The Government has announced that England will be under new lockdown restrictions from Thursday 5 November, until at least Wednesday 2 December. This affects our services in the following ways:
Activity & Learning Hub will stay open from Monday to Fridays throughout this period. We will continue to work under the safety and social distancing measures that we put in place over the summer. It is very important that if any of our students or staff members feel ill and in particular display any symptoms of COVID-19, we ask that you do not come in.
We understand that some students may feel worried about coming to Norfolk Lodge during the lockdown and we want to reassure you that our priority will be to keep everyone as safe as possible. If you would prefer to stay at home and not come into the building, we will continue to support you by sending activities in the post and staying in touch over the phone and on our Facebook page. We can also offer Zoom sessions so that you can continue to join in with your group, from home.
Our Carers Services, including the Carers Outreach Project (COPe) and the Sharing Caring Project will continue to deliver their support services virtually. You can find out more about how this is working here. Our COPe team offer regular virtual meet-ups for carers and their cared for relative with a learning disability, including coffee mornings, bingo and quizzes, and the ‘All Ability Singing Group’, which meets on Zoom every Thursday evening to learn Christmas songs. Details of these groups can all be found on our website.
Gateway Club will be temporarily closed during the lockdown period but we hope to pick up where we have left off this week, in December. If you have booked on to Gateway next week, please do not come to Norfolk Lodge as the building will be closed. We will be delivering Gateway Live sessions over Facebook so you can still enjoy some of the fun activities that we do at Gateway and see some familiar faces, from the comfort of home.
Sports and fitness sessions, including our Lions and Lionesses football training will not take place during the lockdown period.
Our Children’s Services will not take place during the lockdown period, apart from Shorts Breaks (previously called SNIPS) which is a respite service and will continue to run.
We know that this will be disappointing news for many of you and we will miss those of you who cannot come into Norfolk Lodge during the lockdown period. We will make sure that, just like the lockdown in Spring, we stay connected with our members and their families and we will share activities on our Facebook page to keep you busy.
We will continue to work closely with Sheffield City Council, Public Health and other support providers to make sure we are working to the most up to date guidance and doing everything we can to stay safe. We will update you if the situation changes, so please keep checking our website and Facebook page regularly.
Most importantly, we hope you all can stay safe and positive and we very much hope to see you in December.
