Care Sector Unites Amid of Flurry of Snow

On Thursday March 1st 2018, the UK was hit by #StormEmma and flurry of snow that impacted some of the most hard-to-reach of our communities for many years. Our ND Care and Support teams became part of a united call to action by their wider community with quite simply outstanding efforts from all involved.

Evette Townley, Registered Manager for our Cardiff team explains more:

‘On Friday at 12.28pm a WhatsApp group was set up called Snow Pooled Resources. The initiative was created by Everycare, following consultation with other providers across the worst hit of our regions. The group was joined by several domiciliary care agencies including ND Care and Support.

This outstanding enterprise enabled a channel to exist which resourced support available to support our most vulnerable communities. At a time when the elderly and those in cut-off areas who needed most support – a group of organisations that operate independently of one another chose to see the bigger picture.

The group pulled together in unity and assisted each other to cover calls to ensure support/care delivery to service users where needed in every eventuality. The impact was incredible, and support reached the most inaccessible areas impacted by the weather with volunteers providing transport and other essentials’.

ND Care and Support is an award-winning organisation which has been in operation in South Wales for over a decade. The team have offices in Cardiff, Gwent, Cross Hands and now for the first time in England in Buckfastleigh, Devon.

Odette Flower who heads up the Gwent operation and is a prolific figure within the sector across the Valleys of South Wales added ‘we were quite simply overwhelmed to see the very fabric of human nature knit together so beautifully during what could have become a major crisis for those with restricted mobility and accessibility to local amenities.

Beyond what our own brilliant staff did – making sure that our service users were safe, warm and accommodated, the amount of people from within our communities who volunteered 4×4 vehicles to assist the call outs was beyond heart-warming’.

Odette made a call out on her own social media for their staff and volunteers braving the treacherous conditions to share their stories via images of their journeys (pictured).

Rebecca Ford, Director of Care for ND Care and Support added ‘we were not at all surprised to see the sheer efforts deployed not only by our own staff, but by the close-knit communities we are so heavily involved within. Perhaps most inspiring was the facilitation by Everycare to ensure that all who needed our services had ample opportunity to access them. Ours is a sector under immense pressure at times – March 2018 will not go unforgotten within our network. Let’s just hope we see a warmer spring ahead of us’.

For more information about working with the team visit https://www.new-directions.co.uk/care-new/care-support-vacancies/