A Year Like No Other

With the good news that the Government has today accepted the recommendation from the MHRA to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for use, it seemed a good time for an end of year post. A year, as they say, like no other.

It would be wrong to ignore the millions of deaths, the millions of families and lives devastated by Coronavirus, whether directly by contracting the virus or because of the socio-economic consequences and the related physical and mental health toll it has taken on so many, if not all of us.

However, like today’s announcement, there has been good news as well this year. Some global, some national, some local. The response of the NHS, public services and charities to the pandemic; the millions raised for them by the likes of Sir Tom Moore and Dabirul Islam Choudhury; the work and rise to public prominence of food banks; the efforts of Marcus Rashford that not only led to a change of Government position but also saw communities and businesses across the country joining to fill the gap that Government had left.

Then there was Jennifer’s wedding. Despite its best efforts, Covid-19 couldn’t prevent our Compliance Officer Jennifer from getting married. Anyone who has dealt with Jennifer knows that not a lot can stop her. It wasn’t as big a do as originally planned, not as many people could attend as she or they would have liked but nevertheless it was still a happy and joyous event whether you were there or not. One that she needed and one that we all needed in our own ways. It was a sign that the virus could not stop all aspects of life from continuing.

It also didn’t stop our contractors. The majority of our contractors work within Probation and Policing environments and worked continuously through the pandemic, whatever the level of lockdown, whatever tiers, whatever movement restrictions, they continued to support local communities all over the UK. They made themselves available to our client organisations to help them protect the general public and support the vulnerable, often, like their permanent counterparts, potentially at the expense of their own safety and wellbeing.

The team here at Servoca have also worked throughout the year, supporting clients and candidates alike. However what has been even more pleasing has been the way they have supported each other. Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in more ways but in all ways making a contribution to the type of positive result we can look forward to and in ways that I am proud to say pervade my team.

So whether you are a Knight of the Realm or a Recruitment Administrator, a community volunteer or a civilian investigator, a small business owner or a rehabilitation practitioner, in a year like no other, on behalf of myself and Servoca Resourcing Solutions, thank you for contributing to what happiness and positivity we have seen this year and no doubt doing the same in what we hope are easier circumstances for everyone next year.

John Wood is the Managing Director of Servoca Resourcing Solutions

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this or any of our other articles in the Comments section below and all articles are the opinions of the author.

We are also looking for future contributors to our series of blogs so if you would be interested in writing about and sharing any aspect of your pandemic esperience or any other subject you feel may interest our site visitors, please drop an email to resourcing@servoca.com and we will get in touch.

Thanks to Immo Wegmann and @ClayBanks for the use of their images