A time of resilience, a time of resolve

COVID-19 SUPPORT

A TIME OF RESILIENCE, A TIME OF RESOLVE

On the following pages, we look back at how communities and businesses from across the Highlands and Islands have responded to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a year like no other. The year of COVID-19. A year that has introduced us all to face masks, hand sanitiser and social distancing. A year when we’ve had to become familiar with an ‘unprecedented’ new vocabulary: lockdown, quarantine, furlough, clusters, R numbers and, of course, last but not least, the new normal.

It has been a year that has challenged us and changed us – not just here in the Highlands and Islands, but across Scotland and around the world. But against this difficult backdrop, in the most worrying of times, there have also been stories that revealed the best of us. Stories of spirited communities and resilient businesses. Stories that illustrate the strength of our shared resolve. Stories that point the way forward as we try to map out a new future, new ways of working, and new ways of ensuring that our communities and businesses bounce back in 2021.

Here we look at just some of these stories from the Highlands and Islands. On pages 8-9, we look back at how rural communities came together to help protect the most vulnerable during lockdown. On pages 10-14, we look at how businesses from across the Highlands and Islands adapted in the short term, both pulling together to support the NHS and other essential services, but also changing their business models in response to the new reality they now face in the long term.

Of course, it’s impossible to capture the full impact of the past nine months in a few pages, or indeed to convey the breadth and depth of the region’s response. But we do hope to illustrate some of the positive building blocks that reassure us the people of the Highlands and Islands will rise to the challenges of the future.

COVID-19 VOLUNTEERING: HIE EMPLOYEES HAVE PLAYED THEIR PART

HIE is a long-time supporter of employee volunteering, particularly where there is a social impact on the local communities it serves. Employees are encouraged to take up to three volunteer days a year, and this year unsurprisingly, many volunteering opportunities have been focused on contributing to the COVID-19 response. Here, we consider three in brief…

Alison Crook in our Moray team is the voluntary Treasurer of Dunshalt Community Shop and in normal times carried out her duties in the evenings and at weekends. However, during the COVID-19 crisis, the shop was closed and instead was taking delivery orders by phone and e-mail with volunteers working in shifts. Alison used her HIE employee volunteering time to cover an occasional shift. Lizi Blackwood in our Northern Innovation Hub team used her HIE volunteer days to support her father, Ken Hooker, after his manufacturing company Proteus Packaging Systems Ltd began making face guards for NHS hospitals in Scotland and England. Lizi says: “Something that started off as an idea to make a few boxes of face shields quickly grew arms and legs. The local community response was incredible, and I was fortunate enough to be able to use my employer’s volunteer days, which is a fantastic way to do some great work for important causes.”

David Taylor, previously in our Inner Moray Firth area team and now in our Energy and Low Carbon team, used his employee volunteering time to help support the efforts of Project Corran, which brought together a range of businesses on Inverness Campus to produce face shields for NHS Highland medical staff. David says: “I was so pleased to assist with Project Corran, it’s an incredible feeling to see companies collaborate and organise something that will make a difference during these difficult times.” (For the full story of Project Corran, see the case study on page 14.)

HELPING OUR COMMUNITIES TO HELP THEMSELVES

Back at the start of the pandemic, on 18 March, Aileen Campbell MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, announced an investment package of £350m to support local communities, the third sector and households in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

The investment comprised a range of funds that were designed to be delivered through a combination of approaches to ensure that resources were mobilised quickly to the places and people where help was most needed.

Key funding mechanisms included the Scottish Government’s Supporting Communities Fund, the Community Response, Recovery and Resilience Fund, and the Third Sector Resilience Fund. Others included the Wellbeing Fund, set up to support organisations across the third sector that were providing key services for people as a result of coronavirus, and the Food Fund, to support people facing additional barriers to accessing food, including support for third sector or community-based action on food provision. In this edition of FOCUS, we take a look at just a few of the many community-based projects that sprung up across the region in response to the crisis.

