Ed Chamberlin talks to Racing Welfare Chief Executive Dawn Goodfellow

Thank you or speaking to me at such a difficult time for everyone. People know Racing Welfare for supporting the sport’s workforce – but tell me who does that include?

It’s anyone within the racing family. Our sister charity, the Injured Jockeys’ Fund, support anyone who has held a licence as a jockey, and we basically look after everyone else. Stable staff, stud staff, people working on the administrative side, people who work in auxiliary industries such as farriers and vets as long as the major part of their work is in racing. There are people like photographers too, many of whom are sole traders. This is a very difficult time for them.

That’s a huge number of people. How do you do that with your centres and how many people do you employ?

We have 48 staff altogether, 28 work on the welfare staff and the others support them and help with fund raising etc. We have offices in Middleham, Malton, Lambourn and Newmarket and then we have welfare officers who work from home on a roving basis across the country. Our regions are literally north, south, east and west. Our officer in the south west, for example, works from home because there’s no actual hub of racing down there.

We also provide racing support line which is a 24-hour helpline available through telephone and digital platforms. You can contact us 24/7 by phone, email, live chat on the internet or text. We’re able to provide support for a whole range of life’s challenges. That’s what we’re there for.

It’s amazing how the world has changed in the last month or so – it seems an age since Simone Sear was recognised at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards

Simone is our director of welfare and has done a fantastic job. She’s been with the charity for 12 years now and when you look back those were great times, celebrating all that’s best about our sport

Sum up in what you’ve described so far, the challenge Racing Welfare faces

The number of people we support has gone up pretty dramatically in recent weeks whether that be contact through the helpline, people looking for information or those in need of help either financially through hardship grants or assistance claiming the benefits they might be entitled to.

There have been employment related questions too which we usually put onto the stable staff union which is NARS. We’re also looking after people’s physical health, homelessness has come up in the last couple of weeks too. Often in racing someone’s accommodation is tied to their job as well. The situation at the moment is also impacting on people’s mental health.

Would most calls at the moment be concerning financial help?

The top two presenting issues around COVID-19 are benefits advice and financial assistance, from young and old. This is impacting on everybody and we provide services for people right from the start of their careers through to retirement.

I’ve spoken to you before about the work you do to help the elderly and vulnerable with coffee mornings etc – what on earth do you do now to try and replace them?

We provide a lot of activities that bring the retired racing community together and we’ve had to find alternative methods of doing that. We’ve formed our staff into three teams, one of which is a community team, who are looking at different ways we can link people up at the moment. There are a lot of outbound telephone calls, checking on people who are most vulnerable, just checking they’re alright and have everything they need.

One of our teams spoke to an elderly gentleman a couple of weeks ago who had been on his own and hadn’t seen anyone and his fridge freezer had stopped working and he had no way of keeping food fresh. We were able to get one to him and installed within 24 hours which was a very, very satisfying thing to be able to do for somebody.

That must essentially be exactly what Racing Welfare is all about. So your message to anyone reading this now who is elderly or vulnerable would be get in touch?

Absolutely, either by the telephone or the internet and one of our staff will have a chat with you to check you’re okay. And the chat itself is important. Sometimes when you’re on your own and not getting out, that loneliness has a bigger impact on people’s health than some of the physical aspects.

I’ve spoken to you on ITV a number of times before about the work you do around mental health – and as you alluded to earlier I’d imagine that’s an even bigger issue right now?

Absolutely. The issue of poor mental health is a growing one in society as a whole but what we’re seeing now, with the uncertainty over when racing will start again, is that people are worried about their jobs, finances and then in some cases, their homes. Just not being able to see other people and mix as they previously could, are all having a big impact on people’s mental health.

It’s a real dilemma for everyone in racing isn’t it? People want the sport to resume but only when the country is in a position to do so.

Racing has a number of responsibilities and some of those it carries are probably contradictory to each other. As an industry trying to get back on its feet and start generating revenue for itself and the country as a whole is one thing. But we can’t do that whenever we might put pressure on the National Health Service or we might endanger people’s health. It’s having to tread a fine line, which is a challenge at the moment.

Now let’s move on to finance. A lot of the wonderful things you’ve described cost money. How big a problem is that for Racing Welfare right now and how stretched are you?

A lot of our fundraising comes from planned events and we’d usually be doing a lot of these at this time of year with the big racing festivals on. These have obviously now been cancelled and we’re estimating a loss of income of around £500,000. At a time when our services are being called upon much more than normal, our funding is actually going down.

We’ve launched an appeal because we want to be able to support all of racing’s workforce and do that in the best way possible. We are trying to raise half a million pounds to fill that gap.

With that appeal, in the current climate, is the appeal largely on social media?

You will find details on our Twitter and Facebook pages but also via our website where you can donate.

The government seemed to offer help last week – do racing charities come underneath that umbrella?

They do with reference to the job retention scheme – or furloughing as it’s become known. We’d be entitled to that support but of course we’re busier than ever and putting people on that scheme isn’t really an option for us – as it isn’t for much of racing. There are still lots of horses that need looking after for example. Whilst some of that support would apply to us, in practical terms we’re not able to draw that down.

If there’s someone reading this, part of that huge racing workforce out there, who are in need of support or a chat – what do they need to do?

Contact us on the support line which you can access via the Racing Welfare website – there’s also an awful lot of information on that number which will give you advice on benefits and other things that might help people too. In the first instance visit www.racingwelfare.co.uk

And what if someone within the industry reads this and wants to help or donate – is the website the best first port of call?

Absolutely. If they’re offering their services or donating money the website is the place to go.

Finally I’d imagine you’ve seen some crisis’s before in your time with the sport – is it fair to say there’s never been a challenge like this?

I think we looked at those pictures from Wuhan at the start of the year and it was unimaginable, people walking around in masks, deserted town centres and it’s here now. Having racing curtailed full stop was also unimaginable but that’s here now.

I could not be more proud of our team and how they’ve stepped up to this. They’re literally contacting hundreds of people each week to talk to them, check in with them and making sure they’re alright. We’re responding to contacts from people as well and everyone has been absolutely fantastic.