May 2022 – Annual Report to Byfield Parish Council
Byfield Good Neighbours Scheme has continued to operate post lockdowns, and has become a fixed feature within the village, and we hope that villagers know to turn to us when necessary.
Shopping Support is done regularly for some villagers – either by matched volunteers with cover provided by the wider group, or as necessary by phoning the helpline number, which is open daily until 2pm, every day of the year.
We have regular transport requests. These tend to be certain villagers as health declines and visits to the surgery or wider locations ramp up in frequency: these can subside as the health resolves, or continue as required. We provided many vaccination trips throughout the different immunisation phases. The furthest trip has been Gatwick to date. We anticipate an increased demand when the #200 bus service ceases – a development that should be resisted with all vigour.
Prescriptions are delivered upon request, again there are some regulars and some only ask during ill health, not just within Byfield. We are represented on the Patient Participation Group for Byfield Surgery by Rachel Johnston.
There are a team of Nice Surprises visitors, who have a few houses to visit and deliver cake and contact with these villagers approximately every three weeks. This allows us to be in touch with the more vulnerable. Some may be on the list for a short duration due to a specific circumstance only, but all have appreciated the contact and care shown. The visitors share information only with BGNS as to when they may need some more assistance, perhaps with small tasks, and confidentiality is paramount.
When we are aware of issues, we conduct Care Calls, added attention to ensure that the villager does not feel alone. We try to provide birthday cards, sympathy cards etc whenever we know of a significant event, and when possible, volunteers will visit villagers in hospital, restrictions permitting. The Christmas Meal held in the Village Hall was a big success this year, with a fabulous meal cooked up by Food4Heroes volunteers, and further meals distributed for the main day made sure no-one was left out.
Some Ukrainian families have recently arrived in the village, and we have reached out to ensure they know that BGNS is here for them as well, indeed we have already provided lifts to Mass for some. English support is offered by a BGNS volunteer to help them acclimatise, and that is being offered to Ukrainians in other villages as well.
There are a number of families struggling with the cost of living crisis, and a lot of Covid support routes have ceased to be in effect over the course of the year.
We provide food support upon request from the local schools, and one-off help with energy bills. The food comes from multiple sources – TowFood (foodbank in Towcester), Morrisons, direct donations (the Pink Pantry is in the Co-op still, receiving donations), and purchased from BGNS funds (donated to us for this purpose). These are distributed regularly to those in need, including elderly villagers on our radar, and people can call for short-term support as required.
Some of the same people are enrolled additionally in Cooking Good, a course to inspire cooking from scratch via TowFood. Supplies are provided by the foodbank, with recipes and how-to videos, but they require additional fresh ingredients, which BGNS funds.
TowFood also support Breakfast Boxes for the children on Free School Meals (FSM), which Karen Pollard organises for Byfield School and other primaries in the area. This ensures that the children have a healthy breakfast enabling them to access their education.
Karen has continued to organise half-termly hampers of staples, cleaning and personal hygiene products to help alleviate the pressure on limited funds, particularly families experiencing Holiday Hunger – when termtime FSM children are left without the extra support when not in school. Karen’s contact with connections in the charity sphere has also led to policy changes within West Northants Council regarding FSM provision during the holidays – this will undoubtedly be a lifesaver this summer.
We’re looking to share Byfield Bounty againin the coming months, where surplus garden produce is available to any who need it, and the Plant and Seed Exchange pops up throughout the year.
The Café&Co was established to provide an activity hub, tea, coffee, cake and games, once a month on the ‘boring Sunday afternoon’ slot. It has stopped and started due to Covid risks, and been an opportunity for interesting talks, however this is under review and will perhaps move to a different timeslot. Thank-you to the Parish council for funding the Café’s village hall rental until recently.
The e-newsletter has reverted to being a message system for those signed up on email. We send out Share Our Shed messages – a great way to reuse and recycle items within the neighbourhood, and we can assist with delivery or collection as required. We also send out messages requesting assistance when our volunteers can not provide the solutions, thereby encouraging other villagers to also be good neighbours to each other. Many of these have said how much they enjoy the opportunity to contribute in this way. We have had various teenagers complete the Duke of Edinburgh volunteer portion of their Awards through helping BGNS.