FOR THOSE MOST IN NEED

BADENOCH AND STRATHSPEY: 850 VOLUNTEERS DELIVERING LIFELINE SERVICES

Back in March, Voluntary Action Badenoch and Strathspey (VABS) launched a huge community-led initiative to support the 13,000 residents of the western Cairngorms. In an area where a large number of people work in hospitality and tourism, many were anxious about the future. The response brought together 850 volunteers, working with over 320 community groups, to provide help to those most affected by the pandemic. The Trust was already well known for its varied arts and culture

VABS helped coordinate the activity, which included running food tables, helping the vulnerable with essential shopping, and setting up a ‘help fund’ for those who found themselves in financial difficulty. Volunteers from all walks of life worked together to run a helpline, co-ordinate deliveries, and make sure that no one was forgotten about. Stay Active Packs were also developed in partnership with local education and health practitioners to encourage people to stay mentally and administered in the region by HIE, contributed to the costs of

physically well through indoor and outdoor activity.

To fund the response, which has so far helped 2,000 people directly, HIE supported VABS to secure £120,000 from the Supporting Communities Fund. However, thanks to the scale of to give their time and help for free, just under £45,000 was needed.

Karen Derrick, chief executive of VABS, says:

“The community response has been tremendous, and the funding has really helped us sustain these efforts. Communities across Badenoch and Strathspey have shown real leadership and selflessness, and local volunteers are doing extraordinary things on a daily basis. And the work remains ongoing; the helpline, ‘help fund,’ food tables, and community transport provision will continue for as long as there is a need.”

DUNOON: PROVIDING ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD

Dunoon Burgh Hall Trust set up a community kitchen to deliver meals to the most vulnerable residents in the Dunoon area during lockdown. In five months, the initiative provided over 6,000 nutritious meals to 230 people, including those who were shielding.

programme and in the community’s time of need, the team demonstrated how it was there to serve them by securing an award of over £30,000 from the Supporting Communities Fund to deliver the community kitchen initiative. To ensure the meals were reaching the right people, the Trust worked closely with Hubgrub, Dunoon Food Bank, local Community Councils and other similar organisations.

The Supporting Communities Fund, which continues to be the communities’ response, and the willingness of local people

ingredients required for the production of meals, electricity/ gas costs, and the additional wage costs in relation to the preparation and cooking of the meals.

Claire McMurchy, HIE’s head of strengthening communities in Argyll and the Islands, says:

“The Dunoon community kitchen initiative was a great example of how local social enterprises – with support from the COVID-19 Supporting Communities Fund – were able to respond to the needs of their communities in truly challenging times. The team at Dunoon, many of whom were volunteers, were preparing and delivering up to 70 meals a day to those most in need. It was a truly incredible response.”

LOSSIEMOUTH AND HOPEMAN: GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO HELP OTHERS

Lossiemouth Community Development Trust secured an initial £21,500 from the Supporting Communities Fund to help bring together a number of local groups, local volunteers, businesses and churches to co-ordinate their joint emergency response. This was followed by a further £90,000 in the second round of funding which has enabled the Trust to employ two part time members of staff to head up the work of its response team in and around the Moray villages of Lossiemouth and Hopeman. With 10,000 residents spread across the two areas, the team of volunteers originally organised leaflet drops offering help and providing more information; with some 200 volunteers then making themselves available to help with practicalities like shopping, transport, prescription runs, and dog walking. In addition, local businesses made scrubs and created ready meals; local community groups delivered emergency food parcels; and vouchers were made available for anyone who needed help to pay for utilities.

A great deal of effort was put into trying to ensure that no-one in the community was excluded, and over time it became clear what was needed was support for people who were having to apply for benefits, grants and other forms of aid for the first time.

Fiona Birse, development officer, Lossiemouth Community Development Trust, comments:

“We saw many amazing gestures of goodwill with many people, groups and businesses going above and beyond to help relatives, neighbours and strangers. However, the need has become greater as the months have gone on, with more people losing jobs or hours cut, furlough uncertainty, and the self-employed losing or struggling with their businesses. With the extra funding, the Trust has been able to continue to respond to this need, helping to get people online, providing food and care packages, and training for volunteers. Without the support received from HIE and the Scottish Government most of this work would not have happened.”

