pro-manchester COVID-19 CEO Update

We have now completed the first full week in lockdown and once again a lot has happened in this a relatively short period of time. All of us at pro-manchester would like to share our best wishes with those individuals and companies impacted by this outbreak.

As with so many of you, I have been working from home but have been amazed how quickly the time goes and how fast everything is moving. I hope that you are all successfully adjusting and finally finding your stride.

Last week we saw the launch of the CBILS, further details were released regarding the Job Retention Scheme and on Thursday the much sought-after and highly anticipated support for the self employed was announced. But, as with all of the announcements, it raises more questions and creates new avenues to navigate. We are here to help. Please complete our survey here if you wish to raise any issues and I will feed your comments back and press to get some answers / solutions. My thanks to those who have already completed the survey. The more we are made aware of and understand the challenges you are individually facing the more we can do to tackle them.

On a local level, our Mayor Andy Burnham and the 10 local councils have been pooling their resources and have established the GM COVID-19 Emergency committee in a bid to provide a vital support system for all the communities across Greater Manchester.

You may also have seen that Manchester Central Complex will be opening the site as an NHS Nightingale Hospital providing up to 1000 beds for coronavirus patients across the North West.

Yesterday we also saw the launch of Employ GM, a new initiative aimed at bridging the skills gaps in high-demand sectors, reduce redundancies and help people who have found themselves unemployed as a result of COVID-19. Please go to https://employgm.org/ to find out more.

From a pro-manchester perspective, last week we launch our dedicated COVID-19 page to provide direct links and information to the vital support available to you and your business.

We also delivered our first COVID-19 weekly update webinar and set up our You Tube Channel. The channel will feature recordings of all our webinar events in case you were unable to make the live event or if you want to watch the recording back.

There’ll be lots more great content in the coming days and weeks. To stay updated and ensure you never miss a video, subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications to be alerted once a video has been released.

Please do also visit our webpage for more details of the full programme of activity available. If you wish to be further involved in the programme please do not hesitate to get in touch. It is our job to connect business and share ideas. Let’s do this together and support each other in every way we can.

In that vein I hope that you find these updates useful and if you know of anyone else who would like to receive them, please share the below link and ask them to complete the form in the footer at the bottom of the webpage https://www.pro-manchester.co.uk/

Stay home, stay safe and look after yourselves.