LATEST - Councillor’s Surgeries
Given the Government’s advice about maintaining social distance, all our councillors have made the difficult decision to cancel face-to-face surgeries. You can, however, still contact us about anything you need assistance with via phone or email. Click here for details. | | GOVERNMENT RESPONSE UPDATE
Supporting businesses and help for workers
A package of Government measures to help businesses struggling because of the outbreak has been announced. Click here for details.
For Haringey Councils dedicated COVID-19 business page, which includes contact details on a range of business-related matters, please click here.
If you know any businesses that needs help or if you have ideas for what else the Council could do to help businesses, then please get in touch.
Help for workers
Yesterday, there was also an announcement on how jobs would be protected where organisations needed help to pay staff – details can be found here. - Salary grants. The Government will provide grants to cover 80% of the salary of retained workers, up to a total of £2,500 a month. The scheme will be open to any employer, will be backdated to 1st March, and will be open before the end of April for at least 3 months. If you were on the payroll on 1st March, you can be included in this scheme.
- The Business Interruption Loan Scheme will now be interest free for 12 months, not just 6 months.
- VAT payments from now to mid-June can be deferred. They will still need to be paid by the end of the financial year.
- The Universal Credit standard allowance will be increased by £1000 a year for the next 12 months. The Working Tax Credit will be increased too.
- Self-employed. The minimum income floor to access Universal Credit will be suspended. Self-employed people will need to access Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay for employees.
- Zero hours contracts. You may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay, you will need to check with your employer.
Liberal Democrats are concerned that this package does far too little for the self-employed, those on zero-hour contracts or for those on statutory sick pay and all payments linked to it. Our MPs will continue to push the Government to guarantee incomes for the self-employed, boost sick pay and increase the minimum income guarantee, which would in effect create a temporary Citizens Income.
Resources to strengthen Social care
The Government have also announced £2.9 billion funding to strengthen our Social Care system and provide additional care for the vulnerable. The funding will help patients who no longer need urgent hospital treatment to return home, making at least 15,000 beds available during the coronavirus outbreak. For more information on this, please click here. | | LONDON-WIDE RESPONSE UPDATE
A formal multi-agency Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) has been set up under the established pan-London resilience arrangements and is meeting regularly to co-ordinate the response to Covid 19 across London. A series of workstreams have been established to develop the response across a wide range of issues, including adult social care, supporting vulnerable people and the impact on business and the economy. | | An IMPORTANT message from Will Maimaris
Director of Public Health at Haringey Council about coronavirus (COVID-19)
CLICK HERE | | Schools closures
From Friday, schools and nurseries were shut until further notice. There is an exception for vulnerable children and key workers. To find out if you are classified as a key worker, and therefore able to continue to send your child/children to school or nursery please click here.
Parks
To help you stay active and get outdoors, please follow the following advice on using parks safely (click the image to view larger version):
Leisure centre closures
Following the announcement from the government earlier today, Fusion will be closing all three leisure centres, Tottenham Green, Park Road and Broadwater Farm until further notice.
Libraries
From Monday 23rd March, Wood Green Library will be the only Haringey library remaining open. All other libraries will be closed.
If you have existing library books they can be renewed online or over the phone, and any late fees will be waived whilst the libraries remain closed.
If you are going to Wood Green Library, please follow all health advice; clean your hands regularly and keep 2m apart from other library users, staff, and members of the public.
Changes to Parking Restrictions
Haringey Council has made adjustments to parking enforcement to support essential NHS and police staff, as well as residents that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. From Monday 23 March the council will suspend enforcement of on street residential, shared use and permit parking bays.
However, in order to ensure that road users, vulnerable residents and those providing an essential services are kept safe, the council will continue to enforce yellow lines, footway parking, disabled parking bays, business bays, doctors bays and pay by phone bays. The council will also continue to remove vehicles that park illegally on yellow lines, on the footway or in those parking bays. This means that key workers, and residents may use any of Haringey's on street residential, shared use and permit parking bays. The council will need to monitor those arrangements daily to ensure that demand does not exceed capacity in those bays and have acknowledged that changes may need to be made at short notice and this may include resuming normal enforcement.
Should you face additional parking pressures on your road or in your area due to these changes, please do let us know as soon as possible so that we can report this to the council.
Volunteering
The Council have received a number of offers of support and are co-ordinating these through Connected Communities and you are encouraged to channel any offers of support (of volunteering, food, supplies, other resources) through this route: www.haringey.gov.uk/community/connected-communities
020 8489 4431 (Monday to Friday | 09:30-16:30)
These contact details can also respond to individual resident or organisational requests for support and we have already taken calls from a number of local residents, whose main concern is continued access to food and the impact of reduced hours of employment
In this process, the Council is keen to ensure that volunteering is an effective and safe mechanism to support our most vulnerable residents through these difficult times. The council is now linked into London Resilience arrangements and actively working with partners across London to agree a consistent approach and messaging to safe volunteering at London level. We anticipate this new guidance will be available in 24 – 48 hours and we are anxious that our approach aligns well. We will be publicising this guidance as soon as we can.