BARRA AND VATERSAY: GETTING HELP TO WHERE IT’S NEEDED

In the Outer Hebrides, Voluntary Action Barra and Vatersay has been working with local organisations to deliver vital services to some of the more vulnerable among the islands’ 1,200 residents. The community anchor organisation secured £14,480 from the Supporting Communities Fund to support a range of activities.

Cobhair Bharraigh – a charity providing home-based support and day care – check-in with service users every week by telephone and provide vital shopping services to those who are self-isolating. They supplied activity packs for local children at home during lockdown to encourage them to paint and write letters to send to vulnerable and elderly people.

Gàradh a Bhagh a Tuath runs a therapeutic garden and café project providing volunteering and day care activities. They supplied all households in Barra and Vatersay with either a free vegetable growing starter box or door side salad tub as well as houseplants for those without gardens.

Bùth Bharraigh, the local co-operative and community hub in Barra, put together a selection of books and craft packages and designed a recipe book for distribution. Crochet and other virtual classes for all ages were also introduced to the community.

The funding also enabled the Barra food bank to deal with an increased demand and the Barra Cancer Support Group to purchase medical equipment to help people showing symptoms of COVID-19 to be monitored at home.

Voluntary Action Barra and Vatersay co-ordinated a tablet lending service with all the partner organisations so those who are isolated and on low income can link up with family and access the latest information.

Eoin MacNeil of Voluntary Action Barra and Vatersay says:

“The support in the community has been amazing with people pulling together to deliver and respond to the challenges our communities face.

“We are lucky to live on islands with such a strong sense of community where we all know each other and we’ve had some great response from people who want to help.”

BUSINESSES RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 CHALLENGE

Since March 2020, we have worked with a wide range of businesses from across the Highlands and Islands facing the challenges of COVID-19.

Initially, the Scottish Government was looking for businesses that could change their day-to-day operations to help produce and deliver critical supplies to support the NHS. This included producing ventilators and test kits; offering critical cleaning services, producing clothing and personal protection equipment (PPE), and other innovative solutions. There are many examples of this type of response from businesses in the Highlands and Islands, including Flexible Technology and the inspirational Corran Project (see page 14).

In the continuing crisis, the challenge has been for businesses big and small to evolve and respond to the changing market, changing legislation, and the changing needs of visitors and customers.

Support from the Scottish and UK Governments has been critical, not least through the current Job Retention Scheme (furlough), the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Self-employment Income Support Scheme, which continue to provide vital support alongside sector specific schemes in areas such as hospitality, events, seafood and agriculture.

Here, we look at the support provided through two funds that have now closed, but which proved to be critical in helping to maintain the viability of key businesses and organisations in this region at the time.

The Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, which was a grant scheme for SMEs that could demonstrate they had been made vulnerable by COVID-19 but could also present a strong business case for a viable futurewas managed by Scotland’s three enterprise agencies including HIE on behalf of Scottish Government. There was a high demand for the fund that received more than 5,000 applications Scotland-wide. Grants totalling almost £20m have been approved by HIE to 372 businesses across the Highlands and Islands.

The second was the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund. It provided an avenue of support for small companies in these key sectors that were not in receipt of other COVID business grants. In the Highlands and Islands, a total of 456 grants were awarded totalling £4.9m.

BLACK ISLE BREWERY: A RENEWED FOCUS ON MAIL ORDER AND HOME DELIVERY

Black Isle Brewery has been making organic beer for 21 years. The company employs more than 40 full-time staff across the business and exports around the world. The company has constantly reinvested in the business and its people, and was expecting to continue to grow in 2020, however the outbreak of COVID-19 nearly resulted in financial disaster. As shops, bars, and hotels closed around the world, some 80% of their business was lost overnight.

A grant, approved by HIE through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, enabled Black Isle Brewery to accelerate development in some key growth areas to ensure the company’s survival. Investment in new canning equipment, for example, meant that the business could ramp up its supplies to mail-order beer subscription services, which prefer cans to glass. The company also turned its attention to home delivery, and supermarkets, increasing volume in this key sector, picking up new listings, and developing better trading relationships with customers.

