Hartlepool Support Hub: The team which provided help for those who had ‘no-one else in the world’

There has been praise for the team helping Hartlepool's most vulnerable people through the pandemic

The hub was established by council staff within four days in March in response to the coronavirus outbreak to support individuals who were shielding, vulnerable and in self-isolation.

Councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council Adult and Community Based Services Committee received an evaluation detailing the hard work carried out by everyone in connection with the hub and the numbers they helped.

Staff were hailed for their ‘astounding’ level of work and going ‘the extra mile’ for those in need.

Council officers reported the hub helped 2,325 people who were identified as isolated or potentially vulnerable.

Of those supported 65% were over 60, half were lonely, isolated or living alone, while 35% had a long term limiting condition.

A total of 2,269 food parcels were delivered, while hub staff collected and delivered 2,325 prescriptions to those in need.

The hub received more than 11,000 calls from residents, and staff also made more than 26,000 outward calls to provide support.

Gemma Ptak, assistant director for preventative and community based services, said the support hub had phenomenal levels of people contacting them.

She said: “People rang us who literally had no-one else in the world to help them and said thank goodness this came through our door otherwise I’m not sure what I would have done.

“Once people rang us where we knew they needed sustained levels of support, we then arranged to ring them, so the outward calls were significantly greater because of the levels of contact we maintained with people.”

Although there was significant demand from across Hartlepool, Manor House was the ward with the most calls, 575, followed by Fens and Rossmere with 473 and Headland and Harbour with 441.

Hub staff also delivered 338 PPE requests, 78 ‘goodie packs’ to carers on behalf of Hartlepool Carers, and 2,948 hot meals from Mecca Bingo.

Extra items delivered also included books, VE Day packs to care homes, hearing aid batteries, Easter Eggs and birthday cards.

Ms Ptak added: “Books were really quite a comfort to some people and we made sure we were able to support people with books that they liked and they enjoyed.

“Some individuals that we supported the only birthday card they got was the one that we sent them and that was really important to us, so we made a real effort to make sure we did all that we could to keep people smiling.”

Council officers added although shielding ended nationally at the start of August the hub has continued to aim to provide support to those in need.

This includes staying in touch with those who ask, organising priority shopping slots, and arranging groups of six between individuals who were all isolated individually to allow them to meet and share stories, which happened before greater restrictions were brought in to Hartlepool recently.

Council officers added they were aware more support may be needed to the clinically vulnerable to support their health and wellbeing if greater restrictions are brought in, such as a local lockdown, and steps have been put in place.

Councillors were unanimous in their praise for all of the officers involved in the work and it was noted those aiding residents became known as ‘community angels’ by those they helped.

Cllr Sue Little, chair of the adult and community based services committee, said: “It’s just astounding what the staff have done out there.

“I don’t think many people are aware officers are still replying to us at daft o’clock. Things got organised and sorted straight away.”

Cllr Stephen Thomas added: “The presentation really does outline some of the fantastic work that went on. People went that extra mile.”

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