As staff return to work we have been interested to learn what they have all been up to during furlough, and two staff have shared their remarkable stories.
Lisa Mumby, Accounts Assistant joined a Facebook group shortly after being furloughed called ‘For the Love of Scrubs’ which was set up by a Lincolnshire nurse and quickly became national. As we all know the national shortage of PPE was in the news often and thousands of sewists across the UK got together through this group and others to sew scrubs, face masks, laundry bags etc. for the NHS workers. Lisa was assigned to the Nottinghamshire group and made scrubs and laundry bags which ended up in GP surgeries in Nottingham. Lisa also sewed an additional 60 masks for friends and family.
Philip Newborough, Web Developer lives in the small village of Swinderby where members club together to purchase heating oil, with the idea that they purchase in bulk and receive a cheaper rate. The person who managed this system (manually) wrote an article in the local parish magazine and asked villagers if they would collectively contribute a couple of thousand pounds to have a custom system developed to aid in the administration of the scheme.
Membership to the scheme is free and it’s a non-profit, so whilst Phillip was furloughed, he offered to undertake the work and develop the system for free, saving the villagers some money.
Philip developed a custom website with a registration system and member accounts area. All members can login to the website and request an amount of oil. The system keeps track of the total amount of oil that has been requested by members and when the amount reaches 18,000 litres, a purchase order is raised with the cheapest supplier. All members are then automatically emailed with details of the oil delivery, supplier, date and price etc. The system has been running successfully for the last few months and the villagers have already benefited from the savings.
Arran Fullwood, Finance Director who manages both Lisa and Philip commented:
I was inspired and humbled when I spoke to Lisa and Philip and discovered what they had achieved during the period they were furloughed. I’m equally overwhelmed by the staff who kept working during the entire period doing essential work at Lincoln hospital. We have a fantastic team at Gelder Group and I’m very proud to be a part of it.
Pictured: Home made PPE
The Swinderby CHOPS website.