Founder and managing director David Gladwin says:

“The loss of a busy summer season, where we’d normally top up our reserves, means that realistically, autumn and winter will be difficult. But I am noticing a cautious pick-up, and we’ve recently secured new export deals to Japan and France. Making use of the furlough scheme, we managed to retain our brilliant team, who are now back at work in the brewery, and in our two bars in Inverness and Fort William.”

HUME SWEET HUME: KEEPING CALM IN A CRISIS AND BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Hume Sweet Hume is a family-owned business based on Westray, one of the most northerly of the Orkney Islands. Sisters Lizza and Jenna Hume started the company in 1998, which produces high quality knitwear in their workshop in Westray and in the homes of many outworkers across the islands.

The past few months have been a very worrying and uncertain time for the family and their business. While the Kirkwall and Westray shops are now open again, footfall remains reduced, and the trade side of the business will take time to recover, as the company’s stockists experience similar challenges. However, with support from a grant through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, the sisters have been able to safeguard the business during winter. The funding has acted as a financial cushion that the busy summer season would otherwise have provided.

Above, L-R: Aileen Bain, Jenna Hume, Lizza Hume, Megan Bain. Photo credit: Mana Meadows photography

Lizza Hume explains:

“Without the funding, we would have been on a very different path. It’s enabled us to protect what we have and invest in new areas that promise longer-term security. We’ve made big improvements to our online presence, and that work is ongoing. We’ve invested in new product photography, expanded the online shop, and increased our social media activity, which is already having a positive impact on our international sales.

“The funding has also allowed us to develop a new range of knitted menswear. As a business that manufactures its own products, we are in a stronger position to try new things. It’s exciting to think: what can we do next? The opportunities for creative diversification are endless. If anything, the pandemic has taught us to hold our nerve, make no rash decisions but look to new options and to remain hopeful.”

FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED: A PIVOT IN PRODUCTION TO MEET NEW NEEDS

The Rothesay-based business, Flexible Technology Limited (FTL), was established in 1980 and produces a range of flexible circuit, flex-rigid circuit, multilayer and printed circuit boards to various design requirements. An important employer on Bute, the firm was able to respond quickly to an urgent international need for ventilator parts and their expertise in this high-tech field has proved vital. With support from a grant approved by HIE through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, the company’s 38 employees worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis playing a key role in the supply of ventilators required across the world. Employees pulled out all the stops to produce around 100,000 flexible printed circuit boards for two of the world’s leading manufacturers of actuators, which are critical in the production of ventilators. At the same time, the business introduced a series of distancing, health and PPE measures to reduce employee risk.

Billy Shaw, operations manager at FTL, comments: “The grant was very timely and gave us the means to purchase the additional materials that were required to service the increased orders, rather than set up a loan facility. It helped with the speed of our response at the height of the crisis.”

AVA INNES / BESPOKE FABRICS LTD: FINDING NEW MARKETS FOR LUXURY BEDDING

Ava Innes is a new sustainable bedding company based in Elgin. Managing Director Joan Johnston launched the business in September 2019, after two years of product development – and it has already been shortlisted for a prestigious international design award. Ava Innes duvets are filled with a unique fibre cashmere guard hair, long ignored by the traditional textile industry due to its straight nature, which makes it unsuitable for knitting or weaving.

The coronavirus pandemic saw sales opportunities with luxury hotels and boutique guesthouses fall through, and as a result the business needed to adapt accordingly.

By securing funding through the Hardship Fund, Joan was able to work with an e-commerce specialist to improve the company’s digital presence and capabilities. Joan explains:

“We’ve developed a more targeted marketing strategy, to tap into a new customer base, and better engage with them. With the hospitality sector devastated by coronavirus, we needed to look at cultivating new markets and audiences – and our improved website, supported by social media, will enable us to do that as we move forward.”

