Coronavirus update – the latest news from Yorkshire businesses

Leeds-based integrated agency, Social, has been appointed to lead a national campaign with the fashion designer and BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee judge, Patrick Grant, to encourage sewers to make face coverings.

The Big Community Sew campaign has mobilised thousands of home sewers following Government advice to consider wearing face coverings in enclosed spaces where social distancing isn’t possible.

Following a launch on BBC’s The One Show, and with a campaign website providing how-to videos, sewing patterns and links to local sewing groups, there has been a significant response from sewing machinists across the UK.

Group chief executive, John Quinton Barber, said: “The #bigcommunitysew hashtag tells an incredible story of people being inspired to get out their sewing machines.

“We’ve seen notes pushed through neighbours’ doors asking if people want face coverings and sewing groups everywhere reaching out to friends, family and community groups to ensure everyone has a face covering.

“As we cautiously begin the slow steps to creating an environment where we can ease restrictions, this campaign is helping Britain make a significant cultural shift where face coverings will become the new norm – and we’re really proud to have led the communications to drive it.”

Grant said Social had been an agile and effective partner that understood how to run community-led campaigns.

“It’s been great working with Social,” he added. “They responded quickly and immediately understood what we were trying to achieve,” he said.

The campaign is continuing to seek partnerships to help normalise the wearing of face coverings and ensure every community has enough to help limit the spread of the virus.

It’s estimated that over 100,000 face coverings have been distributed in the first week across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – with some home sewers making over 1,000 each.

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Essential workers now have access to 1,000 face shields, which have been made available across the Humber thanks to Ron Dearing UTC, the Humber LEP and the Humber Local Resilience Forum.

Ron Dearing UTC, Hull’s employer-led school, has been working with the local business community and education establishments to design and manufacture the protective equipment.

The school has worked with companies including GF Smith, Ideal Boilers, Luxinar Lasers and the University of Hull’s Aura Innovation Centre to produce and donate more than 10,000 face shields to key workers to date, including 1,000 flat pack face shields for the wider Humber region.

The 1,000 face shields are now available through the Humber Local Resilience Forum to those in need across the Humber, thanks to links made through the Humber LEP’s Coronavirus Community Support Hub.

Humber LEP launched the Coronavirus Community Support Hub to bring together those who could offer supplies and expertise to support the fight against the pandemic with those in the community most in need of protective equipment.

These face shields can be used to protect workers in essential roles and can be disinfected and used again.

If an organisation with key workers requires face shields, they can contact covid19@humberlep.org

Chair of Humber LEP, Stephen Parnaby, said: “We are extremely grateful to the hard working team at Ron Dearing UTC and the local businesses supporting this initiative who have gone above and beyond to manufacture these face shields.

“In these difficult times, when PPE is difficult and expensive for many to source, it’s fantastic to see such a brilliant community effort to produce so many for the key workers of the Humber area.”

Glenn Jensen, head of engineering at Ron Dearing UTC, said: “As a UTC, we work closely with companies, designing and running projects as part of our curriculum to ensure our students have the essential skills needed for the engineering and digital sectors.

“During this pandemic, our employer partners and local businesses have gone above and beyond, donating materials, machines and staff to help us manufacture, donate and distribute an amazing 10,495 face shields.

“It really does speak volumes about how we can all work more collaboratively and the amazing results it brings when we do.”

Chair of the Humber Local Resilience Forum, chief fire officer at Humberside Fire, Chris Blacksell said: “The Humber community has been outstanding in pulling agencies together to provide much-needed equipment and supplies in the face of this pandemic.

“We’d like to thank Ron Dearing UTC for their valued contribution at this difficult time and will be distributing the shields in due course.”

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Scunthorpe-based Caspian Group has received support from Barclays through the Government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme (CBILS).

Established in 1992, Caspian Group is based at East Common Lane. The company is a supplier of scaffolding and access equipment.

Trading globally, its equipment is being used in major overseas developments as well as across the UK.

The £1m funding from Barclays CBIL scheme has enabled the company to continue with operational costs throughout the COVID-19 period.

Neil Garrison, managing director, Caspian Group said: “We’ve been growing organically since we started out in 1992 and have worked alongside Barclays for many years.

“They recently funded more land so that we could build an additional facility for our rapid expansion plans so understandably they were our first port of call when we knew we had to make some big changes to our operations to get us through this challenging period.

“We submitted an application and the money was in our account just a few days later.

“The loan gives us certainty on our immediate cash flow requirements and ensures we will be here for our customers after the lockdown finishes.”

Caspian Group Limited employs 47 people locally and turnover for the year is expected to exceed £15m.

Chris Rushworth, Barclays relationship director, put together the funding package for the deal.

He said: “We have worked with Neil and his team for many years, and we spent time looking at their specific requirements before putting together an application that would get them through this tough period.

“For any business, there’s a lot of moving parts, and now we’re confident they have the financial headroom to get through this disruptive period and be ready to reopen fully when the time comes.”