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Lily and Rachel lead the way as YCB's newest carers
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Following last month's appeal for staff to put themselves forward to support our frontline COVID-19 efforts, more than 100 of you have got in touch to offer help. First Team has this week spoken to Lily Barnet and Rachel Hodge from the Public Health Team, who have been deployed into the Enablement Team within Your Choice Barnet (YCB).
Lily (pictured left at home in her new uniform before her first shift) spoke about her experiences so far, and said: "The team supports people at home on discharge from hospital, over a short period of one to six weeks. The main aim is to keep people living at home and achieve maximum independence.
"It has been great shadowing such experienced and passionate Enablement Officers in the first couple of weeks to get to grips with the role. It’s such a rewarding job to see clients build their confidence up again and feel like you’re making a difference."
Rachel has filmed a short video (click here or on the picture to the left to view it on Yammer). In the recording, she said: "I have had the privilege of working with some incredibly experienced carers who are amazing at what they do, and were also supportive of my learning and development."
She added: "If you are thinking of putting yourself forward for the staff deployment programme, I would say 'do it'. You will learn lots of new skills and have an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life."
James Mass, Director of Adult Social Care, said: "Thanks to Rachel and Lily for putting themselves forward to support Barnet residents in this way - they are making a massive difference.
"I'd encourage others to think about following in their footsteps and temporarily take on a caring role with Your Choice Barnet through the deployment programme."
Executive Director for Adults and Health Dawn Wakeling has also recorded a video thanking all our carers across the borough this week, ahead of tomorrow's weekly 'Clap for our Carers' event. Watch her video here.
There are still a range of roles available that we are looking to fill. To put yourself forward and find answers to all your questions, click here.
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Focus on… Andy Milne, Re's Cemeteries & Crematoriums Team
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12 months on... what a year! Tell us your views on 1 year in Colindale
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Growth and Transformation Manager Andy shares insight with First Team about what it has been like managing the Cemetery and Crematorium Service during a time of COVID-19 for staff, and community. An edited version of his interview is below - click here for his full answers on Yammer.
Q. How have you and the team been coping in what must be an even busier than usual time for the Cemetery and Crematorium Service?
A. Very early on we split the team into two. The office-based team is working alternate days in the office and the other day working from home. We’ve also improved their capacity to work from home by investing in laptops for all office staff. We’ve also split the crematorium based staff into two and they work alternate days, on and off site.
Q. How have the staff deployed from other services, particularly our partners from Re, been managing to support the team?
A. One colleague from Re: Pest Control has joined us to help in the crematorium and three people from Customer Services, Environmental Planning and Highways add capacity to the office work. Every single one of the Re team have just come into the job and they’ve knuckled down, got on with it and really got to grips with it.
Q. What are the biggest challenges you and your team have faced since the outbreak began?
A. When cases of COVID-19 are publicised as dropping, unfortunately it means deaths are about three weeks behind. When we are at the peak in hospitals it translates sadly into deaths. Barnet also has a high number of care homes and a large, older population so this will translate into higher figures for us working in the Cemetery and Crematorium. We have also been communicating more with funeral directors and religious establishments as usually people would be having services in a church, mosque or temple before coming to us. This is the new normal unfortunately.
Q. In your service it’s already an incredibly sensitive area you have to work in, but during this time have you had a positive response from residents/the community about the way your team have been delivering services?
A. The public have responded to us really well, they understand the times that we are in. We’ve also managed to adhere to the burial timeframe that some religions require. We’ve religiously followed the COVID-19 professional and government guidance. For example, only 10 chairs are allowed in the chapel, which means that only very close family can attend the crematorium service. We'll rearrange the chairs after each one, but we've tried to keep things as normal as possible. We already had the facility to webcam/stream funerals over a secure link, so that extended family and friends can log in and partake in the service. April started off relatively quiet, but towards the end of the month it has, sadly, really picked up. We are delivering around treble the number of funerals. We would usually have about 100 cremations with 25 burials, per month. Now we are overseeing around
300 cremations and 75 burials per month. We are trying to normalise services as much as we can and be respectful as possible for customers.
For Andy's full answers to these questions and more, don't forget to access the article on Yammer here.
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For the past two months, we’ve all had to prioritise the challenges that tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has brought us all.
However, we couldn’t let the month of May pass without taking the time to mark a special anniversary for Barnet Council.
