Covid-19 Community Support

Date: 
Thursday, 7 May, 2020

covid 19 support image
The coronavirus (Covid-19) has had a significant impact on our East Dunbartonshire communities and the Council has been working hard to support those most in need.

Joint Council Leaders, Councillor Vaughan Moody and Councillor Andrew Polson have been reviewing the significant efforts of teams across the Council to help those most in need.

Councillor Moody highlights how our communities can access information and support, saying, “Since the start of lockdown, we have established Covid-19 information pages on our Council website.  These provide information on how our services are affected and include both a Community Support page and a Shielding information page with a wealth of information on how to cope with the lockdown and information for the most vulnerable in our communities on where they can get the support they need.  There have been over 3,000 visitors to our Covid-19 webpages. 

“We have also established a helpline locally for those that are shielding and are promoting the national Freephone helpline for those in the community looking for support.  To date we have received almost 2,000 calls from the vulnerable and those that are shielding and our established support team have made over 3,500 outgoing calls.”

There are a wide range of measures in place to support the vulnerable, directly through the Council and EDLC Trust and in the voluntary sector through EDVA and OPAL.

Councillor Polson explains, “Almost 1,000 food boxes are now being distributed each week to our shielding and vulnerable households, through the national shielding initiative and our own local arrangements for those most in need.  A total of 927 of our Housing tenants have been identified as vulnerable and we are supporting them and we are also providing support calls to 60 of our residents experiencing social isolation.

“Many of our East Dunbartonshire pharmacies already collect and deliver medicines across the community and we are working closely with the voluntary sector for additional support where required.  Our EDLC Trust has experienced a 50% increase across e-borrowing on average – with over 100% in some areas – and have started book deliveries from this week for our community members that cannot access these online.”

“With over 2,400 food vouchers now issued in place of free school meals and up to 210 children of key workers attending our education hubs across early years, primary and secondary each week, the numbers are really adding up.”

Details of how to get support can be found on the following webpages:

Shielding: covid-19-shielding

Community support: 

And information on the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) on Council services, with the most up to date service details can be found on the main Covid-19 webpage which is provided as a link from all council web pages.