Note, handwritten by a child, offering assistance to an elderly neighbour during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, UK, 2020.

In the weeks leading up to and during the first national lockdown (March – June 2020), mutual aid groups were formed all around the UK. The offers of assistance came from both organised groups or very informally from neighbours and the local community. The first COVID-19 lockdown was the strictest in the UK and there were only a very limited number of reasons why people were allowed to leave their homes. Many people found themselves isolated and/or were finding it difficult to access things like food shopping and prescriptions. Quickly people organised locally, often very informally, to help people in their communities both emotionally and practically. These groups also gave lots of people something to do and a sense of purpose at a time when everything felt uncertain and overwhelming.

Children were also hugely affected by the pandemic and wanted to do something to help the people around them, as this note shows. In March 2020, schools closed to all but the children of essential workers and they did not reopen for most children until September 2020. Lockdown restrictions also meant that other out of school activities like sports stopped. This drastically changed children’s routines and access to their social networks. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds were disproportionately affected the pandemic.