Unlocking Lockdown: Helping day centres to safely reopen following lockdown restrictions

Project status

Complete

Contact

Katharine Orellana

Institution web page

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/katharine-orellana1

Host institution

King's College London

Team members

Dr Katharine Orellana Dr Kritika Samsi Dr Caroline Green Professor Jill Manthorpe

Funding information (if funded)

NIHR Applied Research Collaborative South London (Social Care theme)

Project Summary

The COVID-19, or Coronavirus, pandemic and the lockdown of society from March 2020 were unprecedented. Most day centres closed to regular users.

Because adult day centres are not a regulated service, and tend to be invisible in terms of guidance provided, we have put together Helping adult day centres to ‘unlock lockdown’. This document aims to support manager or voluntary co-ordinators and staff generally, into the ‘new normal’ after the lockdown. There is strong evidence that attending a day centre brings quality of life and so, despite risks, enabling people to have the choice of going to a day centre is something worthwhile.

Outputs / Expected Outputs

Helping adult centres to ‘unlock lockdown’:

Part 1 covers some of the practicalities of re-opening. It draws on guidance related to Coronavirus or COVID-19, but also on other guidance related to social care, and relevant guidance, advice, and action points for regulated settings (e.g. early years day care, care homes), some of which is also relevant to day centres. It prompts providers to think about the specifics of their own activities. As every setting is different, providers will need to use their professional judgement, and take account of public health guidance to maximise safety but also wellbeing for everyone. Sections cover: infection control, communications, supporting staff and volunteers, and yourself, final things providers are likely to want to do before re-opening, and there is a practical scenario planning tool. At the end are the source documents and further resources.

Part 2 prompts providers to reflect on what has happened, what else you may wish to think about, the process of moving forwards and any learning that will be helpful for the future. Individual sections can be completed according to the stage providers are in.

The Helping adult day centres to ‘unlock lockdown’ resource helped informed SCIE’s guidance for Delivering safe, face-to-face adult day care, which was published in December 2021. A link to the guidance can be seen below:

https://www.scie.org.uk/files/care-providers/coronavirus/guides/delivering-safe-adult-day-care.pdf

Project website