Dear all,
Swarthmore Centre Leeds – is offering FREE online courses starting in January including Jewellery Making, languages, life drawing, painting, poetry and a range of health and wellbeing courses including Yoga and the Alexander Technique.
For more information visit their page at
Caring Together is sending you all some festive wishes.
Please click on the link below for some festive cheer – you may need to click on the video for the sound as well. All the best to you all. Keep safe.
https://www.facebook.com/
In these uncertain times, WEA staff will be providing FREE online activities on Christmas Day for everyone. Our short activities will run throughout the day and will provide fun and a chance to chat. So whether you are feeling lonely, or are just needing a moment away from the busy family, the WEA will be here for you this Christmas.
Activities will take place on Zoom, meaning you can engage in a safe space with friendly faces from the comfort of your own home.
Click on the button at any point during Christmas Day to join:
09:00-10:00 – Christmas (virtual) Walk in Dorset/Sussex
10:30-11.30 – Christmas carols – join in with some of your favourite Christmas carols
11.30-12:30 – Christmas Games – participate in a variety of fun games
13:00-14:00 – Christmas cooking through the ages – a discussion
14:30-15:30 – The Queen’s Speech – watch and discuss with a drink and mince pie
16:00-17:00 – Funny poems – share your funny poems or listen to others
17:30-18:30 – Festive Crafts – learn how to make a festive wreath
19:00-20:00 – Christmas quiz – participate in a fun festive quiz
20:30-21:30 – Christmas songs sing-a-long and guess– join in to some of your favourite Christmas tunes
Join us any time on Christmas Day
Click on the below link for more information and the link to log on via zoom on Christmas day.
https://www.wea.org.uk/
Dear all,
The Caring Together offices are now closed for the holiday season, returning on the 4th January 2021. We will be turning our phones on periodically to check for anything urgent and calling into the office, and making some necessary visits and calls. See also the useful list of contacts from the insert in our newsletter and detailed below. Festive and New Year’s wishes from us all!
Useful Numbers Dec 2020
THINGS would be worse if it wasn’t for the BBC’s health correspondent, who always signs off his pieces with a jaunty little rhyme: ‘Dominic Hughes – BBC News.’
It’s a pity he did not have a much earlier life as a foreign correspondent, in which case he could have signed off with ‘well, that’s all from me, Dominic Hughes – Moscow’ or ‘That’s all from me – Abyssinia.’ (Which might become mildly amusing if you say it aloud at least three times; if that doesn’t work try it on a very old person, who might just remember it from the days before they invented clever jokes
And yes I know that Abyssinia is now used only to describe an area of Ethiopia (because I’ve looked it up on Google) and that I’ve just sinned by recycling a terrible ancient joke, but these are hard times. We have to accept recycled bad jokes because, for now, there’s not much else in the television store cupboard.
Besides, old jokes aren’t always unfunny, just nearly always. Dad’s Army, Fawlty Towers, Morecambe and Wise or Tommy Cooper (most of the time) still work; I think this is more than can be said of On The Buses or the Carry On films.
It’s not the sexism or racism that bothers me, it’s the feeling that I’m being bashed in the ribs by somebody who won’t leave me alone until I laugh so much I need medical help. This is why I tire of Sid James or Reg Varney quite quickly but still laugh at Basil Fawlty and Captain Mainwaring, whose winning and enduring quality is that they have no sense of humour whatever.
I’m also resistant to Michael McIntire. I have to admire him on the grounds that he is (says Google) ‘the highest grossing stand-up comedian in the world’; it’s just that, were he sit next to me on a train and start to shower me with amusing anecdotes, I would feel the need to pull the communication cord, assuming that, in the wake of the pandemic, there are still such things as communication cords, and, come to that, trains.
Perhaps the secret is to make people laugh without looking like you want them to laugh, a trick which 12-year-old boys can’t usually manage but should be within the range of most grown-ups (excluding The Krankies, who are obviously a special case).
I learned this week that Humphrey Lyttleton, who hosted the BBC Radio 4 show ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ from 1972 to 2007, didn’t initially think the programme, which has just been voted best radio comedy of all time, was very funny at all. He was so disgruntled with it that he wanted it to be taken off the air and only enjoyed the bits where he made rude comments about the audience and his fellow performers.
I suppose he mellowed over his 35-year stint on the show, but he still maintained an air of contempt for whole enterprise and never gave any sign of being amused. That’s exactly why the listeners loved it.
And now it’s my duty to wish you all a merry Christmas within limits. If possible. And a joyous new year.
Changes to the relaxations of covid rules were announced at the weekend – reducing the time you can meet with other households to just one day on December 25. Parts of south-east England and London were put into a new tier 4 and there is no relaxation of the rules for people living in those areas.
