More than 8,000 small and medium charities across England have been awarded a share of £200 million to help them continue their vital work with vulnerable people during the pandemic.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden today confirmed that the Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) has been fully allocated, with 8,250 small and medium organisations receiving grants.

The money has helped a wide range of causes working on the front line of the pandemic, from FC United’s project to help vulnerable families in Manchester, to Re-engage, a charity supporting older people at risk of social isolation across the country.

Since its launch in May, the Coronavirus Community Support Fund has directed cash to organisations who provide key services and support vulnerable people.

Distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, it is part of the Government’s £750 million support package for charities announced earlier this year.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

Charities are there when we need them the most, and this emergency funding has kept their doors open during the biggest crisis for a generation.

Our £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund has reached thousands of worthy causes in communities across the country, ensuring they can be there for millions of vulnerable people and families.

Dawn Austwick, CEO at The National Lottery Community Fund, said:

Communities and charities across the country have responded magnificently to the Covid crisis and those who have benefited from the CCSF funding that we have distributed encapsulate the generosity, spirit and expert knowledge that we have all seen in our local neighbourhoods.

From the community cafes that have turned into food distribution hubs, to the counsellors and peer mentors who have moved their services online, to those offering advice and support to people struggling with debt or dealing with grief: they have all inspired and moved us in equal measure.

We will continue to support communities, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players to support as much of this vital work going forward as we can.

Charities across England have benefited from the £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund, designed to help them meet increased demand as a result of coronavirus and continue their day-to-day activities supporting those in need.

This week the Culture Secretary carried out a virtual visit to Derby County Community Trust, who were awarded £68,000 to support the local community with food parcels, as well as helping people stay active and look after their mental wellbeing during the pandemic.

The Loneliness Minister, Baroness Barran, virtually visited two organisations that have received funding from the £200 million to help people at risk of isolation. Re-engage, which supports people aged over 75 who live alone across the UK, received £66,000 for its ‘Call Companions’ project which trains and mentors volunteers to offer regular telephone calls to older people. Calthorpe Community Gardens in Kings Cross, north London, received £25,508 to run classes addressing loneliness and isolation in the local community.

Other projects to benefit from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund include:

• Selnet received £70,000 to help provide digital devices and internet access to vulnerable adults over 60 across Lancashire
• Beacon South Yorkshire received £10,000 to provide counselling for unpaid carers who are suffering with their own mental health issues as a result of the increased pressure they face as caregivers in a pandemic.
• The Girls’ Network run mentoring programmes aimed at young girls across London, but had to pause their face-to-face activities during the pandemic. With a £67,000 grant they have been able to continue to run their programmes ensuring that young girls from the most affected communities are able to access support with their studies and lessen the social isolation and loneliness faced during lockdown.
• At the beginning of lockdown, FC United in Moston, north Manchester set up a food hub to respond to the needs of vulnerable and marginalised adults and children during the crisis. With a £35,070 grant they were able to support those who were socially isolated to receive food and household supplies, boosting their health and wellbeing.

Sheila Owen, Chair of Trustees at Beacon South Yorkshire, said:

Due to the pandemic we have seen a huge surge in carers needing our support due to diminishing mental health during the lockdown. Thanks to the Government and The National Lottery Community Fund, we’re able to give carers access to the counselling services they may need without long waiting times; offering telephone support and Zoom sessions to suit the individual. The funding will also enable us to expand the counselling service to deal with future needs as we expand across South Yorkshire.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) led the allocation and distribution of the overall £750 million charities package. Alongside the £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund, this included:

• £360 million via government departments, including an immediate allocation of £200 million to hospices across England, and £79 million to charities that support vulnerable children and people who have suffered from domestic abuse, sexual abuse and modern slavery;
• £60 million to the devolved administrations;
• The £85 million Community Match Challenge, which doubled the money raised by recipients including Greggs Foundation, the Steve Morgan Foundation, Comic Relief and Global Radio’s ‘Make Some Noise’ campaign.

This is alongside funding provided to a range of organisations including St Johns Ambulance, mental health charities, air ambulances, projects working to provide homelessness support and groups tackling loneliness.

