How Inspired Villages is moving out of lockdown – a note from CEO Jamie Bunce

The safety and wellbeing of the residents in our villages as well as our colleagues are top priorities for Inspired Villages. I am really proud of the way the company has pulled together to keep residents and each other safe and well in what are challenging times – you can read more details on what we have been doing here. As a result of that diligence and teamwork, we have kept confirmed cases of COVID-19 to a small number of unrelated incidents across our six villages of nearly 1,000 residents and none amongst our workforce.

Now, as government eases the country out of lockdown we are putting in place our carefully considered strategy – The Re-Inspired Plan – to bring the company safely towards a ‘new normal’. We have now put in place some of those measures to align with government advice.

These include:

• Opening up our gyms and swimming pools to residents only for single household use
• The resumption of takeaway services from our restaurants and cafés
• Reintroducing limited housekeeping services
• Allowing serious buyers who have already conducted our virtual village tours, and filled in a questionnaire to ascertain whether they have been exposed to COVID-19, to visit the empty property they wish to purchase, escorted by one of our team

I want to reassure everyone that the services we made available at the height of lockdown to enable residents to shield will still remain in place for those who wish to use it. So grocery and cooked meal deliveries to doorsteps will still continue for those who want it. Our village teams will continue to call every resident every day to for a chat. Socially distanced activities in our spacious grounds will continue to be organised. Plus, we will continue to grow our Virtual Village Centre on Facebook to ensure there continues to be engaging resources that combat isolation on there for our nearly 10,000 followers.

Meanwhile, I am so pleased to be welcoming back more colleagues off the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – as a family-oriented business all those on the scheme are sorely missed. We also continue to keep colleagues working from home where possible for their safety.

I cannot thank everyone – residents, colleagues, business partners etc – for their patience, their hard work and positive spirit through these unprecedented times, as well as their kind words. If you want more of an idea of what life has been like in our villages, do watch the video testimonials from our residents.

Stay well, and I hope our villages will be able to safely welcome all in the not too distant future.

Jamie Bunce
CEO, Inspired Villages