SHETLAND ARTS: REAFFIRMING PURPOSE AND PRIORITISING PEOPLE

Mareel

Shetland Arts run Mareel and the Garrison Theatre in Lerwick, and Bonhoga Gallery in Weisdale. As well as being a home to music, art and cinema, the organisation also runs youth arts and wellbeing outreach programmes, and an educational initiative, which teaches vocational pathways to degrees in film and music.

Shetland Arts was in the process of creating a new development strategy, involving extensive public consultation, before the pandemic hit. But as chief executive Graeme Howell explains:

“COVID forced us to ask in even starker terms: ‘What is our purpose?’. During lockdown, HIE set up a strategy workshop with a specialist consultant. The experience confirmed to us that our outreach programmes are vital, and so we will continue to prioritise those areas, as well as supporting the local creative community. We need art and culture more than ever now.”

COVID has placed huge pressures on those steering large organisations, and Graeme says for him professionally, the HIE account management relationship has been invaluable.

“Our account manager Mhari acts as a ‘critical friend’ – someone who is genuinely invested in the success of the organisation but has a healthy degree of distance from it,” he explains.

“We’ve been in regular contact during the pandemic; she is someone I can talk honestly to, warts and all, which has been particularly helpful during some of the bleaker moments. And she also picks up on things that we might otherwise miss, such as funding opportunities.”

Shetland Arts is currently reprioritising the use of its buildings to ensure maximum social and economic benefit, with minimal risk to health. At Mareel, for example, both cinema screens and its educational space are up and running again, while the opening hours of the café have been reduced as a counterweight. At Bonhoga Gallery, the exhibition space has been handed over to local artists and makers, providing a vital platform to Shetlandbased creatives whose livelihoods have been seriously impacted by the cancellation of craft fairs and markets.

SKIRR SKIN: HEALTH START-UP STAYS AGILE AS COVID HITS

Starting a new business is a challenging experience at the best of times, but for Moira Newiss, founder of SKIRR Skin, little did she know what a first year she’d have in 2020. SKIRR Skin, based in North Connel near Oban, is a sustainable skincare brand for eco-conscious endurance athletes. ‘Skirr’ is an old Scots word meaning to glide or move faster. The business launched its first product in February, the antichafing Sport Body Balm – road tested by runners competing in the Tyndrum 24-hour ultra-marathon. In launching the product, Moira committed to a significant number of orders so she would have plenty of stock to sell across the 2020 sports calendar – her intended target market. However, the cancellation of all sporting events pushed Moira to reconsider her plans.

She had worked with HIE in the summer of 2019, via its Innovate your Business programme, to develop a business plan, strategy and brand for SKIRR Skin. Moira says:

“This was a really helpful experience. HIE provided support on how to identify target markets, how to maximise revenue, and put me in touch with some key industry experts who helped develop the website and source sustainable packaging. While I’ve had to adapt my sales expectations, having a really solid product, brand and digital presence has been invaluable in navigating the challenges of COVID.”

Moira was one of the first members of W-Power, an online network for women entrepreneurs operating in the more rural parts of Argyll and the Islands, who want to connect with, learn from and support each other. This was a helpful and welcome community to be part of during lockdown.

Moira has also taken part in a virtual trade mission to Canada, arranged by the Lochaber Chamber of Commerce, with another to the North West Pacific region of the US scheduled for December. She says:

“In normal circumstances, this early on in the business, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to attend these in person. So, the introduction of ‘virtual’ trade missions has been a real bonus for me.”

SKIRR Skin currently has two new products under development, to be launched next year – by which time Moira hopes the sporting events world will be back on its feet.

MY PRIMARY TUTOR: GOING ONLINE AT A CRITICAL TIME

While working as a primary school teacher, Karen Simpson set up her tutoring business in 2017, to help create a better worklife balance after the birth of her second child. The business helps children aged 5-14 with literacy and numeracy learning, running small group and individual sessions in Inverness.

In what would turn out to be a highly fortunate move, in 2019 Karen took part in HIE’s Pathfinder Accelerator programme, which supported her to adopt video conferencing software to offer virtual learning sessions. While there wasn’t huge demand for online tutoring at the time, it was an avenue that Karen was keen to explore. Little did she know what a critical decision this would prove to be.

