Chamber and committees

Free grocery boxes were made available to people who were shielding from COVID-19 to support them in following the shielding advice. For logistical reasons, these were standardised boxes. In those circumstances, it was recognised that some people could choose not to use all of the items supplied.

We confirmed on 8 June that this support will remain as long as the shielding advice remains in place. Shielding was paused from 1 August and the grocery box service stopped on 31 July.

We are considering the support requirements of the shielding group in the event of future local or national lockdowns. In the meantime, all people who were shielding were told that they could visit shops from 24 July. People who registered for priority supermarket delivery slots by 31 July continue to have access to these slots. Anyone needing urgent assistance with food or other groceries can continue to contact their local authority.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign was a great success and is testament to the compassion and community spirit of the people of Scotland. As at the week ending Friday 17 July, there were 83,738 sign-ups to the campaign, which was paused on 1 May.

The Scotland Cares sign-ups are in addition to the thousands of people who had already stepped forward, across the country, quickly and spontaneously, to help with the response to COVID 19, as soon as initial needs emerged and, of course, the many thousands of individuals already volunteering in their own communities for other reasons.

So far 4,882 student nurses have been placed with Boards and in community settings, and 276 NHS returners are now in employment. In addition the Scottish Social Services Council has, so far, matched 168 people to positions within the social care sector. Please note that all health and social care positions are paid.

Since 13 April, 1,376 British Red Cross volunteers have been deployed across Scotland. Figures for Volunteer Scotland deployments are not readily available, however. Individuals who signed up, but have not yet been required, for available tasks, may well be critical in efforts to support and rebuild communities over the weeks and months to come.

23,101 applicants have offered to support the Health and Social Care response to COVID-19 (May 1). Of these applicants 18,373 returners and students have registered through the Health and Social Care COVID-19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal, hosted through the Ready Scotland website.

The portal helps to match people with relevant skills to paid roles within Health and Social Care. It went live on 29 March 2020. We have temporarily paused further expressions of interest through the portal (as of 30 April 2020), as we move forward with placing applicants who have already expressed their interest.

Offers of employment are being made across NHS Scotland, with 382 applicants ready to be deployed and more than 3,600 returners in the process of completing their pre-employment checks (Apr 30). Additionally, 2,352 student nurses and midwives, and 438 FiYs have completed all checks and have been allocated to a Board.

As at the week ending Friday 01 May, there were 77,057 sign-ups to the Ready Scotland volunteer scheme, the breakdown is provided in the following table -

The ‘Scotland Cares’ Campaign has been a huge success and it is testament to the generosity and compassion of the people of Scotland that there are now over 77,000 sign-ups, from all across the country, to support the NHS, other public services and our local communities. Those sign-ups are in addition to the thousands of people who had already stepped forward, quickly and spontaneously, across the country, to help with the response to COVID 19, as soon as initial needs emerged.

Following ‘sign-up’ through the Ready Scotland website, the NHS recruitment campaign involves the relevant officials working with Health Boards and social care providers, to match applicants to placements. Offers of employment are being made across all Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships. Please note that these are all paid positions.

‘Scotland Cares’ connects the British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. Feedback from Local Authorities, Resilience Partnerships, and Third Sector Interface leads, confirms that local volunteering needs are currently being met for the organisations which require support. Although many of the volunteers who have signed up will not be needed immediately, they are likely to be critical in efforts to support and rebuild communities over the weeks and months to come.

The Ready Scotland campaign offers individuals three separate ways to offer their services:-

1. To help the NHS, individuals are signposted towards the NHS Health & Social Care recruitment portal, for paid positions;

2. To help Public Services, individuals are directed towards the British Red Cross (BRC): Community Reserve Volunteer scheme;

3. To help Voluntary and Community organisations, individuals are directed towards the Volunteer Scotland (VS) recruitment website.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ Campaign is testament to the compassion and community spirit of the people of Scotland; there are now over 77,000 sign-ups, from all across the country, to support the NHS, other public services and local communities. Those sign-ups are in addition to the thousands of people who had already stepped forward, quickly and spontaneously, to help with the response to COVID 19, across the country, as soon as initial needs emerged and of course the many thousands already volunteering in their own communities.

Following ‘sign-up’ through the Ready Scotland website, the NHS recruitment campaign involves the relevant officials working with Health Boards and social care providers, to match applicants to placements. Offers of paid employment are being made across all Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships with over 800 applicants available to be deployed and more than 3,700 NHS returners in the process of completing their pre-employment checks. Processing times for that will vary, depending on the necessary occupational health and employment checks people normally have to undergo. These are being streamlined as far as possible, but of course the safety of patients, clients, and of staff themselves, remains the highest priority.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ scheme connects British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. As I have made clear through our communication with volunteers, many of the volunteers who have signed up will not be needed immediately and may be much more needed by organisations to support people and communities over the weeks and months to come. I have also expressed my gratitude to volunteers for their offers of help as we continue to counter the impacts of the pandemic.

The British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland do not currently track individual volunteer journey times from sign up through to formal volunteering roles, within individual organisations, and to do so would be very resource intensive, therefore deployment timescales are not readily available. Feedback from Local Authorities, Resilience Partnerships, and Third Sector Interface leads, suggests that the volunteering needs of local organisations are being met.

BRC have though put in place new systems to capture the roles the Response Volunteers are being asked to do, and record how many are assisting, across the country. The system involves use of smartphone apps to alert and match volunteers to particular local needs, enabling the requisite number of sign ups, as well as signposting to further details of the task and the next steps to be taken. A new BRC dashboard developed to provide statistics and measure usage, has recorded that, since 13 April, 241 Community Reserve Volunteers have been deployed across the three (East, West and North) Resilience Partnership areas. The roles undertaken include: food-parcel distribution, shopping assistance, medicine delivery and making welfare calls.