Chief executive’s eye

A partnership of help

I’VE been in the role of CEO for Wokingham Borough Council for 18 months for Wokingham, and during that time it has been a real privilege to work with staff, councillors and partners. In my first column I wanted to talk in particular about partnership working.

This was precipitated on receiving a letter last week from a couple in their 80s who live in the borough thanking the council and partners for the service they have received during the Covid-19 crisis, while theywere shielding, saying what a difference it made to them.

Looking back, at the beginning of March, in the very early stages of the pandemic, voluntary and community groups and town and parish councils from across the Borough along with WBC got together to work out howwe could together to respond effectively to people who were self-isolating and at the same time provide a single route for residents who had questions and potentially real worries about their personal circumstances.

After meeting, very quickly, the Wokingham Borough Community Response (WBCR) was born to provide a single point of contact for residents to access support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s been fantastic that Citizens Advice Wokingham has provided One Front Door for residents.

Also that WBC staff moved into Citizens’ Advice and worked alongside its staff and volunteers take phone calls and emails from residents asking for support. WBC staff in Adult Services, including many redeployed staff from across the council, pro-actively contacted more than 4000 residents who were identified as extremely vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time as the single point of contact via CAB, the Link Visiting Scheme’s Talking Buddies programme provided timely support to residents as a result of an extensive bank of volunteers. Providing a much-needed listening ear for people feeling isolated and lonely.

Wokingham Volunteer Centre supported collecting and delivering pharmacy prescriptions.

And the First Days children’s charity led a big operation at St Crispin’s school, with an army of volunteers and redeployed WBC Sports and Leisure staff, supporting the food hub to deliver food parcels across the borough along with the Wokingham Foodbank providing for those struggling financially to access food.

As well as this, Age UK expanded their Home From Hospital Scheme to provide additional support to those returning home from a stay in an acute hospital.

Links were formed with local Covid-19 community groups across the borough and they supported many local residents with their needs.

Fundamental to the partnership community response was the action taken by Wokingham Volunteer Centre and The Link Visiting Scheme who drove the recruitment of many additional much needed volunteers.

I recently spoke at a webinar hosted by the Chief Exec of Citizens’ Advice Wokingham, Jake Morrison. It was a real pleasure to talk about the fantastic partnership work that has grown and developed during these unprecedented times of the Covid-19 crisis.

Over the period, thousands of residents have been supported via the front door scheme. In terms of shielding and support to vulnerable adults the council has gone from helping 1,850 people to 5,000 almost overnight.

And the Wokingham Borough Community Response delivered to more than 800 households, with more than 4,000 deliveries of food and essentials; picked up and delivered hundreds of prescriptions.

Throughout my time in local government

I have worked in partnership across statutory, voluntary and private sector organisations to deliver the services in communities.

I truly believe we can get the best working together. It can be hard to do at times but achieves the best outcomes. The work that has been done in Wokingham over the past months by many is incredible and sets a great foundation for the future.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those involved.