‘Everyone is vital to keep health services running’ – Sheffield Children’s Centre extends its childcare services in coronavirus effort

The Sheffield Children’s Centre, on Shoreham Street, is currently operating a ‘24 hours a day seven days a week’ policy for emergencies and will be catering for children and young people, from birth to 18-years-old, who parents are working tirelessly in the fight against Covid-19.

It has also extended its provision to include those whose help is needed to serve emergency workers, and who help keep the city running, like security staff and those who work for Royal Mail.

As part of its efforts, the centre has been hosting numerous activities and lessons, including running a homework club and offering help with work that many have been set through their schools as well as arts and crafts.

Iram Malik, who is one of the managers at Sheffield Children’s Centre, said: “Doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, cannot work without infrastructure support like childcare. Every one of us is a vital cog in the machine to keep health services open and functioning well.

“We all have our part to play, we all need each other to get through this and everyone in Sheffield needs to support each other now and going forward for the sake of Sheffield and the nation – in Sheffield Children’s Centre, all of us along with our partners are trying to do their bit.”

Currently serving the children of NHS workers at major hospitals such as the Royal Hallamshire and the Northern General, Sheffield Children’s Centre has also extended its provision to support staff at private hospitals, including Claremont and Thornbury, as well as those at STEPS Medical Unit.

However, the centre says the work it is carrying out would not have been possible without help from various organisations and businesses who have offered their support along the way.

Places such as Go Outdoors have donated sleeping bags for the children should they have to stay at the centre overnight, while community churches, including The Beacon Church in Arbourthorne, have rallied to buy food for the children and the vulnerable.

Ms Malik said: “We’ve been so thankful to the churches and to Andy and all in the Go Outdoors store for donating sleeping bags to us for the emergency staff’s children.

“Unfortunately the shut down came upon shops before Decathlon, whom too kindly agreed to donate goods to the services, closed down and we are currently looking for new sleeping mats, new sleeping bags and more games for the children and young people to use given their increased numbers.

“Due to the potential of contamination, we need new items to minimise cross-contamination.”

And, even when things got tough and it looked like the centre were about to run out of protective equipment, the Sheffield community again pulled together to help out.

“We had a struggle getting access to more masks and gloves for the coming weeks, with orders of six weeks prevailing, Ozmans shop very kindly gave us gloves,” Ms Malik added. “But going forward we have found new distribution sources who can deliver more quickly too in this regard.

“Also working to help us with this emergency situation are Equalities and Human Rights UK and Kinship carers who have been brilliant in aiding us to support vulnerable families, carers and those from equalities groups too.

“We also want to thank Andrew Jones and his team in Sheffield Council for their support and ongoing work too across the city for children and families and communities. They have been working flat out and Darren Whittaker from Property Services who enabled the centre to extend into council-controlled buildings so that the children and young people could access more space to eat.”

Ms Malik also gave thanks to Claremont, Thornbury, STEPS and the NHS for working in partnership with the children’s centre to solidify the infrastructure needed to keep all health care works – from doctors to cleaners – operational through the crisis, both day and night.

As the pandemic continues, Sheffield Children’s Centre is expecting an increase in the number of children and young people using its services and has a large and well-skilled team of staff and volunteers on hand to help out.

Ms Malik added: “We have been very grateful for the way all of the above have been planning and working in solidarity with us, to not only met the needs of existing key workers but to help us extend upon our services to support now other emergency staff too.

“It’s been really heartwarming to see how Sheffield people and the above agencies and teams are doing everything they can to be prepared and to make sure they save Sheffield lives.”

Any emergency workers who need access to the Sheffield Children’s Centre services should contact 0114 279 8236.