As lockdown restrictions gradually ease, it’s really exciting to be able to share our plans for restarting tea parties.

The past year has been incredibly tough for many tea party guests. Most are in their 80s and 90s and live alone.

Fortunately, ever since these monthly events were put on hold last March, their volunteers have kept in touch with them with regular phone calls.

Still, our guests tell us they can’t wait to meet each other again in person. And who can blame them? They love their tea parties. These Sunday get-togethers are the only chance most of them will ever have to get dressed up and socialise with others.

As one 90-year-old woman put it recently, ‘Going to my first tea party was the best thing I ever did.’

Proceeding cautiously

We’d love to get going again as soon as we can but, of course, there are still a lot of unknowns about the pandemic and we must proceed with caution.  

Having gleaned invaluable feedback from a number of our tea party coordinators recently, it’s clear a big concern for all of us is the safety and protection of everyone involved.

With this in mind, there are two important stages in our journey back to the tea table:

The first one is making sure our groups continue to adhere to Government guidelines.

As we all know by now, the restrictions for England, Scotland and Wales may have different rules at different times over the coming months, so it’s crucial each group follows the rules closely where they live.

And, secondly, there is some important housekeeping we need to take care of before the tea parties can get going again. We are currently in touch with our volunteers about this. (If you're a tea party volunteer, please do look out for our emails.)

After we’ve completed this process – and, crucially, once the governments deem it safe – the groups will be free to meet again.

In reality, we know that, while some groups will be champing at the bit to get up and running as soon as they’re allowed, others may need a little more time. After all, life has changed drastically for many people in the past year.

However long it takes, one thing’s for sure: their reunions will be wonderful.

And we can’t wait.

We'll post another update next month.