When schools and nurseries closed across Scotland at the end of March, everything changed. With parents now responsible for home-schooling their children, and the majority of extracurricular activities cancelled, Karen and her team found they had an enormous volume of new customers. And with the whole world now more familiar with Zoom and other similar video software, virtual learning was an easier step for many to take.

Karen’s team of home-based tutors has more than doubled, from six to 15 over the past year, as demand for their virtual sessions continues to grow, despite the reopening of schools in August.

Karen says:

“The learning experience for school pupils has changed as a result of COVID, so many parents are still looking to tutoring as a way to provide that extra bit of support for their children. There is still an element of ‘catch up’ at play. With continued social distancing, the way parents interact with schools has also changed; they can no longer walk into a classroom for a casual chat with the teacher. So, we’ve found that parents really enjoy watching their children learn in a more close-up, personalised setting, where they can feel part of the experience too.”

My Primary Tutor recently won New Business of the Year at the Highland Business Women Awards, and Karen has exciting plans to diversify and further invest in the business. She is about to start studying herself, to learn more about dyscalculia, a less well-known area of research into a type of ‘maths dyslexia’ – something she hopes the business will be able to help children with in the future.

L-R: Peter MacDonald, Alessio Renna, Jo Wilson, Jenny Allen, Andy Hall at 4c

CASE STUDY: PROJECT CORRAN ON INVERNESS CAMPUS A MULTI-BUSINESS COLLABORATION TO HELP SAVE LIVES

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic a number of businesses and organisations came together to meet an urgent need for PPE in Raigmore Hospital and beyond. The group was led by two innovative companies, 4c Engineering and Aseptium, based in HIE’s Solasta House facility on Inverness Campus.

4c Engineering and Aseptium liaised with NHS Highland to see if their combined design and rapid manufacturing capabilities could be used to solve any of the immediate problems that had arisen through the pandemic. The ICU department at Raigmore took up this offer as they urgently required face shields. Working to a clear brief, the team designed a visor that would be safe, comfortable and, most importantly, could be rapidly manufactured.

Part way through the design process, the challenge increased as national lockdown severely curtailed material availability. However, led by the Inverness Chamber of Commerce, the business community rallied with companies such as Dunelm Mill, James Dow, Highland Office Equipment and Porex Technologies providing supplies and materials; and others such as HIE, SMAS, LifeScan, Glenmore Lodge, Inverness Chamber of Commerce and Varrich Engineering providing volunteers and advice.

After sourcing materials and refining the design throughout the first week of the project, a meeting was held where the first prototype was presented to Raigmore ICU and Infection Control staff – who gave the green light for an initial 1,000 units.

In April and May, with additional manpower provided by LifeScan, over 3,000 Corran visors were delivered to Raigmore, with another 4,000 going to local care homes and other organisations that desperately needed PPE. The Corran design is simple and has being made freely available with manufacturing guidance. Lochgilpheadbased Midton Engineering was among other businesses to pick up the design – delivering face shields to hospitals in Oban and Mid-Argyll. And in June, a revised design for the visor, the Corran II, was awarded a CE mark, a major milestone that allows the product to now be sold on the open market.

Commenting on the project, Andy Hall, Director of 4c Engineering says:

“The Corran II visor is the result of engaging with and listening to frontline workers then tailoring a design to meet their demands. We balanced the need to produce a safe product with the desire to minimise weight and simplify the design. I’m proud of the improvements the team made in just a matter of weeks and achieving a CE mark shows our design is fundamentally safe.”

Peter MacDonald, Director of 4c Engineering adds:

“We have been able to take the lessons learned in those first few frantically busy weeks, and combine that with the user feedback, and innovative thinking in a matter of weeks to develop and certify a brand new product, which we believe is the most comfortable userfriendly visor on the market.”

While fellow project founder, Pawel de Sternberg Stojalowski of Aseptium says:

“Corran II proves that even PPE can be designed for comfort. Rapid development is a great adventure and being able to perfect your design in co-operation with local suppliers is a great pleasure, especially when it results in our best product in this category to date.”

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