Elemental is to give parents paid time off for home-schooling...!

Elemental Software, an award-winning tech for good company based in Derry City, has recognised the pressure that school closures can put on their team.

In efforts to assist staff, the company is giving all parents the option to take paid time off each day to home-school.

As part of new Executive restrictions to curb the spread of Coronavirus, it was announced on January 5 that schools in Northern Ireland would undertake an extended period of remote learning and working from home must be employed where possible.

Parents therefore have returned to balancing work commitments and home-schooling duties.

Elemental Software was co-founded by former Community Development workers, Leeann Monk Ozgul and Jennifer Neff, to scale and measure the uptake and impact of the social prescribing movement.

Social prescribing is a method of referring people towards non-medical sources of support within the community to help them improve their overall wellbeing. This can include activities like fitness classes, gardening clubs, befriending services and healthy cooking programmes. Elemental’s digital platform enables GPs to make an express referral for a patient to a Social Prescribing Link Worker within three clicks.

Jennifer Neff, CEO and Co-founder, said: “Leeann and I are both mothers and know first-hand the strain that working from home and parenting can put on you. We also know the importance of ensuring our children have a routine and continue learning, something that’s not always easy when both parents are still working and schools are closed.

“Our team is the backbone of Elemental, who give us their all every day, so we want to protect them and their mental health during these extremely tough times and support them in any way we can.”

Elemental Software is made up of a team of passionate community impact professionals, with genuine care for community health and well-being, and reducing health inequalities.

“The company’s purpose is to empower and enable families, and their carers, to better connect into community-based programmes, services and interventions that make a positive impact on their lives.”

Leeann Monk-Ozgul, COO and Co-founder of Elemental Software, said: “The ‘Covid Effect’ on people and on families is real, and we are proud to be playing our part by working with organisations in health, housing, education, VCSE, employability, and prison care to ensure people get the support they need.

“We also feel that, as employers, it is important that we practice what we preach and ensure that we’re supporting our staff during such tough times.”

Through its innovative digital platform, Elemental provides teams with the technical connectivity they need for multi-sector partnership working, leadership, and the measurement of mobilisation of support where needed.

By better connecting people into their communities, the Elemental platform demonstrates the impact that multi-sector partnership working and community and voluntary services have on wellness, community cohesion and demand on health and social care services.

For more information, visit www.elementalsoftware.co

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you