WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has called on the County Volunteers Emergency Committee (CVEC) and are working together to help maintain critical services around the county.

A number of CVEC's members have sprung into action following the recent bout of severe weather to help deliver critical services, such as county council social care and homecare, as well as hospital and district nursing.

The Red Cross and St John 4x4 units are actively supporting West Midlands Ambulance Service and the county council for the transport of medical patients or recent discharges.

Gloucester & Worcestershire 4x4 Response has been extensively engaged by the county council for transporting critical staff such as registered general nurses and district nurses.

Sue Pidduck, county council operations manager for adult social care, said: "Homecare and social care staff are often the unsung heroes in this sort of event.

“The essential closure of daycare services has placed an increased workload on homecare to support vulnerable service users - many of whom live in villages and isolated homes.

"Our staff are working tirelessly to make 4,000 home visits today, getting to work by all means necessary to make sure that our service users are safe, warm, and have essential food, hot drinks and medication where required.

“We would like to thank the Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4x4 Response Team and British Red Cross for all their support transporting some of our critical staff where normal transport is unsafe or unavailable."