Unprecedented centre closures, covid risk assessments and around 50,000 virtual contacts carried out.
It has of course been a challenging year to say the least and the figures below are stark reminders of the impact the pandemic has unfortunately had on availability of contact centres to children and families. Never before in NACCC’s history have contact centres had to close their doors in such huge numbers. A huge amount of work has carried on during the year both behind the scenes and in the community to make contact services available again in a safe and secure way.
It is a huge achievement that more than 54% of supported centres and 89% of supervised centres have now been able to reopen. We don’t underestimate the amount of work that has gone on to make this possible. If your supported centre is still closed NACCC is available to help guide you as you feel it is safe to reopen. Please do contact us for guidance or take a look at the ‘reopening’ videos on this link: https://naccc.org.uk/members/naccc-training-videos/
Looking after your well-being
Following a year of such anxiety, stress and uncertainty, on top of managing a contact centre it would not be a surprise if this is affecting the mental health of you and your team. You may have gone over and above this last year as keyworkers but please do take time to look after your own well-being. Please see a few links below which might be helpful:
- NHS https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/
- Wellbeing apps https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/category/mental-health/
- Mental Health UK https://mentalhealth-uk.org/
- Virtual College wellbeing guide https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/resources/2020/02/mental-health-and-wellbeing-guide
Feeling isolated in your work?
Running a contact centre can be very isolating if there is not another centre nearby. Please do make use of the peer support that NACCC can offer. You are very welcome to join NACCC’s WhatsApp group or to attend the coffee shop live sessions (for supported and enhanced centres). These have proven to be so helpful this last year. To join the WhatsApp group or to receive details about the next coffee shop live do contact the NACCC office or look out for the emails.
Centre status update
Thank you for sending in details regarding your centre’s status in relation to the pandemic. We have the latest figures (as at 30th April) to share with you. We know that some centres that opened last year had to close again following the January lockdown. These figures reflect a huge amount of hard work that is going on behind the scenes ensuring risk assessments, equipment, new layouts and safety procedures are all in place. We are not wanting to put pressure on centres to reopen as it is of utmost importance that centres reopen safely.
- 54% of supported centres are now open, with 20% making plans to reopen. 26% (69 centres) were still closed for the time being. Of these 69 centres, 18 thought they would be open by the summer, 6 by the autumn and 20 were unsure.
- 89% of enhanced accredited centres are now open, with 2% making plans to reopen. 9% (23 centres) were still closed for the time being. Of these 23 centres, 3 thought they would be open by the summer, 6 were unsure and 5 were not ever reopening.
- 75% of enhanced centres and 29% of supported centres had been able to offer virtual contact during this period. Nearly 50,000 sessions were offered – a remarkable achievement!
Statistics update: Findings and trends for the period 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021
To complement the above we felt it would be helpful to share the findings and trends from the first quarter’s statistics submitted by accredited child contact centres for the period 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021. Please see our website for the full data.
Children using centres down by 10,000
The number of children and families attending centres during 2020-21 halved with a reduction of 10,000 children using contact services. This is of course due to the closure of centres during the initial pandemic and as some centres had to close again due to the January lockdown. Children having supported contact was at 22% compared with pre covid times. Hopefully as 2021 progresses this will pick-up, but it might take a while to get back to pre-covid levels, particularly for children using supported contact centres.
*2020 figures are shown in brackets followed by the percentage of 2021 compared with 2020.
Referrals to centres at 65% overall compared with previous year with the majority for supervised contact