We also provide information we’ve been asked to circulate via the mailing list, via the Nice Surprises conversations, on Facebook and/ or displayed at the Café. This may be events in Daventry that may be of interest to villagers, or similarly helpful nuggets of information. Anyone is welcome to sign up for these messages via our website www.byfieldgoodneighbours.com .
We signpost external support for villagers in need, either Council services, sources of financial support, local businesses or charities who may be able to help beyond our expertise. We’re a useful ‘good cause’ for the wider area as well, and make good use of donations from other organisations.
Thank-you too to our individual donors and HS2 for their second tranche of funding. As our operating costs are low, we have secure funds to continue operating for at least the next year and will look for future funding as and when required. The GNS Fieldworkers at Northants ACRE provide information on this throughout the year, as well as other valuable support – we thank them too.
Finally, the biggest thank-you goes as ever to all our volunteers, too numerous to namecheck, as well as all the Byfielders who do nice things for their neighbours every day!
May 2021 – Annual Report to Byfield Parish Council
Launch
When we set up our village Good Neighbour Scheme in October 2019, little did we know that we’d be thanking our lucky stars within 6 months!
Good Neighbour Schemes happen across the country, and Daventry District Council and Northants ACRE provide funding for hyper-local groups to enable neighbours helping neighbours with small tasks, lifts and general befriending. Helen Carter heard a presentation at 2019’s Parish Council meeting, and enlisted family and friends to explore a Scheme for Byfield.
We liked the idea of ‘help and be helped’, with the emphasis that there is something that everyone can do for others, even if they need a bit of help on certain things for themselves. Recruitment through the summer meant we started with over 50 signed up volunteers, a manned phone number and email address, and we’d provided a fridge magnet and intro leaflet to every house in the village. From October, we provided help upon request and ran a regular monthly Sunday Afternoon Café&Co in the Village Hall.
Covid Response
Thank goodness Byfield as a whole village stepped up to support the Scheme in its modest beginnings, as it meant that we could scale up very quickly to help the village, both those isolating and those distancing as Covid19 advanced towards the UK.
As Secretary, Rachel Johnston researched and developed a ‘Volunteer Protocol’ – a system where we could safely continue to help our neighbours without increasing the risk of infection for them or for us – more than three weeks before #Lockdown1 officially began on March 16th 2020.
We focused on reducing journeys and contacts for us all, so you did not need to be ‘in need’ in order, for example, to add a couple of things to the general shopping list.
This inclusive and communal attitude won us even more instant support, with no-one feeling overwhelmed nor obliged by the requests, and everyone ‘rewarded’ by getting a bit of help in return.
Shopping Support
By #Lockdown1, we had brought together villagers who could still go out to do their family’s shopping once a week, and were happy to add extra items to their baskets.
At its height, 60+ ‘hunter/gatherers’ were on the ‘+1 Shopping Group’ on a Whatsapp group.
Orders came in centrally, the list issued each morning and updated as required, and whoever was out that day doing their own family’s shopping could get ‘1 for them, and 1 for the Scheme’ of any item on the list.
Our amazing ‘Shopping Captain’ Karen Pollard received the items as they came in and arranged deliveries around the village each afternoon. We were also conscripted into delivering the phone orders from the village Co-op, both within the village and outside.
As shortages were felt in the shops, we expanded the operation to group source for the village as well, making connections with a local fruit and veg wholesaler and buying flour in bulk for all the home-bakers.
Throughout the course of the year, matched pairs of shoppers and villagers have evolved, to the enjoyment and benefit of both parties and these will continue on beyond the pandemic.
Nice Surprises & Care Calls
As a result of the sourcing efforts, as a village we had flour to bake, and our volunteers – both ‘free’ and those isolating – got busy making cakes for the vulnerable.
In trying to make sure that everyone knew us and would reach out if they needed help, we made sure that every house (580+) in the village received a treat, making sure that no-one felt left out.
This was such a hit and such a great way of making connections with those who felt cut off, we expanded to a ‘Nice Surprises’ round once a week, which dropped off a piece of cake and provided an opportunity for a chat for those who hadn’t seen anyone or those who were just having a hard time.
We’ve continued this now, with 15 ‘rounds’ every 3 weeks, where volunteers have a few people to visit, pass on a treat and well wishes, and just a quick check in to see that all is ok. This has helped us anticipate upcoming challenges, provide support and make a difference early.
