Voluntary Action North Somerset (VANS)

You can contact our Office between 9am-4.30pm Monday - Friday on 01934 416486. You can email us on the following address:

COVID-19 INFORMATION

In response to the escalating COVID-19 situation, please see key updates for VCSE’s across North Somerset.

National Policy Guidelines – the most up to date and relevant guidelines for the sector can be accessed through the NCVO website. The .Gov Business pages provide more detailed guidance for employees, employers and businesses. Following the announcement of funding and support for businesses affected by COVID-19, we are still awaiting further detail about what exactly this will mean for charities and will keep you updated once we know more.

Local Funding and Business Support - Quartet Community Foundation have launched a COVID-19 Community Response fund, follow the link to it on their website to find out more - https://quartetcf.org.uk/grant-programmes/coronavirus-response-fund/. The Economic Development team at NSC have created a COVID-19 business support page, including details of national grants/loans and other useful information for businesses.

Community Groups & Mutual Aids – with the mass concerted effort taking place through new and existing community groups and mutual aids providing support within communities. Before setting up something new, you might like to check the register of mutual aids to see if there is something already happening in your area. In addition, we wanted to share ‘our top 5 things to think about’ when overseeing a community group, forum or mutual aid:

Avoid providing unqualified advice – instead offer support and signposting to services (NSOD is a useful starting place for info)
As group leaders/moderators, you should not personally arrange contacts or mutual agreements
Moderate posts on forums - be aware of safeguarding and your duty of care to protect vulnerable adults
Services provided should be voluntary - no financial transactions involved
Ensure that links to Government guidelines are accessible on your pages, and try to keep them updated regularly

VANS has collated a list of Mutual Aids and Community Groups providing support across North Somerset to enable us to share wider communications with the relevant group leads, this list will be shared on our website (see green button on right). If you would like to be included on the list please go to the following link:

Covid-19 Community Support Groups Registration Form

or please email us your name, group name and geographical area/s of focus and we will include you in any future communications - info@vansmail.org.uk

Individuals Requiring Care and Support – we ask that anyone requiring social care support should go direct to the North Somerset Care Connect service. Residents will be registered centrally and relevant information sent to providers to offer support where applicable.

The team at VANS are on hand to help, please contact us on 01934 416486 (9am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday) if we can be of assistance.

Kind regards

Paul Lucock

Chief Executive Officer (Interim)

Community Volunteers programme

Working in partnership with commissioners and providers, VANS has launched a coordinated volunteer initiative to help broker individuals to meet demand in health and social care roles and within other statutory service provision throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.

Individuals wanting to volunteer:

If you are an individual who would like to register to volunteer then click on the following pink button and complete the registration form

We will be in contact with you within 48-72 hours to process your registration to volunteer.

I want to volunteer

COVID-19 North Somerset Community Volunt

or download, complete and email the word doc back to us at:

Service Provider needing support from volunteers:

If you are a service provider with identified need for support from volunteers, contact the VANS team on 01934 416486 or email info@vansmail.org.uk and let us know what additional support you require, what, if any experience they should have and whether they need to have a current DBS certification.

Alternatively complete the following word document and email it back to us at:

COVID-19 North Somerset Community Servic

COVID-19 North Somerset Communities providing support

We are collating information about the organisations and community groups providing support to residents of North Somerset. By clicking HERE, you will be able to add the relevant information about your community group/organisation which we will ensure is posted on our website and kept up-to-date.