Communication with residents
The Council is communicating with residents on a daily basis, online and through their social media. There is a dedicated page on the council website with all the up-to-date information and messages to residents, which you can access here and we would encourage you to bookmark: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news-and-events/haringey-coronavirus-covid-19-updates
Mutual Aid groups
This is clearly a dark time for our community. However, one of the encouraging signs has been how many neighbours have formed local groups to help people in their areas who are self-isolating.
However, it is vitally important that all residents, both volunteers and those receiving help, are kept safe and protected. The council has provided guidance on volunteering that we ask that you please read:
Guidance for volunteers: Please click here
Guidance for those requiring help: Please click here
If you would like to volunteer to assist your neighbours, or if you need help with shopping etc because you are self isolating, then you can find out more at Haringey Covid 19 Mutual Aid, and you can join your local Mutual Aid Whatsapp Group by clicking here. Please note, these groups are for neighbourhood assistance, not for medical advice.
And if you are concerned about a vulnerable resident who may need additional support, or if you have any concerns about the welfare of the person you are speaking to, or people in their household, please contact the Haringey Council Connected Communities team www.haringey.gov.uk/community/connected-communities
020 8489 4431 (Monday to Friday | 09:30-16:30) | | MORE RESOURCES TO HELP
Advice Line for Older residents
Age UK can help to support older people during this challenging time. They have outlined some tips to help stay safe and well over the coming weeks here: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/coronavirus/staying-safe-and-well-at-home/
If you have concerns about anything else, including welfare, care or housing, you can contact Age UK’s free advice line, 8am-7pm, 365 days a year: 0800 055 6112
Mental Health
If you’re worried about your mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak, please take a look at this advice from the Samaritans: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/support-and-information/if-youre-having-difficult-time/if-youre-worried-about-your-mental-health-during-coronavirus-outbreak/
https://www.kooth.com/ provides free, safe and anonymous online mental health support for young people. Monday – Friday12pm – 10pm. Saturday – Sunday6pm – 10pm
Keeping yourself and others safe
This is an extremely difficult time for all of us. However, it is important that we all continue to follow the advice from the NHS on social distancing, handwashing and, if necessary, self-isolating.
We can best overcome this virus together.
Yours faithfully, | | As promised earlier this week, we are providing a further update regarding the Coronavirus response, that we believe you may find useful. As you will know, things are changing all the time and we will try to continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.
Cllr Liz Morris
Haringey Leader of the Opposition | Haringey Liberal Democrats | Included: - Latest on Councillor Surgeries
- Government Response Update (inc updates on Businesses, Workers and Social Care)
- London Response Update
- Haringey Response Update (inc updates on Schools, Parks, Leisure Centres, Libraries, Parking, Volunteering, Communication, Mutual Aid Groups
- Additional Resources
| | | LATEST - Councillor’s Surgeries
Given the Government’s advice about maintaining social distance, all our councillors have made the difficult decision to cancel face-to-face surgeries. You can, however, still contact us about anything you need assistance with via phone or email. Click here for details. | | GOVERNMENT RESPONSE UPDATE
Supporting businesses and help for workers
A package of Government measures to help businesses struggling because of the outbreak has been announced. Click here for details.
For Haringey Councils dedicated COVID-19 business page, which includes contact details on a range of business-related matters, please click here.
If you know any businesses that needs help or if you have ideas for what else the Council could do to help businesses, then please get in touch.
Help for workers
Yesterday, there was also an announcement on how jobs would be protected where organisations needed help to pay staff – details can be found here. - Salary grants. The Government will provide grants to cover 80% of the salary of retained workers, up to a total of £2,500 a month. The scheme will be open to any employer, will be backdated to 1st March, and will be open before the end of April for at least 3 months. If you were on the payroll on 1st March, you can be included in this scheme.
- The Business Interruption Loan Scheme will now be interest free for 12 months, not just 6 months.
- VAT payments from now to mid-June can be deferred. They will still need to be paid by the end of the financial year.
- The Universal Credit standard allowance will be increased by £1000 a year for the next 12 months. The Working Tax Credit will be increased too.
- Self-employed. The minimum income floor to access Universal Credit will be suspended. Self-employed people will need to access Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay for employees.
- Zero hours contracts. You may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay, you will need to check with your employer.
Liberal Democrats are concerned that this package does far too little for the self-employed, those on zero-hour contracts or for those on statutory sick pay and all payments linked to it. Our MPs will continue to push the Government to guarantee incomes for the self-employed, boost sick pay and increase the minimum income guarantee, which would in effect create a temporary Citizens Income.
Resources to strengthen Social care
The Government have also announced £2.9 billion funding to strengthen our Social Care system and provide additional care for the vulnerable. The funding will help patients who no longer need urgent hospital treatment to return home, making at least 15,000 beds available during the coronavirus outbreak. For more information on this, please click here. | | LONDON-WIDE RESPONSE UPDATE
A formal multi-agency Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) has been set up under the established pan-London resilience arrangements and is meeting regularly to co-ordinate the response to Covid 19 across London. A series of workstreams have been established to develop the response across a wide range of issues, including adult social care, supporting vulnerable people and the impact on business and the economy. | | An IMPORTANT message from Will Maimaris
Director of Public Health at Haringey Council about coronavirus (COVID-19)
CLICK HERE | | Schools closures
From Friday, schools and nurseries were shut until further notice. There is an exception for vulnerable children and key workers. To find out if you are classified as a key worker, and therefore able to continue to send your child/children to school or nursery please click here.
