Circle’s Current Working Guidelines (June 2021)

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to provide significant challenges for Circle in delivering vital services to children and families who were already impacted by the effects of poverty and other challenges. Families with younger children have been particularly impacted by this crisis and the reduction in community resources that has happened as a result. Despite the challenging circumstances, Circle have continued to provide all our vital family support services across central Scotland.

Throughout this crisis we have had the safety of our staff and the families that we support as our main priority. All of the work we are carrying out seeks to balance our responsibility to keep people safe, with the need to continue supporting vulnerable families and individuals in the best way possible. We are also extremely conscious of the need to avoid causing harm by the spread of infection.

We have adapted our services to keep face-to-face contact to a minimum, and where contact takes place, to ensure that it is happening in a safe way. To achieve this we are, where possible and appropriate, meeting families out of doors or in properly risk assessed spaces.

We have also continued to develop our services online to ensure that we can support families in innovative and accessible ways. We have devised a range of regular online individual and group work activities including peer support groups for families, learning and creative activities for children, dads’ groups, and one-to-one support.

Where indoor contact with families and children is necessary, because of wellbeing or safety concerns, Circle are following the Scottish Government Guidance for the Social Work and Social Care Sector, details of which can be found here.

The majority of our staff team continue to work remotely, though our Head Office is open, with a skeleton staff, and we can be contacted directly by Tel: 0131 552 0305 or Email: info@circle.scot

We would like to thank all of our staff, partners and beneficiaries for their support and patience during the pandemic. We very much look forward to meeting again in the not-too-distant future.