More in-person activities taking place and support available if you need it from 13 September | News

Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in July, we’ve gradually been reopening more of our non-emergency services.

We’re now pleased to confirm further positive changes taking place from Monday 13 September 2021.

 

Here’s a summary:

 

 

 

UCAN centres

You can continue to get support from our UCAN centre teams by phone or via their popular Facebook pages if you prefer, but you’ll now have the option to visit us again.

We’ll open most of our UCAN centres, as follows, to provide more services in-person:

• Deane: Mondays and Tuesdays 9:30am to 12:30pm and 1pm to 3pm.
• Johnson Fold: Tuesdays from 9:30am to 12noon and 12:30pm to 2:30pm.
• New Bury: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays from 9:30am to 12:30pm and 1pm to 3pm.
• Tonge Moor: Mondays and Thursdays from 9:30am to 12noon and 12:30pm to 2:30pm.
• Withins: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays from 9:30am to 12:30pm and 1pm to 3pm.

For further details, go to www.boltonathome.org.uk/ucan.

 

Activities for tenants living in sheltered and extra care homes

Communal areas within our sheltered and extra care schemes will be open without social distancing requirements and we’re pleased to restart our in-scheme activities and social events programme.

Lesley Tyrer, our Activities Coordinator, will share more details for where you live.

 

Community spaces

All our outdoor community spaces, such as food growing sites, are open.

We’ll gradually reopen community buildings and reintroduce community investment activities at community centres too. This follows a successful roll-out of our summer holiday activities programme for families and collection points for lunches for local children without access to free school meals over the summer, with Urban Outreach.

 

Money advice

If you’re concerned about your finances and ability to keep up to date with rent payments and other financial commitments, please phone us on 01204 328000.

 

Repairs

We’re working on our backlog of non-urgent repairs. The backlog is significant and will take time to work through but if you previously had an appointment that was cancelled during lockdown our team will be in touch as soon as possible to arrange a visit.

If you haven’t heard from us yet, we thank you for your continued patience and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.

 

Valley House reception and our Contact Centre

Our Valley House reception is open for pre-arranged visits. Please contact us by phone or online to make an appointment. Please don’t turn up without an appointment until further notice.

Our Contact Centre remains your first point of contact for enquiries on 01204 328000.

During our office hours you can also use our Web Chat facility or direct message us on Facebook, and we’ll do our best to help these ways.

 

Let’s look after each other to stay safe

While the government’s requirement for us to wear masks and maintain social distancing is no longer in place, the threat of becoming ill with COVID-19 hasn’t gone away. So we kindly ask you to take reasonable and sensible steps to prevent the spread of the virus, as we will.

If you’re visiting us or we’re visiting you indoors, we still recommend you wear a face covering if you’re able to. Most importantly, it’s about mutual respect. At least have a face covering with you, which you can use to respect someone else’s preference for wearing them and we’ll do the same if that’s your wish.

We appreciate that wearing a face covering might not be possible in an emergency welfare situation.

If we need to visit your home to carry out a repair, safety check, improvement work, or for another reason:

• please keep rooms well-ventilated;
• if we need to work in a room, please stay in a different area of your home.  

We’re pleased to be getting back to delivering services fully, and confident the pandemic won’t disrupt us as much going forward, but we need to respect and protect each other along the way.  

Please follow the safety steps above and continue to act responsibly to avoid increasing the risk of transmission, which could give us cause to withdraw our services. A gentle reminder too that we’re not here to tolerate abuse or antisocial behaviour directed towards us. Our staff have the right to walk away in this situation.  

Please also let us know before an appointment if you or someone in your household has COVID-19 symptoms, has received a positive test result, or has been instructed to self-isolate. Please also do not attend our UCAN centres or other public areas in these circumstances.

Full information on updated self-isolation guidance can be found on the government’s website here: https://bit.ly/2UD5oj4

 

Thank you

Thank you again for your patience and support over recent months. We really appreciate it and wish you the best for the rest of this year.