Blog Series: Wellbeing at East Sussex County Council During Covid-19: Struggling with Juggling? (4)

Jessica Easterbrook, Lead HR Consultant at East Sussex County Council,  shares how her council adapted to the changes brought about by Covid-19 in this blog series.

Mastered the art of telekinesis? Sprouted a cape over night? At ESCC we feel it is important to recognise that parents haven’t become super heroes during lockdown, and they are balancing meeting work priorities with home-schooling and running a home: no mean feat.

This was our focus for week 2 of our ESCC dedicated campaign for employee wellbeing during lockdown. We have covered a whole manner of things – from managing remote teams to financial wellbeing. Every day, on our staff network ‘Yammer’, we posted new tips, suggestions and resources to help employees get through this difficult time. We also invited employees to share things that have helped them. It has been great to see so many people interacting with the posts and sharing their own stories. When so many of us are isolated in different locations, this has acted as a focal point and helped us come together to support each other as a digital community.

Here are some of the highlights from our ‘Tips for Parents’ week:

With the spring bank holiday fast approaching we invited employees to share some simple ideas to help keep the kids busy. We had some great suggestions, from making elephants out of milk cartons to Lego challenges.

We also highlighted some fun and educational ideas for kids – virtual places to visit, pass the time, entertain, and educate over the bank holiday: 

• Chester zoo’s virtual keeper talks
• Natural History Museum’s virtual self-guided tours
• Cosmic Kids – yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed especially for kids aged 3+  
• Audible – free streaming of children’s’ stories while schools are closed
• Amazon Prime – some of its kids’ programming is now available without a membership.
• Lucky Voice are offering a free 14 day trial to their online karaoke service

Our Communications Team created a special rainbow certificate for children as a special ‘thank you’ for all their efforts and staying indoors. Rainbows have been created and displayed in homes across the UK as a sign of hope, love and happiness. You can download the certificate from the Your East Sussex website.

In my next blog I will be posting about the trials and tribulations of employee physical wellbeing during lockdown – so stay tuned!