Because next week marks exactly one year since staff started to move from NLBP, Barnet House and other sites, to the new office buildings at 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale.
With everything that has taken place recently, this one-year anniversary of our office move is very timely, as it will give us a moment to reflect on that time and the transformation it brought to our working lives.
Here is a clip of the first sight of the emerging new building, as seen by the TW3 team and Change Champions.
Not only will it be a great time to reflect, but also to look forward to returning to the Colindale office and continuing to build on the staff community and culture that has emerged there since the move began.
A huge part of galvanising and preparing teams to move across the borough to Colindale were the Change Champions. There were approximately 100 champions across the organisation, including those from our partners.
Who can forget Bin, Scan Store days. Plus the inspirational catchphrase, ‘Fired Up, Ready to Go’ taken from Barack Obama…
We are looking to gather as many thoughts and anecdotes from the past 12 months at the Colindale office; this could include memories, photos and ‘firsts’ - first day in the new office or even first breakfast at ITJL café.
We would also welcome views on how you think we could mark the anniversary when we start to return to the office and celebrate the spirit of #TeamBarnet that has thrived, even during these challenging times.
Get in touch with us via Yammer or by emailing first.team@barnet.gov.uk.
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IT - how to keep your device effective during COVID-19
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Community efforts combine to boost catering operations
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When the majority of the organisation transitioned to remote working in mid-March, unprecedented pressure was put on the council's IT network. Several enhancements were made to quickly increase capacity, but we are aware that some staff will have been experiencing some difficulties.
To help staff get the most out of their technology, the IT department released two desktop icons recently - one linking you directly to the IT self-service portal, and the other one taking you to a 'hints and tips' document which sets out some of the main issues that staff are facing and the workarounds and solutions that are available. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to work effectively during lockdown and when working remotely, so earlier this week we sent out an email setting out some of the most common problems and how to deal with them, as well as how to keep your laptop 'healthy'.
Some of the key points to remember are set out below, but you can see the email and information in full by clicking here.
- Barnet Remote Access (https://barnetremoteaccess.barnet.gov.uk) gives you full access to the network, but if all staff are connected it could lead to performance issues and increased pressure on servers. We recommend setting aside one or two times a day to access the network, extract or access the information you need, and then log off again. Please note that Outlook, Skype and Office 365 products are available when you are operating outside Barnet Remote Access (as long as you are connected to a wifi network). If you don't normally need access to the network, please try to log on at least once a week (between Wednesday and Friday) to ensure you receive the latest security and Microsoft updates
- The IT Self Service Portal (https://capitalgsprod.service-now.com/sp) and the HR Core Portal (https://my.corehr.com/pls/coreportal_lbbp/) are also accessible outside the Barnet network. You can log an IT issue, make a request or carry out a range of HR-related tasks through these two portals.
To access more information about how to ensure your laptop or device continues to work effectively, click here.
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Our community partners at One Stonegrove are thrilled this week at their new catering capacity, following the delivery of a range of cooking and kitchen equipment from the council's previous canteen at NLBP. And other members of the community got involved too, as a crew and van from Rogers Removals in Whetstone ferried the equipment across last Friday.
The equipment ranges from fridges and freezers to coffee machines, hot plates, dishwashers, microwaves and much more. Speaking earlier today, Gus Alston, the Chief Executive of One Stonegrove, a community organisation based on Stonegrove in Edgware, said: "This will be used for our COVID-19 partnership project with the Hive Foundation, Bread 'n' Butter and St Peter’s Church started in late March, and as of midday today we have cooked and distributed 5,567 meals, and 317 food bank parcels."
Gus added: "The catering equipment is being used here during our current COVID-19 kitchen operations, then distributed for free to other community groups throughout Barnet. We are cleaning and PAT testing it all, and Rogers Removals have agreed to also do the onwards transport. Some of it is being transported during the crisis, including to the newly set up food bank at Claremont Road.
"For us having this equipment will make our operations more efficient and safer. As of this week we are distributing over 2,000 meals per week, so this helps us to continue scaling up and getting bigger and better."
Melanie Chiknagi, the council's Head of Property and Asset Management, said: "As a council we are all working so hard to support our communities through these unprecedented times.
"We are so pleased that we could do our bit by donating the equipment and furniture from NLBP. It's great to see it already getting put to use by our community partners."
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