July 2020

The COVID-19, or Coronavirus, pandemic and the lockdown of society from March 2020 were unprecedented. Most day centres closed to regular users.

Because adult day centres are not a regulated service, and tend to be invisible in terms of guidance provided, we have put together Helping adult day centres to ‘unlock lockdown’. This document aims to support manager or voluntary co-ordinators and staff generally, into the ‘new normal’ after the lockdown. There is strong evidence that attending a day centre brings quality of life and so, despite risks, enabling people to have the choice of going to a day centre is something worthwhile.

Part 1 covers some of the practicalities of re-opening. It draws on guidance related to Coronavirus or COVID-19, but also on other guidance related to social care, and relevant guidance, advice, and action points for regulated settings (e.g. early years day care, care homes), some of which is also relevant to day centres. It prompts providers to think about the specifics of their own activities. As every setting is different, providers will need to use their professional judgement, and take account of public health guidance to maximise safety but also wellbeing for everyone. Sections cover: infection control, communications, supporting staff and volunteers, and yourself, final things providers are likely to want to do before re-opening, and there is a practical scenario planning tool. At the end are the source documents and further resources.

Part 2 prompts providers to reflect on what has happened, what else you may wish to think about, the process of moving forwards and any learning that will be helpful for the future. Individual sections can be completed according to the stage providers are in.

Please email Katharine.Orellana@kcl.ac.uk to let us know if you have found this document useful or can suggest any changes.

If you would like to share your completed document with us, we would be very happy to receive it as we are keen to learn how Coronavirus or COVID-19 is impacting on day centres.

We discuss this contribution to the re-opening of day centres on the HSCWRU blog.

Update (21 February 2021) Blog post by Kritika Samsi and Jill Manthorpe: 'Next steps for day centres in south London as they reset, rebuild and renew from the COVID-19 pandemic'

We are most grateful to everyone who helped with this document and look forward to hearing from other locations. Our work is funded by NIHR Applied Research Collaborative (ARC) South London.