The Government also match-funded the British public’s generous £37 million donation to the BBC’s Big Night In charity appeal – with Comic Relief, Children In Need and the National Emergencies Trust distributing the cash to charities on the frontline.

It comes on top of the £150 million released from dormant accounts to help social enterprises get affordable credit to people who are financially vulnerable and support charities tackling youth unemployment.

Charities have also had access to wider measures to support the economy, including the Treasury’s multi-billion-pound job support and loan schemes.

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for the UK’s good causes, and £41 billion has been distributed to 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The £200 million coronavirus community support fund covers England only, however as part of the whole charities package, £60 million was provided to the devolved administrations as per the Barnett formula (£30 million for Scotland, £20 million for Wales and £10 million for Northern Ireland).

From 4am on Saturday 14 November, people arriving into the UK from all of Greece apart from Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and Kos will need to self-isolate for 2 weeks as the country is removed from the travel corridor list.

Data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England has indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of coronavirus in mainland Greece, leading to ministers removing it from the current list of travel corridors.

UAE, Qatar, Turks and Caicos islands, Laos, Iceland, Cambodia, Chile and Bahrain have been added to the government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in risk from coronavirus in these countries. From 4am on Saturday 14 November, passengers arriving into the UK from these destinations will no longer need to self-isolate so long as they haven’t been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days preceding their arrival.

Following advice from the Chief Medical Officer, the travel ban introduced on 7 November 2020 on Denmark will also be extended for a further 14 days. British Nationals, visa holders and permanent residents returning to the UK directly or indirectly from Denmark will need to self-isolate along with all other members of their household for 14 days from the date they were last in Denmark.

National restrictions introduced on the 5 November 2020 remain in place meaning everyone must stay at home unless travelling for a very limited set of reasons, including for work or education. This means people can no longer travel to take holidays or travel internationally – unless for work or other legally permitted reasons. Those in breach of the rules face penalties starting at £200 and rising to a maximum of £6,400.

A range of factors are taken into account when deciding to remove a country from the exemption list, including the continued increase of coronavirus within a country, the numbers of new cases, information on a country’s testing capacity, testing regime and test positivity rate and potential trajectory of the disease in the coming weeks.

Data shows there has been a consistent increase in newly reported cases in Greece over the past 2 weeks with a 136% increase in newly reported cases to 16,429 between 5-12 November from 6,965 between 22-29 October. The Greek islands of Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and Kos have not seen as significant a growth in cases over recent weeks as the rest of Greece and therefore remain on the travel corridors list.

People currently in mainland Greece are encouraged to follow the local rules and check the FCDO travel advice pages for further information. The government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate.

The government has also announced a limited exemption for a small number of Danish and Icelandic national football players to travel from the UK to Copenhagen and back, without the need to self-isolate, to take part in upcoming international football fixtures. This temporary and extremely limited exemption will allow the relevant players and essential staff support to be exempt from the new requirements and will help reduce any disruption for England’s upcoming Nations League fixtures.

COVID-19 has profoundly changed the nature of international travel. Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCDO, given the potential for changing coronavirus infection rates to affect both the advice about travelling to other countries and rules about self-isolation on return.

All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK unless they fall into a small group of exemptions.

Penalties for those breaching the self-isolation rules when returning from non-exempt countries have increased from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation following a positive COVID test or contact from Test and Trace.

Good afternoon. I am joined today by Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England

The average number of new cases each day is now 22,524, compared to 22,398 a week ago.

There are now 14,196 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the UK, compared to 12,406 a week ago.

1,219 patients are now in mechanical ventilation beds, compared to 1,142 a week ago.

And, sadly, another 595 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported yesterday.

The 7 day average daily number of deaths each day in the UK within 28 days of positive test by date reported is now 375, up from 295 a week ago.

Our thoughts are very much with the families and loved ones of those who’ve lost their lives.

Which is a reminder to us, as to why we are taking the action we are, to stop the spread of this virus and ultimately save lives.

Today, we are also reminded about the vital importance of fighting this virus to protect our economy.

Whilst the economy grew by 15% in the third quarter, it slowed in September and remains 8.2% below where we were in February.