For other areas, a summary of the new rules is below (Leeds and West Yorkshire are in Tier 3)
Three households can still meet up to celebrate Christmas on December 25.
It means that the current Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions, which prevent people from meeting indoors with those from outside their household, will be scrapped for 24 hours on Christmas Day.
All Christmas bubbles must be exclusive. It means that if three separate households meet up on Christmas Day, none of the groups can then see anyone else from other households.
The full rules can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family
The Government announced today that Leeds and the rest of West Yorkshire will remain under Tier 3 restrictions until at least the end of December.
A brief overview of the Tier 3 guidelines are:
This will be reviewed on 30th December 2020.
Different rules apply between 23 and 27 December when there will be some relaxation of the tier guidelines.
A full statement from Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council is here https://news.leeds.gov.uk/news/statement-following-government-announcement-that-leeds-will-stay-in-tier-3
If you need to have your prescription medication delivered a lot of pharmacies will do this for free but a few of them have started to make a charge for this service. So, if you are paying for presciption deliveries, it might be worth speaking to a different pharmacy to see if you can your medicine delivered free of charge.
There is an national volunteers service that patients can call if they have problems collecting prescriptions. This is not usually available same day but could be useful if your presciption is not urgent. The number is 0808 1963 646. Or Caring Together members could call us and we may be able to help.
Finally, there is a scam that currently happening around this issue. Scammers are contacting patients directly to tell them the government and local pharmacies have now started charging for prescription deliveries and they are taking payments over the phone. Pharmacies will never contact patients in this way so please do not give out any payment information – and speak to your pharmacy (making sure you are using the correct number, not one given to you by someone who contacts you).
A new report has praised grassroots community groups in Leeds for the vital support they have provided for older people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, jointly compiled by the Centre for Ageing Better charitable foundation and Sheffield Hallam University’s Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, highlights how Leeds Neighbourhood Networks have acted as a lifeline for older people in the city over the last nine months.
Funded by Leeds City Council and Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group, the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks are a group of 34 voluntary organisations that cover every part of the city, delivering services designed to help older people live independent lives and play active parts in their local communities.
The Centre for Ageing Better report says the value of these organisations has been underlined by their important role in the city-wide response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The report also says the pandemic has illustrated the need for national government to give councils the “adequate and flexible” funding required to sustain initiatives such as the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks.
Despite the financial pressures caused by COVID-19, Leeds City Council is bringing forward proposals which will protect funding for the groups next year, allowing them to continue their vital work supporting older people’s physical, mental and social wellbeing at this difficult time.
Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, Leeds City Council’s executive member for health, wellbeing and adults, said:
“The Leeds Neighbourhood Networks are a long-term success story for our city, so it’s heartening to see the work done by staff and volunteers being recognised in this way.
“Protecting and supporting older people has been a priority for the council throughout the pandemic and the tireless efforts of all those involved with the neighbourhood groups have contributed enormously to that.
“Their local knowledge and community contacts mean they have been perfectly placed to reach out and help our older residents cope with the difficulties that this year has brought.”
Anna Dixon, Centre for Ageing Better chief executive, said:
“The coronavirus has highlighted how important local support networks are, especially in times of crisis, and the vital role that trusted community organisations play in supporting people at risk.
“The Leeds Neighbourhood Networks are an excellent example of how councils and community organisations can work together to meet the needs of their communities. Their work demonstrates the value of investing in community infrastructure so it is there when it’s really needed.”
The ‘key findings’ section of the report shows that the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks were able to respond quickly to the challenges posed by lockdown and other COVID-19 restrictions, assisting vulnerable and isolated older people by doing everything from shopping to organising hot meal deliveries and picking up medicine.
Then, after the first national lockdown began to ease over the summer, they created opportunities for older people to enjoy more face-to-face contact while following social distancing rules. Notable examples of the work carried out during this period included the relaunch of an allotment project and the setting up of a mobile library service.
Elsewhere in the report, there is a focus on the willingness of the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks to adapt to changing circumstances, with some becoming community care hubs responsible for the co-ordination of voluntary action in their area. There have also been productive link-ups with private sector companies, including supermarkets, pubs, cafes and takeaways.
There is praise for the practicality of the council’s Leeds Neighbourhood Networks funding model and how it has allowed the groups to tailor their work to the specific requirements of their patch during the pandemic.
The report concludes: “National government needs to provide adequate and flexible funding for local authorities and other local commissioners to develop and sustain social and community infrastructure such as [the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks]. Ringfencing small proportions of physical infrastructure investments, such as that of the proposed national infrastructure bank, to be spent on community infrastructure is one way to achieve this.”
For anyone who didn’t know Caring Together is a Neighbourhood Network Scheme. For more information about the Neighbourhood Network Schemes across Leeds, including a full list and an interactive map showing the scheme for each area visit https://www.opforum.org.uk/nns/
