The ‘superhuman’ efforts of Care at Home staff in South Lanarkshire during the COVID-19 emergency response has been brought into sharp focus.

As the anniversary of lockdown is remembered, details have emerged on how our home carers formed the vanguard of a huge partnership effort to keep the most vulnerable people in communities safe.

The Care at Home service provides essential support to enable people to live as independently as possible in their own homes. This often involves helping a person to wash, dress or get ready for bed. Some home care workers are also trained to give more personal assistance such as help with medication.

“Despite the many complexities of a ruthless virus – which exacted a significant toll on our own capacity  – our staff have remained unflinching. Their effort has been nothing short of superhuman,” said South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) Scott McNeill who is the Service Manager for the Registered Care at Home Services.

“They have continued to provide services in a caring and compassionate way throughout the pandemic to people across our communities – at a time when life and society as we knew it was all but paused.”

South Lanarkshire HSCP has a workforce of 1,000 home carers who collectively deliver services 365 days each year. Over 100 office staff support the work of the service – which delivers approximately 25,000 visits each week to over 1,400 service users.

In the adversity of the  pandemic, innovation and partnership working has characterised the service’s response to maintaining the vast scale of their vital work.

“The service itself has felt the impact of COVID-19,” continued Scott.

“Staff with underlying health conditions required to shield, staff have required to self-isolate as a result of close contacts with individuals infected by the virus and indeed some staff have sadly been infected themselves. Thankfully, all staff have now recovered.

“With a reduced staffing resource available, we had to take steps to ensure that those in greatest need continued to receive services.”

Scott added: “Shortly after the first lockdown, for example, we established a temporary Community Meals service as part of the emergency response. The objective was to ensure those who needed support continued to receive well-balanced and nutritional meals each day.

“The service was a massive success and reflected partnership working at its best.”

Over 100 staff volunteers from South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture, Education Resources and Housing and Technical Resources have helped co-ordinate and deliver over 14,000 meals over the last year, prepared by colleagues in Community Resources. An army of drivers have been on hand to check on the wellbeing of people each day and relay any concerns to the Care at Home service to follow up.

Scott added: “This support has been vital. Although it was co-ordinated and driven by the service, the all hands-to-the-pump approach from across partners allowed our staff to channel their expertise towards those with the greatest need.

“Overall, our staff have had to adapt to new ways of working from the introduction of new guidance and PPE to restrictions in travel.

“They’ve taken everything in their stride. Their crucial contribution to the emergency response cannot be understated. I’m immensely grateful and proud and I’m sure this is reflected in the views of those who they support.”

Val de Souza, Chief Officer of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership echoed that sentiment.

“Care at Home staff have played a phenomenal frontline role in our wider partnership’s emergency response to the pandemic. The term ‘pillars of our community’ springs to mind, in the way they have a been a solid, unstinting support for so many people across South Lanarkshire in dark times.”