Over 2000+ nice surprises have been handed out so far, and many came to rely on it as a lifeline.
On occasion, the good neighbour delivering the treat would recommend a villager for some extra attention or support, and would refer these people into the Scheme. We have a private list of villagers on the Care Call list, who receive regular contact from us to check up and see if there’s any way we can help. Some have been matched with a regular befriender where appropriate, and these connections will continue on beyond the pandemic. Extra support can be called upon when bereavements or other hard situations occur, as much or as little as is preferred.
We’ve also introduced a system for any villagers feeling vulnerable, that they can have one of our cards in their purse /wallet, our number in their phones and that we hold their emergency information. In case of a crisis, the emergency services can let us know, and we can support and inform the wider family as necessary.
We’re looking forward keenly to going back to having packed ‘Café & Company’ events in the Village Hall when we’re allowed!
Holiday Hunger and sharing the Byfield Bounty
We were delighted to receive overflow food from Banbury Community Kitchen at Banbury Mosque, which was supplemented by food packages from SOFEA, so we could offer practical food support to families in the village, and those brought to our attention.
Generous donations are made by the village at our local Co-op in our ‘Pink Pantry’ donation box, and Morrisons also offer us products regularly.
We’ve been supporting some of the elderly with home-cooked meals from this produce, and maintain a freezer of supplies which can be drawn upon, for example, if someone comes out of hospital.
Christmas Lunches were pre-booked and prepared by FoodForHeroes a local charity. We supplemented with extra treats and gifts for any who needed it.
Some families were relying on us so heavily that we undertook to support them through the school summer holiday in 2020, and each family received a hamper of food each week, tailored to their needs, all planned and prepared by Karen.
She also innovated with ‘Big Summer Survival’ kits – cleaning stuff, toiletries, suncream etc – items the families struggle to afford, each of which should last through until the end of August. Each family with children also had activity kits suitable for each child’s interests, which kept them active and busy throughout.
We did a ‘Back-to-school’ package for the families in September, as well as Christmas Hampers, and weekly support throughout #Lockdown3. This has wound down since April 2021, but we’re available for short-term immediate help when necessary.
Some families have participated in a scheme to encourage homecooking. They receive recipe cards, ingredients and support to try cooking items for scratch, and there’s been some lovely feedback such as this:
“I didn’t cook the meals from the recipe cards you gave me, as the boys were so excited seeing the bag of ingredients that they wanted to do the cooking. There was no squabbling and they cooked each of the meals during the week. It was great us all sitting down together, and the boys felt proud that they had been able to cook something from scratch. The boys can’t wait for the next lot of recipes!”
A small but popular ‘Plant & Seed Exchange’ begun in May 2020 also received the Karen treatment when it came to its natural conclusion in the Autumn with a glut of home-grown produce. A beautiful stall outside Karen’s home on the High Street did a roaring trade, and anyone in the village could leave their produce or freely benefit from the offerings.
We hope that this will come and go as a regular feature for the village from now on.
Prescriptions
Prescription collection was a standard task for Byfield Good Neighbours from the start, but once the Surgery shut to non-essential visits, we had a daily round of deliveries to help reduce footfall at the surgery building in Lockdown#1 & Lockdown#3.
Another advantage of this was ‘training’ villagers to accept deliveries safely, and of course, providing an opportunity for a chat – some great new friendships have been made as a result.
Once the surgery re-opened, we are back to doing deliveries upon request, in total over 1800 prescriptions have been delivered.
Share our Shed
One of the most popular innovations was ‘Share our Shed’.
This was where, for example, if you had a blocked drain suddenly in lockdown, we put out a request, and whoever was able checked their sheds for some drain unblocker, and a night-time ‘end of drive’ pickup or delivery was arranged.
We’ve found metal detectors for a lost ring, half cans of varnish, ant spray, books for school reading lists, maps for DoE expedition planning, to name but a selection.
The same message system expanded for people to offer items – such as unused bikes – or request items such as use of a child’s easel and a deep pond to resoak a waterbutt! It has a proved a great way of recycling and reusing items within the village, and again we’ll continue this on.
Transport
Some villagers still needed help to go to the Surgery for appointments, so a select few of volunteers undertook these journeys – sanitised and masked – to ensure that those villagers still received their healthcare. In the Autumn, as normal services resumed, we were doing trips to dentists, opticians and the hospitals. Since then, very many vaccination trips have been happening in 2021.
