Renfrewshire came together during crisis

Renfrewshire has been singled out in a national report for its positive response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The local authority features in a report by The Carnegie UK Trust on good practice within UK responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the crisis, the trust has been undertaking a series of conversations with communities across the UK, including Renfrewshire, and has been exploring the changing relationship between local government, public services and communities.

One of the innovations identified was the development of community hubs.

Community support hubs started to form just prior to lockdown in March.

They bring public services and volunteers together under one roof, offering a rapid, grass-roots response designed to reach people most acutely affected by the pandemic.

Common services include helplines, food parcels, tackling loneliness and financial support.

Having different public services working out of the same hub made signposting far easier, so people identified as having more complex needs could be linked to more specialist services.

The trust believes that these hubs could have a longer-term role in recovery from the pandemic in joining people that require support with a range of services to promote individual and community well-being.

In Renfrewshire, the community organisation Engage has been working alongside Renfrewshire Council throughout the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the group said that it was great to play a part in such a ‘collaborative and community-based approach’and found the community hub ‘a really great way of showing how Renfrewshire Council and the local third sector work together’.