News release
June 2020
#MakeMasks4Carers Launches to Tackle UK Care Home PPE Shortage
A team of volunteers in North Yorkshire has launched https://www.makemasks4carers.com - a new website to help solve the nationwide shortage of PPE in the social care sector. The online tool connects residential care homes, domiciliary home care providers and supported living services with volunteers, organisations and businesses producing PPE free of charge or at cost price.
The website launched in May 2020, and provides an interactive national map which care providers can use to search for local volunteers producing the PPE they need. The site has already seen volunteers from across England and Wales, including schools, universities, workshops, sign makers, garages and people with 3D printers sign up to create and supply hundreds of thousands of masks, visors and face shields to frontline carers.
Now, campaign organisers are calling on other volunteer manufacturers to join the cause.
Samuel Barrington, who launched the #MakeMasks4Carers campaign, explains:
"This crisis has put unprecedented pressure on the UK social care sector. Care homes and home care providers across the country are still struggling to get their hands on the vital PPE they need to protect carers on the front line.
"The response to #MakeMasks4Carers has been fantastic, and thanks to the efforts of all our partners and volunteers, care homes and home care providers across the country have managed to source the PPE they need. It's been a great start, but demand for masks, visors and face shields continues to outstrip supply. Care workers deserve to be protected, and we are calling on organisations, businesses and individuals to get involved."
#MakeMasks4Carers was launched in April 2020 by North Yorkshire based care home consultant and care quality specialist, Samuel Barrington. After seeing the impact that the PPE shortage was having on local care homes, he launched #MakeMasks4Carers as a LinkedIn campaign, designed to help rally volunteers willing to manufacture essential PPE for free.
After building support on LinkedIn, Sam wanted to expand the campaign to include a nationwide mapping tool, where care providers could source the PPE they needed from the growing network of local volunteer makers across the UK.
He enrolled the help of partners It'seeze Websites, One Nine Nine Agency and Charlotte Middleton, with technical support from US-based #findthemasks, to build and create content for the new website. Working together, the team launched the online mapping tool in under 10 days.
For additional information about the campaign, or to volunteer as a maker, please visit https://www.makemasks4carers.com/.
Ends
For additional information, interviews or images, please contact:
Sarah Storer
01723 374620