During snow or bad weather, keep an eye on your vulnerable neighbours. You could go shopping for them or offer to clear paths and driveways.
Stay safe
If you're worried about older or vulnerable family members, friends or neighbours contact:
- Adult Social Care during office hours
- Emergency Duty Team for urgent out of hours support.
If you get support from Adult Social Care, you must let your team know if you are going into hospital. This means that we'll know where you are if there's a winter emergency.
Priority Services Register
The Priority Services Register is a free support service that makes sure extra help is available to people in vulnerable situations.
You can sign up for the Priority Services Register if you or someone you know is:
- of pensionable age
- has a long-term medical condition
- has a disability
- has children under the age of 5.
Find out more about the Priority Services Register and how to sign up for The Priority Services Register.
Cold health alerts
Sign up for the free Met Office Cold Health Alerts service to keep you up to date as well as other warnings and alerts.
How we can help in bad weather
We'll let you know if we need to make changes to regular visits.
The Vulnerable People Reporting System
If you get support from:
- Adult Social Care
- mental health services
- community health services
- community services provided by the borough and district councils like Meals on Wheels.
We'll add you to our Vulnerable People Report. This means that we can prioritise you in the event of an emergency.
Food supplies
It is advisable to keep stocks of dried milk and canned foods in the house during winter in case of a prolonged spell of bad weather.
Stay well
Get advice if you feel unwell as winter can make existing health problems worse. You can get help and advice from:
- Pharmacists can give treatment advice for a range of minor illnesses and can tell you if you need to see a doctor
- Speak to your GP online or over the phone
- Visit NHS 111 or call 111 if you have an urgent medical problem and you are not sure what to do
If you have hospital or GP appointments during bad weather, you should ring to check if the appointment is still going ahead or to cancel the appointment.
Don't cancel any medical appointments until you have spoken to your GP or specialist.
Stay warm
Welfare hub
Our Welfare hub includes information on:
- Warm Welcome Venues across Surrey
- Household Support Fund
- Surrey Energy Advice Tool
- Action Surrey for grants to make homes more energy efficient
See Health and welfare support.
Community helpline
If you can't find the right what you're looking call our community helpline team.
Contact the community helpline.
Heating
If you are worrying about the cost of putting the heating on, find out about help available.
Age UK Surrey has advice on staying warm and healthy during the cold weather.
NHS has information on staying well over winter or visit Staying safe and well in winter on Healthy Surrey.