Online Hub
Soon after #Lockdown, we saw that there was a need to support villagers in staying home, and lots of great ideas were coming forward from all quarters on what Byfielders were doing or could do.
We pooled these together into our website, www.byfieldgoodneighbours.com created in 2 days by Robert Park and Rachel, which, as well as explaining the support we could provide, became a village resource for fun and inspiration in the ‘Byfield Bunker’.
So much was happening on there, that we added a weekly newsletter for the rest of #Lockdown1, explaining the situation for villagers, offering support and encouraging participation in activities in Byfield and beyond.
Our ‘Remotely, Together’ section hosted weekly quizzes with prizes, ‘Scavenger hunts’ around the village to do at your own pace, NN11 Nature which shared photos taken by villagers on their walks around beautiful Byfield, supplemented by route maps and inspiration for getting out and about locally.
Our Jigsaw Library – previously running at our Monthly Café & Co events in the village hall – was a valuable resource for villagers, and expanded to include family games, DVDs, and books for adults and children. We had so many that the Village Hall became the warehouse, and we made collections and deliveries after quarantining the items in and out.
Signposting
In addition to stepping in with practical help, one of the major pillars of the Good Neighbours is helping villagers access support and assistance that is available, both officially or via other charities. We have, during the course of the last year, helped neighbours navigate the benefits system, access professional psychological support, apply for and receive Covid support funds worth over £3500 village-wide.
Including everyone
It was important to us to include all ages, so from delicious Dorothy – 93! – who could help young mums remotely if they’re struggling to invent a meal from their pantries, to teenagers delivering Nice Surprises and fixing IT queries – everyone has mucked in.
Self-isolating villagers and volunteers are still enabled to be included, for example, in sourcing useful items for the wider group to deliver – eg printer paper, or board games (after a suitable period of quarantine!) – or chatting to others in the same situation.
Distant family members were reassured by the existence of Byfield Good Neighbours, and could practically support their loved ones by paying for their shopping online with us, adding lovely thoughtful extras such as a bunch of flowers. Other families organised special 90th birthday cakes through us, and several supported our work financially.
Helping other villages or Mutual support groups
Supporting each other has gone beyond just within Byfield. Woodford Halse, our next door neighbour, needed to set up their Good Neighbour Scheme quickly and we were able to help with documentation and advice. We benefited from the food from Banbury Mosque and supermarkets, and helped them in return by sourcing two freezers when theirs broke down on a weekend.
Other organisations in the area have helped and been helped by Byfield Good Neighbours – with their stores about to reach their expiry date, Canons Ashby have donated their Easter eggs and cookies, which we were happy to share with the school children in Byfield, Woodford and via the mosque.
Even the local pigs benefited from our efforts – if overflow produce was unusable for any other purpose, they would have a nice teatime bonus !
Thanks
We’ve been amazed at the upwelling of support and the villagers have been comforted to know that there is someone out there to turn to, as are their families stuck at a distance. Whilst it is impossible to cite all the individuals who have helped someone else during this time, please find yourselves included in the following :
The volunteers and generous local donors, including the Byfield Parish Council, have made this all possible, and we thank you. A special mention must go to Rachel & Karen, without whom BGNS would not have achieved as much as it has.
There have been lots of other informal help happening in the village as well of course. The experience has really brought ‘community’ to the forefront of all of our minds, and – even if it wasn’t ‘officially’ ‘Good Neighbours’ – Byfielders were ‘Great Neighbours’ and we all thank you too.
The Northants Good Neighbour Schemes have been supported with money and guidance from Daventry District Council and Northants ACRE. https://www.northantsacre.org.uk/
We’ve also been lucky to receive funds from the following :
- National Lottery,
- Tesco Bags of Help
- HS2
- DEFRA funding via Hope Centre Northampton
- Western Power
We’ve been acknowledged county-wide by receiving a Community Champions Award from Northants ACRE and a Rose of Northamptonshire Award from the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire.
Byfield was always a great place to live, and now we’ve all come together to make it even better – thank-you!
Submitted by Byfield Good Neighbour Scheme’s Founders:, 27/5/21
Rachel Johnston & Helen Carter
Ably supported by past and present Steering Committee Members :
Diana Charters, Ian McAllister, Alison Hurst & Karen Pollard