We in government understand acutely the human impact this statistic represents.

It’s jobs, livelihoods, and families affected.

So we will continue to support businesses now, and as they recover.

The government has provided unprecedented levels of support for businesses over the past 8 months.

To date, that represents over £200 billion in support.

This is one of the most generous and comprehensive packages of financial support provided in the world, which the International Monetary Fund has praised.

Just this month we have announced an extension of the self-employed grant scheme to March next year.

An extension of the furlough scheme, at 80% until the spring.

Cash grants of up to £3,000 per month for businesses in England, which are required to be closed due to this month’s national restrictions.

These will benefit 600,000 business premises.

And I can confirm today that we will be distributing £2.2 billion to local authorities tomorrow, to allow them to make these vital grant payments to businesses which have been affected.

All of these measures are designed to preserve jobs and help businesses stay afloat.

Today, we have also announced that more than 19,000 jobs have been created so far through our Kickstart Scheme.

These jobs are spread across the country and in a variety of sectors.

I know how hard this job market is, particularly for young job seekers, hoping to enter the workplace for the first time.

The Kickstart Scheme is a ray of hope for young people, and I want to thank all the businesses which have stepped up to participate in this scheme.

I speak to businesses everyday, and I can see, that despite the tough times, they are determined to soldier through this.

Through sheer hard work, innovation, resilience and invoking a real community spirit across the United Kingdom.

For example, in Aberdeenshire, Brewdog has made hand sanitiser to protect our front-line NHS staff.

In Belfast, Axial3D has helped to develop thousands of new ventilators.

In Surrey, Carousel Lights have adapted their manufacturing process to produce ‘sneeze screens’ for GP surgeries, pharmacies, and care homes.

In Caerphilly, Transcend Packaging has converted production lines to create PPE, almost doubling their workforce in just four months.

Because, despite the government’s support, and when it comes down to it, it is you who are keeping this country going.

You who are powering our economic recovery.

Just as our brilliant scientists and researchers are powering ahead in the race to discover a safe and effective vaccine.

A little over 6 months ago, I stood here and announced the creation of the Vaccines Taskforce.

A team of industry experts, scientists and civil servants, with one mission: to secure a vaccine to beat down this virus.

Since then, they have secured access to 350 million doses, through agreements on 6 of the leading candidates in the world.

The Taskforce has demonstrated how we can work together at pace.

Business and science, the NHS and local communities, together forging a path out of this predicament.

But, although this week’s announcement on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is potentially very good news, we still have a lot of hurdles to overcome before we can be certain of its safety and efficacy.

And so we must ensure that we continue to follow the guidance.

To protect our loved ones, our families, our friends, our communities.

Because the virus is still here. It is still a danger.

So we must not lose our resolve now.

We must keep focused.

To protect the health of the nation and the health of the economy.

Working together, supporting each other, we will get through this.

We will come out the other side stronger, more resilient and more united.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. I’d just like to make a few short remarks in response to the Explanation of Vote by the Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation expressed concerns about references to the relationship between Eritrea and Djibouti. This is a bilateral dispute, but one that the Council has continued to follow with close attention since UN sanctions on Eritrea were lifted in 2013.

When the Secretary-General wrote to update the Council on this issue in July, it was clear that there had been no negative developments in the relationship between Eritrea and Djibouti, and the two countries have continued to act responsibly. But he was also clear there has been no progress towards resolving the outstanding disagreements and that one of the parties continues to view this as a threat to peace and security. Given the divergent views between the parties and between Council members, this text is the fairest outcome and the best way to ensure that the Council can support further progress towards resolving these outstanding issues.

Finally, Madam President, I’d like to thank Council members again for their support for the text, although it’s regrettable that consensus could not be achieved. I especially welcome the Federal Government of Somalia’s engagement in this process and thank them for their constructive approach. This sanctions regime as a central part of international efforts to help Somalia build its long term security and stability and address the threat posed by terrorist organisations such as Al-Shabaab. We strongly support the inclusion of new measures targeting Al-Shabaab finances and are committed to supporting the Federal Government of Somalia to identify, address and mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

Thank you, Madam President.