We want to take this opportunity to provide an update as we find ourselves easing out of a further significant period of ‘lockdown’.
Our priority continues to be the health and wellbeing of our tenants, residents and staff, and of course, we continue to follow all public health guidance.
The majority of our staff continue to work in our care homes and at our complexes, delivering essential services. All other staff must currently work from home.
Head Office
- Our Head Office at South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, remains closed, in line with current guidance. Viewpoint staff can be contacted by phoning our main switchboard number 0131 668 4247 or using the ‘request a repair’ or ‘contact us’ links on our website.
Care Homes
- Our dedicated care home teams continue to provide 24 hour care and support to our residents, following the regularly updated Guidance from Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland. The current ‘Open with Care’ Guidance allows for managed indoor visits for designated visitors and managed outdoor visits for non-designated visitors. Families of our residents have all been provided with the relevant criteria and guidelines. The “Relatives Gateway” on our electronic care planning system, along with Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, and regular telephone calls helps keep our residents in touch with their families.
- Currently anyone visiting our care homes will be required to have a lateral flow test for Covid-19 carried out. This is carried out at the care home prior to entering and may take up to 30 minutes to produce a result. Information on the test can be found here.
Repairs and Maintenance
- All repairs can now be completed when they are reported. If you reported a non-emergency repair during lockdown, you will be contacted by the Assets Team in the coming days to discuss the completion of your repair. If you are in any doubt about an outstanding repair you have reported, please contact us on the number above;
- Some essential cyclical maintenance has continued including Fire Risk Assessments, Lift Maintenance, Gas Servicing and Emergency Lighting checks in block stairwells. Other compliance work is now restarting and if we require access to your property we will contact you directly to discuss an appropriate time;
- Some additional planned capital works which can be undertaken externally will be starting in the coming weeks. Internal works will progress throughout the year and if we require access to your property we will contact you directly to discuss an appropriate time.
Communal Lounges/Guest Rooms in Complexes
- Unfortunately due to current guidelines, internal common areas remain closed. We will continue to review this position and will advise you as soon as this changes. We know that many of you are keen to use this space again and, understandably, many of you are frustrated that we are not able to re-open these areas currently. We are working closely with a number of sheltered housing providers and national groups to coordinate the reopening of internal common areas in a safe and proactive manner and will endeavour to do this as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. This is likely to mean access to these areas is monitored and controlled. In the meantime, please utilise outdoor garden space, where this is available, to socialise. This should be done in line with government restrictions on numbers of people who can meet, whilst maintaining current physical distancing requirements (2m).
- Guest rooms also remain closed.
Meeting Our Staff
- We are currently reviewing what changes are needed to safety measures and procedures to allow our on-site staff to be more physically accessible and it is our intention that you will start to see some changes over the coming weeks. Our on-site staff can be contacted by telephone or via the intercom system.
- It will continue to be the case, for the foreseeable future, that home visits will only be undertaken when absolutely necessary. If any staff need to visit you in your home, we will talk through the process that we will need to follow with you, in advance, to ensure that you are comfortable that we will be entering your home;
Service Updates will continue to be provided on our website as we review the situation in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we extend our thanks to all our residents, tenants, staff and all associated with Viewpoint, for their patience, understanding and feedback. We hope you all remain in good health and continue to stay safe.