NORTH Yorkshire residents who need support during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions can be reassured that help will be available right through to next autumn if required.

Support put in place by North Yorkshire County Council at the start of the first lockdown last March and which has continued ever since, will carry on for months ahead, even after the current national lockdown is lifted.

Since the first lockdown in March last year, the County Council has invested in 23 community support organisations (CSOs) across North Yorkshire and worked alongside district councils to coordinate volunteer and community help for people who need assistance and do not have friends, family or neighbours to call upon.

These community support hubs are a single point of contact, pulling together other organisations to provide a safety net for people. More than 1,500 volunteers have helped thousands of people each week with shopping, hot meals and prescriptions, as well as checking on people’s health and wellbeing. That work continues apace, especially as the clinically vulnerable – 26,000 people in North Yorkshire - have once more been asked to shield.

While people are shielding they must stay at home as much as possible, get help with shopping and limit their contact with others. They are also advised not to attend work if they cannot work from home.

The County Council has now agreed to extend funding for the community support organisations for a further six months after the current agreements end in March. This will ensure people can access support through current restrictions and beyond.

Gary Fielding, the County Council’s corporate director for strategic resources, said: "During this most difficult phase of the pandemic we want to reassure people that the safety net of support we have put in place will carry on in the months ahead.

"We are very grateful for the work of the community support organisations and all our volunteers in past months and their efforts are redoubled presently as people are required to stay at home and refrain from social mixing and the clinically vulnerable have to shield once again.

“We are proud of the culture of kindness and neighbourliness and volunteering that is at the heart of North Yorkshire’s identity, a culture which has seen us through the darkest months and which I know will continue in the time ahead. We are all looking out for each other and the extension of these contracts will ensure nobody slips through the net.”

People who need support with shopping, prescriptions, caring for pets and other essentials are encouraged to contact family, friends, neighbours or groups to which they belong. North Yorkshire residents without those local networks, or anyone concerned about the welfare of someone else, can contact the county council’s customer service centre on 01609 780780. The centre is open seven days a week, 8am to 5.30pm