We want to take this opportunity to provide an update as we continue to ‘remobilise’ our services while complying with COVID-19 restrictions. Our priority continues to be the health and wellbeing of our tenants, residents and staff, and of course, we will follow all public health guidance.
Those members of our teams who are deemed essential remain working in our care homes, complexes and across our housing stock. All other staff continue, in the main, to work remotely, although this will remain under review as restrictions are eased.
We can update in relation to several key areas as follows:
· Head Office - our Head Office at South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, remains closed to the public and most of our staff, in line with current guidance. However, 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 care home staff continue to provide 24-hour care to ensure our residents are given the required care and attention at this time. In terms of Scottish Government guidance, residents can now have up to 3 visitors visit them outdoors in gardens, and 1 ‘designated’ person to visit them within the Care Homes, subject to the necessary approval from Health Protection Scotland. We also continue to assist our residents to keep in touch with their relatives via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime and telephone calls and the “Relatives Gateway” on our electronic care planning system.
· Offices in Complexes - we are working on putting in place measures which will allow us to re-open the offices in our complexes again ensuring the safety of our staff and tenants.
· Home Visits - we are reviewing procedures which our staff will have to follow if they need to visit tenants at home. For the foreseeable future, it will continue to be the case that home visits will only be undertaken where absolutely necessary.
· Repairs - emergency repairs continue to be carried out. Although we have not carried out any routine
repairs during the lockdown, we have continued to record these. We are now prioritising these repairs and arranging for them to be carried out safely, but it will take a bit of time to clear the backlog. If your repair has become more urgent then please do let us know and please continue to report any repairs you may have – we will now be able to process these and our Maintenance Officers able to visit to carry out any necessary inspections.
· Gardening, window cleaning and stair cleaning - our landscaping and window cleaning contractors are continuing with a reduced level of service, stair cleaning is ongoing and a deep cleaning rota in our complexes continues.
· Cyclical Maintenance - some essential cyclical maintenance has continued and other compliance work will restart over the next few weeks. If we require access to your property we will contact you directly to discuss an appropriate time.
· Planned Maintenance - some planned works which can be undertaken externally have commenced. We will continue to review the situation in relation to other planned works and will communicate out to tenants to keep them updated as necessary. We remain optimistic that we can get some of our agreed works started but you will understand that these decisions tie into the ongoing Government advice and guidance.
· Allocations - we have recently started inspecting and re-letting empty properties.
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 continual feedback over the past few months. We hope you all remain in good health and continue to stay safe.