this operation up from the ground up we had our work cut out for us! In the proceeding two weeks we managed to secure a warehouse, get it fit for purpose, risk assessed, racks fitted and filled with food for distribution. This was a tremendous achievement all involved and a large step towards sustainability. The warehouse then became dual purposed with the delivery of PPE for distribution to a multitude of health care facilities.

“I have recently shifted my focus from the logistical efforts to the recovery group and I look forward to working with this new team and taking the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough communities back to normality.”

Further support for children affected by domestic abuse – Cambridgeshire County Council are delighted to have been awarded Home Office funding to support children affected by domestic abuse.

A total of £3.1 million nationally will go to specialist services for children who have both been directly and indirectly affected by domestic abuse. This will include one-to-one and group counselling sessions to improve the mental health of children affected and early intervention schemes.

The funding comes at a crucial time as the covid-19 lockdown has seen increased calls to national domestic abuse helplines and also an increase in children calling specialist helplines about abuse at home.

Just over £400K funding will be coming to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to ensure a number of much needed services are delivered including trauma based therapy for children who have experienced domestic abuse, dedicated children’s workers in refuges and support to help women and children remain safely in their homes.

The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Partnership website (www.cambsdasv.org.uk) has all the local contacts for anyone living with or experiencing domestic abuse to use, along with information for friends and family of victims as well as information for professionals.

Dr Liz Robin vlog – Dr Liz Robin’s, Director of Public Health for Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, video will appear this afternoon on our YouTube and social media channels. She’ll be talking about the NHS still being open for business, and that we should still seek urgent medical attention and treatment from GPs and Emergency Departments when we need it – as not doing so can pose a long term risk to our health, both mental and physical.

Today’s video blog will be available this afternoon. Dr Liz Robin can do interviews about the current COVID-19 situation or the contents of today’s Vlog. Please contact the newsdesk to check availability.

St Neots school encourage pupils to ‘reach for the stars’ (see pic) – With the majority of our school-aged children currently learning at home, schools across the region have been thinking up ways of staying in touch and keeping the spirits up.

Staff at Crosshall Junior School, St Neots, wanted to let pupils know they are missing them lots, and to remain ambitious, resilient and kind, while they stay home and stay safe.

Not content with just creating a photo collage to spell out a message, which was no mean feat in itself, the staff went one step further by recreating an old S-Club 7 favourite, encouraging children to ‘follow that rainbow, and reach for the stars’.

While the video is already proving popular online, talk over a greatest hits medley are unfortunately only rumours at this stage.

Ms Anne Eardley, Headteacher at the school, said: “Our children mean so much to us here at Crosshall Junior, and our staff wanted to do something to let them know we are thinking about them every day.

“The whole staff team are just fabulous and needed no encouragement to get involved! I think some even enjoyed it more than thought they would. I hope our children enjoy watching the video, and I do want them to know that if we all keep smiling and being kind we will get through this together. We send our best wishes to all the amazing school staff, leaders, children and parents across the county.”

You can view the video here.

You can keep up-to-date with any changes to our services on our websites:

• Peterborough – https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/healthcare/public-health/coronavirus/disruption-to-council-services
• Cambridgeshire – https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/coronavirus/disruption-to-council-services

Our advice and latest information on Coronavirus can be found on both websites – www.peterborough.gov.uk/coronavirus and www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/coronavirus

Coronavirus: what you need to do

• Stay at home
• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (where this absolutely cannot be done from home)
• Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Anyone can spread the virus!

Full guidance on staying at home and away from others can be found here.