Pictured: Chief Registrar, Fiona Mitchell (centre), with members of the Registration Team outside their offices in Burgh Buildings.

Nearly 15 months have passed since the country first went into lockdown. During that time, teams right across the council have adapted to ensure essential services continue.

That hasn't been easy on anyone, but teamwork, camaraderie and doing the right thing has propelled everyone forward.

For the Registration Service, the team has had to change how it works multiple times to ensure ever changing legislation and guidance is adhered to.

Weddings were initially cancelled and birth registrations put on hold - the focus had to be on helping bereaved families quickly and easily register the death of loved ones.

Now, as restrictions ease, the team can once again perform wedding ceremonies and citizenship ceremonies can now be held online.

With normality starting to return, we talk to Chief Registrar, Fiona Mitchell, about the impact the pandemic has had on her team of six-full time members and 11 casual staff.

What services do the team provide? Statutory registrations for births, still-births, deaths, civil partnerships, and marriages. We also perform civil marriages and partnerships and conduct life event ceremonies such as baby naming and citizenship ceremonies.

How was your team impacted by the initial lockdown? When the first lockdown came into effect, we were advised by the Registrar General for Scotland that deaths and still-births had to be registered remotely. All other registrations and ceremonies were put on hold, and our offices closed to the public.

We had to inform customers who had appointments booked that they couldn’t register births or marriages nor come to the office to register a death and, until there was a remote solution put in place, there was a real fear we’d face a backlog of funerals. Thankfully for the families that didn’t transpire.

There was a huge amount of pressure on the team – dealing with anxious parents, worried couples, and bereaved families.

What measures did you put in place to ensure the services you could provide continued? Due to the security of paperwork we were unable to complete registrations nor produce certificates from home, so homeworking wasn’t an option for the whole team. Because of this, we decided early on to segregate the team between two locations to reduce the risk of the team becoming ill or having to self-isolate at the same time.

For four months we moved to a seven-day operation to allow for reporting of daily figures to the Scottish Government. This was supported by more flexible work patterns during the week to ensure the team stayed resilient at a time of real pressure and difficult workload.

Two employees from Governance were also redeployed to help with death registrations during the peak. Stuart Irwin and Lindsay Fyfe both fitted into the team well and were a real asset.

There’s been a lot of flux around marriage ceremonies – what has that meant for the team? We took no bookings and issued no marriage schedules for ceremonies to take place except during exceptional circumstances such as terminal illness. These were conducted at the hospital and at the office.

For a short time, we could only conduct marriages outside which we did in the grounds of Municipal Buildings. The grounds were spruced up by council gardeners and that made a huge difference.

At the turn of the year, five people could attend a service, then 50, and now 100. That means we can now use our marriage room inside, but can only take eight guests plus registrar due to physical distancing.

Because the rules have changed so much during the pandemic, some couples have had to re-arrange their ceremonies up to four times.

What has been the hardest thing for the team to deal with during the crisis? Dealing with the large volume of deaths at the peak of the pandemic was tough. Hearing the figures on the news is very different from dealing with bereaved families.

Losing a loved one during normal times is hard, but with all the restrictions in place it must have been very difficult. That is why we tried to make our part of the process as seamless as we could so there was no added stress on families.

What has been a high for the team? How our team has coped with the demands and heavy workload over the 15 months. We are a very close team that has remained adaptable and resilient throughout, maintaining camaraderie and positivity through difficult times. We’ve embraced working in new ways and now use Teams to communicate and collaborate.

How has online registrations helped the team? We’d started to investigate using digital options before the pandemic through a couple of service design sessions but, like many services, the change happened a lot quicker than it would normally have had.

Using digital options has given the team time to prioritise their workload effectively, as customers don’t expect the same immediate response as they would when working face-to-face. We have also found customers are more proactive and accept the need to self-serve, finding information on our webpages rather than picking up the phone to ask for help.