Parks
To help you stay active and get outdoors, please follow the following advice on using parks safely (click the image to view larger version):
Leisure centre closures
Following the announcement from the government earlier today, Fusion will be closing all three leisure centres, Tottenham Green, Park Road and Broadwater Farm until further notice.
Libraries
From Monday 23rd March, Wood Green Library will be the only Haringey library remaining open. All other libraries will be closed.
If you have existing library books they can be renewed online or over the phone, and any late fees will be waived whilst the libraries remain closed.
If you are going to Wood Green Library, please follow all health advice; clean your hands regularly and keep 2m apart from other library users, staff, and members of the public.
Changes to Parking Restrictions
Haringey Council has made adjustments to parking enforcement to support essential NHS and police staff, as well as residents that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. From Monday 23 March the council will suspend enforcement of on street residential, shared use and permit parking bays.
However, in order to ensure that road users, vulnerable residents and those providing an essential services are kept safe, the council will continue to enforce yellow lines, footway parking, disabled parking bays, business bays, doctors bays and pay by phone bays. The council will also continue to remove vehicles that park illegally on yellow lines, on the footway or in those parking bays. This means that key workers, and residents may use any of Haringey's on street residential, shared use and permit parking bays. The council will need to monitor those arrangements daily to ensure that demand does not exceed capacity in those bays and have acknowledged that changes may need to be made at short notice and this may include resuming normal enforcement.
Should you face additional parking pressures on your road or in your area due to these changes, please do let us know as soon as possible so that we can report this to the council.
Volunteering
The Council have received a number of offers of support and are co-ordinating these through Connected Communities and you are encouraged to channel any offers of support (of volunteering, food, supplies, other resources) through this route: www.haringey.gov.uk/community/connected-communities
020 8489 4431 (Monday to Friday | 09:30-16:30)
These contact details can also respond to individual resident or organisational requests for support and we have already taken calls from a number of local residents, whose main concern is continued access to food and the impact of reduced hours of employment
In this process, the Council is keen to ensure that volunteering is an effective and safe mechanism to support our most vulnerable residents through these difficult times. The council is now linked into London Resilience arrangements and actively working with partners across London to agree a consistent approach and messaging to safe volunteering at London level. We anticipate this new guidance will be available in 24 – 48 hours and we are anxious that our approach aligns well. We will be publicising this guidance as soon as we can.
Communication with residents
The Council is communicating with residents on a daily basis, online and through their social media. There is a dedicated page on the council website with all the up-to-date information and messages to residents, which you can access here and we would encourage you to bookmark: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news-and-events/haringey-coronavirus-covid-19-updates
Mutual Aid groups
This is clearly a dark time for our community. However, one of the encouraging signs has been how many neighbours have formed local groups to help people in their areas who are self-isolating.
However, it is vitally important that all residents, both volunteers and those receiving help, are kept safe and protected. The council has provided guidance on volunteering that we ask that you please read:
Guidance for volunteers: Please click here
Guidance for those requiring help: Please click here
If you would like to volunteer to assist your neighbours, or if you need help with shopping etc because you are self isolating, then you can find out more at Haringey Covid 19 Mutual Aid, and you can join your local Mutual Aid Whatsapp Group by clicking here. Please note, these groups are for neighbourhood assistance, not for medical advice.
And if you are concerned about a vulnerable resident who may need additional support, or if you have any concerns about the welfare of the person you are speaking to, or people in their household, please contact the Haringey Council Connected Communities team www.haringey.gov.uk/community/connected-communities
020 8489 4431 (Monday to Friday | 09:30-16:30) | | MORE RESOURCES TO HELP
Advice Line for Older residents
Age UK can help to support older people during this challenging time. They have outlined some tips to help stay safe and well over the coming weeks here: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/coronavirus/staying-safe-and-well-at-home/
If you have concerns about anything else, including welfare, care or housing, you can contact Age UK’s free advice line, 8am-7pm, 365 days a year: 0800 055 6112
Mental Health
If you’re worried about your mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak, please take a look at this advice from the Samaritans: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/support-and-information/if-youre-having-difficult-time/if-youre-worried-about-your-mental-health-during-coronavirus-outbreak/
https://www.kooth.com/ provides free, safe and anonymous online mental health support for young people. Monday – Friday12pm – 10pm. Saturday – Sunday6pm – 10pm
Keeping yourself and others safe
This is an extremely difficult time for all of us. However, it is important that we all continue to follow the advice from the NHS on social distancing, handwashing and, if necessary, self-isolating.
We can best overcome this virus together.
Yours faithfully, | |
Cllr Liz Morris
Haringey Leader of the Opposition | Haringey Liberal Democrats | | |
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