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 Friday 17 April 2020
Dear Colleague,
This week has been another of tireless work from staff across the organisation. Last night at 8pm, we stood outside to join the nation in a show of support and appreciation for the fantastic work being carried out by dedicated NHS workers and those on the front line. This of course, includes the work you are all doing to keep our vital Council services up and running. Without you, we would simply not be able to deliver these services to our vulnerable residents and communities. It was inspiring to see so many of our colleagues join the tribute, with a fantastic video shared on Twitter last night, and, with the support of our parks teams and dbnAudile, see our Council buildings lit-up blue to support our NHS and other key workers.
Last week, many staff worked throughout the holiday weekend in support of the most vulnerable Mancunians, and it will be no different this weekend. With the Government’s announcement of at least another three weeks of lockdown, it is clear we will have to maintain – or indeed, increase – our efforts in the coming weeks. The continued energy and enthusiasm shown by you all in the face of this challenge is exceptional. It is with great pride that we lead such a dedicated team of staff.
Led by David Regan, Director of Public Health for Manchester; and Sarah Doran, Lead for Health Protection and Starting Well, Developing Well Life Course, our teams leading the public health response to COVID-19 for Manchester have been working flat out since January. The Population Health team and the Community Infection Control team have been spearheading the city’s infection control work, saving lives by using science and data to predict and restrict the spread of the virus. It’s an extraordinary effort by a remarkable group of people.
This week has also seen the transformation of Manchester Central into a Nightingale Hospital for the North West. With the first patients receiving treatment this week, we can reflect on what an incredible achievement this has been, working closely with our NHS and military colleagues. Of course, we hope as few of the 750 beds will be needed as possible, but we should take reassurance that the resource is there to help ease the pressure on our hospitals as we tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. A heartfelt thank you must go to those who have made this transformation possible, and to those who will help care for people in Manchester in the coming weeks.
Every Friday, we want to take the time to recognise and celebrate your achievements and share the stories of your inspiring actions across the organisation. We both thoroughly enjoy hearing about the work you are doing, and the different – sometimes amusing – ways you are approaching the monumental challenges we face. So keep your stories coming in. Make a video, share a poem or artwork – whatever you are doing to help yourself may in turn help others. Our internal communications team can help you, so please get in touch by emailing internalcomms@manchester.gov.uk. Please know that your hard work and efforts do not go unnoticed. The newly appointed High Sheriff of Manchester sent us a letter of support to thank you for all the tremendous work you are doing for the residents of Manchester, and we wanted to share it with you.
Thank you, and have a lovely weekend.
Sir Richard and Joanne
 
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Puppets show they care
Meet Imarni and Ruby, who have been helping staff from the Early Help team talk to children, check their wellbeing, and take food parcels to their families.
With social-distancing measures in effect, many children and young people are bored being stuck at home, so the North Early Help team decided to take the fun to them. The puppet pair have spent time making children laugh through windows and from garden walls. Some teenagers have also cracked a smile and responded to Imarni and Ruby's playful jokes. The plush toys are also remarkably good at video calls and like to call up children to see if they're okay.
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Behind the scenes with HROD
Members of the Council’s HROD team have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to support all our staff during the coronavirus situation. Many of the team have been working to support front-line services by mapping workforce skills and matching them to temporary roles created as part of our response to COVID-19.
Watch Suzanne Grimshaw, Head of Organisational Development, talk about her recent work, which has included pulling together a small Community Resourcing Hub team. The hub allows staff to opt in to opportunities across the city to provide vital help for our communities at this time of need
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Food Response team
The Council’s Food Response team is now delivering more than 6,000 food parcels each week to support more than 3,000 vulnerable Manchester residents and their families.
Watch a video of Lizzy Martin, an HROD officer, who has temporarily been redeployed to lead a team of seven Council staff who are all working from home as a virtual team in support of the Council’s Food Response programme.
If you can help, contact food.response@manchester.gov.uk, or donate at www.justgiving.com/campaign/mcr-response-fund
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Sophie Field – temporarily redeployed to the Food Response team from Housing Compliance and Enforcement, where she works as a Neighbourhood Compliance Officer, had this to say:
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Simona is just ‘sew’ amazing
Benefits officer Simona Barlow has been sewing scrubs for the NHS and care homes in the region.
As the coronavirus situation started to develop and there were increasing reports of NHS staff and other front-line workers struggling to get access to personal protection equipment (PPE), Simona was determined to find a way to help.
Simona said: “I kept thinking, I can sew – I could make scrub bags, surgical hats and scrub sets. This prompted me to find who and how I could help. I joined the Manchester and East Lancs Scrub Hub, which is a group of volunteers that aims to source supplies, make, and deliver fabric-made PPE to front-line staff in the Greater Manchester area."
 “Anyone can help, even if they can’t sew. Some volunteers work on the logistical side, others focus on the fundraising; meanwhile, many others are couriering supplies and sewn items to those who need them.
“If people are unable to support the initiative by donating time or money, we would be grateful if they share the funding page with their friends and family. We can even accept donations of old pillowcases and duvet sets. Each set can be transformed into around twelve scrub bags, or even more surgical hats. The fabric just needs to be washable at 60 degrees, so they must be made of cotton or poly-cotton material.”
To find out more about how you can help the initiative, visit Manchester and East Lancs Scrub Hub or email: simona.barlow@yahoo.co.uk
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Chinese Centre donates personal protective equipment to Manchester
Members of Manchester’s Chinese Centre in Ardwick have been helping the coronavirus response in Manchester with donations of personal protective equipment.
On behalf of the centre, director Jenny Wong made a donation of more than 3,000 different types of face masks, 1,000 aprons, and 1,300 pairs of gloves to the Council, which will be used by the city's social care teams. The centre has also raised money for the NHS, and plans a further donation of 1,000 face shields.
If you know someone from our British-Chinese community who is making an impactful contribution to Manchester or our national life, let them know their achievements can be recognised by The Blossom Awards.
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We Love MCR Charity donates £150,000 to Manchester foodbanks
The We Love MCR Charity has awarded its largest-ever dedicated package of funds in the charity’s history.
The charity’s award of £150,000 will help to support 13 foodbanks that are working to tackle food insecurity in Manchester, and you can support by clicking here to donate. Ged Carter, We Love MCR Development Manager, said: “Getting food to people in need is one of our Community Response Fund’s top priorities."
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ICT support
We are aware that a number of you may have experienced some issues connecting using Direct Access yesterday afternoon and today.
We are working to help affected users get their connectivity back, but please be aware that the fix is manual and each user has to go through a number of steps to resolve the issue, which is causing a backlog.
If you have already logged an issue with the Service Desk, please be patient – we will contact you shortly.
If you are having problems but have not yet logged the issue, please contact the online Service Desk via https://mccuk.service-now.com/kianow.
If you are unable to access the online Service Desk portal, speak to your Line Manager.
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