Coronavirus update: 29 April 2020

Many families and relationships will feel increased pressure during the coronavirus lockdown restrictions and for those living with domestic abuse, this could cause serious harm. If you are concerned about your behaviour towards loved ones during the pandemic, support is available from Respect.

Respect is a domestic abuse organisation that leads in the development of safe, effective work with preparators, male victims and young people using violence in their close relationships.

The Respect phoneline is a key source of support for people concerned about their behaviour and wanting to manage and change it. Now more than ever, this service is critical to anyone that is finding it difficult to manage their behaviour.

You can call the Respect helpline on 0808 8024040 (Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) or visit the Respect website for more advice and support.

If you are well and not in the increased risk group, you can leave the house to provide care or to help a vulnerable person in the community. But please remember, it’s really important that you do so safely.

There are many ways you can provide support to a friend, family member or neighbour who is in isolation. These include helping someone with food shopping, collecting and delivering medication or simply picking up the phone to have a friendly chat.

Follow these top tips to stay safe whilst helping others in the community:

• Keep it local and manageable
• Stick to a patch you know well 
• Try to understand that people may be cautious
• Create a list of the things that you feel able to help others with  
• Trust your instincts  

Thank you to everyone that is continuing to volunteer and support their neighbours, families and friends during these difficult times.

Find out more about helping others in the community and read the guide on 'Being a good neighbour'

There is some early evidence that indicates smokers are more at risk of developing severe respiratory disease should they contract the coronavirus. In order to reduce the risks, the best thing to do now is to take steps to quitting smoking for good.

Quitting smoking will reduce a smoker’s risk of serious health consequences from the coronavirus, and it will rapidly reduce their risk of other health problems related to smoking, such as heart disease and stroke. This is critical for both smokers and our health system which is already under strain at this time.

Help is at hand for anyone in Hounslow that wants to quit smoking through the One You Hounslow stop smoking service or from the NHS Smokefree service.

For further information you also visit the Stop Smoking London website.

As we start to become increasingly more reliant on technology at home it helps to stay in the know about staying safe online and protect ourselves from cyber threats. Here are some useful top tips to ensure that you and your family stay secure online:

• Protect your email by using a strong password and separate password
• Install the latest software and app updates
• Turn on two-factor authentication on your email
• Password Managers help you to secure passwords
• Secure smartphones and tablets with a screen lock
• Always back up your most important data

Find out more about how to stay safe and secure on the National Cyber Security website.   

It’s not just individuals who are vulnerable to scams, businesses are at risk too.

Malicious email attachments, fake government grant phone calls and impersonation of other organisations are amongst some of the scams to be aware of and may be undermining businesses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The increasing risk to businesses has led National Trading Standards to launch a free online training tool called Business Against Scams.

The initiative includes online training modules to help businesses upskill and train their staff to better identify and prevent potential scams.

You can find out more about the free online training here.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has announced a new loan scheme - the Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan - to help small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus.

• The scheme will go live from Monday 4 May 2020 and cash will be released within days for eligible businesses. 
• Businesses can borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.
• The government will guarantee 100 per cent of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.
• Loan terms will be up to six years. 
• The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
• The scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders.

Work Hounslow is offering a range of free workshops to support Hounslow-based microbusinesses. The latest workshop is Financial Support For SMEs – Getting You Fit For Funding and is being delivered by BrandUIn.

This workshop will help you develop a true understanding of how valuable business planning is and why it is not just a matter of producing a set of documents to provide to lenders.

You will learn what types of funding are best suited to your business and what is needed to give your funding application a head-start over other applicants.

The workshop will be delivered in two parts over two consecutive weeks. One booking counts for both parts of the workshop.