Clap for adult social care staff tonight

Tonight as the nation prepares to clap for our carers again, we’re asking people to think especially about staff working in our adult social care teams.

Councillors want to say ‘thank you’ to every one of the borough’s social workers, support staff, and other care workers who are all going the extra mile and doing everything they possibly can to keep vulnerable adults safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Council teams are working on the frontline, safeguarding people in their homes and providing direct care. They are also working hard to safeguard people in residential placements.

Within the Council and externally we’re continuing to highlight some of the fantastic individual work by these teams. We’ll also be using social media to say thank you as part of a ‘local heroes’ campaign in the coming days.

One great example is the Council’s Mental Health team. During the ongoing situation they have been continuing to support residents’ mental health and wellbeing.

Working with partners across Pennine Lancashire, including Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, the team have been getting on with their work in a calm, can-do manner despite managing some really difficult, risky and unwell service users at this unprecedented time.

Another team that continues to support local residents at this time is Adult Safeguarding.

One particularly impressive example of their work over the past couple of weeks has seen numerous social workers being involved with keeping a resident, “JC”, safe whilst she was living in the community.

Home First and Reablement are two other teams in adult services who are doing their best to care for vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic. The two teams have now joined forces in the battle against the coronavirus to become the ‘Homeablement’ team.

So for tonight we ask you to keep these staff and all their other colleagues across the adult social care department in your thoughts as you clap for carers.

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said:

Tonight during clap for carers we’ll thinking of all the great work different teams across our Adult Social Care department are doing during the coronavirus pandemic. The flexibility, care and compassion they have shown has been impressive. Nobody has complained, they have just continued to work hard for the benefit of patients, staff and colleagues. They are all outstanding people and have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission for being leaders that are compassionate and inspirational.

Councillor Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Adult Services and Prevention, said:

Tonight we’re clapping especially for all the staff across all of our adult social care teams. Social care workers are often forgotten heroes so I want to make clear my thanks to all the staff who are going above and beyond to keep people safe.