Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care (SCCCC)

Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care (SCCCC) are a charity working closely with statutory agencies in Sheffield to provide a network of support for older people, their carers and families. Most of their work helps older people in their own homes. SCCCC can also support people who are admitted to or discharged from hospital or are living in a residential home.

Their programmes and areas of focus are listed below. You can find out more about any of their projects on their website.

Good Neighbours Scheme

This project involves matching older members of the community with local volunteers. These volunteers can provide support with:

• Regular social visits
• Re-arranging furniture to enable greater mobility
• Escorting to hospital appointments (service user to bear the cost of any taxi)
• Telephone support, a friendly call on a regular basis
• Pen pal Scheme, receive some happy post, a letter, card or drawing from a friend you haven’t met yet

The service is free and aims to combat loneliness for people over 65 living in Sheffield.

Telephone Support Service

If you are over 65, feeling lonely or isolated, living in Sheffield and would like to talk to someone on the telephone on a regular basis, you can access SCCCC’s Telephone Support Service. They can match you up with a friendly volunteer who will ring you regularly to chat with you about whatever you wish to talk about.

You can email [email protected] to refer yourself to the scheme.

Hospital to Home Scheme

The Hospital to Home Scheme provides support for people before they go into hospital, whilst they are there, and immediately after they leave.

The scheme operates at the Northern General Hospital, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Weston Park Hospital. They also accept referrals from hospital staff, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and discharge teams. Referrals are also taken from community teams, social workers and individuals.

The team provides a wide range of practical help and support free of charge and is able to respond on the day of referral. Typical support that can be offered includes:

• Arranging basic shopping to be delivered for a patient on discharge
• Collecting older people from hospital
• Delivering and fitting small home aids & adaptations such as commodes, bed levers and chair raisers
• Collecting clothes and other personal items from home
• Short term feeding of pets
• Heating or airing the home prior to discharge
• Collection of a patient’s keys to provide access. For example the fitting of a hand rail or to let workers in for repairs, adaptations, environmental health
• Assistance with moving small items of furniture to facilitate a hospital bed delivery or hospital discharge

A&E to Home

Assistance is available for older people who have had a visit to A&E with a minor injury, but are well enough to go home with some support. The service covers the A&E Department at the Northern General Hospital and the Emergency Admission Unit and the Minor Injuries Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. It operates between 9am and 9pm, seven days per week including bank holidays. SCCCC takes the patient home and helps them to settle in (by checking the heating is on, making a cup of tea etc).

Temporary Key Safes

SCCCC loan out temporary key-safes to people who need them. These help prevent delayed hospital discharge by providing temporary key access for the carer(s) until a more permanently fixed key-safe can be fitted.

High Seat Chair Loan

SCCCC loan out high seat chairs for a period of 6-8 weeks. These are primarily for patients who have had hip or knee surgery and are there to aid recovery.