What now for ADCA?

As restrictions are gradually lifted, and different kinds of businesses and organisations begin to open their doors again and encourage people to come in (staying well apart!), you may well be wondering when you will see ADCA following suit...

We know how important our clubs and activities are to our members, carers, volunteers and the wider community, and we are very keen to make our services available again, suitably adapted for the new situation we find ourselves in, as soon as we possibly can.

The Recovery Plan

ADCA's Trustees are working on a Recovery Plan to help work out how we can

• re-establish group activities safely within government guidelines so as to protect everyone who uses or delivers our services
• ensure our new style of services will be resilient and ready to meet existing and emerging needs in our community
• ensure that new risks are dealt with effectively and in full consultation with our staff, volunteers, members, carers and key partners in the local community
• continue to provide our home support service to those who need it

This is not something we can do in a hurry, but we will go as fast as we can, we promise! We envisage that we will be taking an incremental approach, rather than trying to set everything going at once.

While the Trustees are considering the draft Recovery Plan, risk assessments are already underway on the facilities we currently use, or might use in future, and the processes that we might need to put in place. The Trustees will meet (virtually) next week to approve the draft Recovery Plan for consultation.

Consultation time

We will then consult widely with our staff, volunteers, members and carers, as well as with the wider community, local Cheshire East councillors, the Carers' Hub, the Parish Councils and our MP.

We want not only to do what needs to be done, but to do what local people want us to do, as far as we are able.

At the end of consultation (some time in August, we estimate), we will publish the full Recovery Plan, setting out how and when we plan to provide safe group activity to our members and carers, existing and new.

Home Support Service to continue

As Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is not going away any time soon, we plan to continue our home support service to anyone who needs it while shielding and/or self-isolating. During the emergency, in addition to our existing members and carers, we have supported about 150 new people, who we very much hope will continue to want to stay involved in what we do.

We look forward to receiving your input during the consultation, and we look forward even more to having our members and carers back with us again!