Leading careers advice service Inspira has closed its centres to the public to help the country contain Covid-19.

But it will continue to help people with its online services and phone appointments.

People who had existing physical appointments will be contacted by Inspira staff.

Mark Bowman, chief executive of Inspira, said: “Here at Inspira we provide crucial services to help unemployed people and vulnerable adults and young people get back into work, education or training.

“However, these unprecedented events mean we all need to play our part in helping to contain the virus and to keep everyone safe.

“As a charity, we will continue to help adults and young people through online and phone appointments.

“I also really encourage people to follow us on social media like Twitter and Facebook as we will be publishing further information on different ways we can help people who are unemployed or sadly lost their job, over the coming weeks.”

Inspira implemented a digital first strategy late last year in a bold move to ensure the charity continues to be relevant in the changing world.

Mark added: “I am pleased we had the infrastructure and foundations in place.

“It has meant we have been able to quickly roll out home-working and ensures our clients can contact us wherever they might be and wherever we are.”

Inspira delivers a number of careers advice services and pre-employment programmes across Cumbria and Lancashire.

It has centres in Workington, Whitehaven, Penrith and Barrow.