In light of the unprecedented communication from Government on Monday I’m setting out our understanding and updating key guidance to you. This is an extremely fast-moving situation and we will endeavour to keep you updated as quickly and fully as we can as we work through the impact of any new guidance.
The Government’s announcement covering social distancing, protection of vulnerable adults and what to do if someone in a household is experiencing coronavirus like symptoms will have a significant impact on how we all carry out our daily lives over the coming weeks and months.
What the new guidance means for us
Whilst I welcome the Government’s advice, it was slightly ambiguous in that it was advisory in tone rather than obligatory, and there was a lack of clear criteria and definitions (e.g. what constitutes a ‘gathering’). This will no doubt feel contradictory and confusing to many.
That said, we do need to apply this guidance as best we can to protect you and maintain services where possible. Given that we deliver a diverse range of services this will mean different things in different business units and corporate services. We have been working with management teams across the business to understand what any changes to our approach will mean in practice.
Protecting Your Health
This is our first priority.
- If you are able to work remotely please do so, making full use of the technology available to you. You should not come into the office.
- Please check if you fall into one of the vulnerable groups listed by the Government, if you do then you should not undertake any work-related activity that will bring you into physical contact with another person. You should let your line manager know if you are impacted by this latest guidance. We would advise you to follow the Government’s advice in full. We recognise that this advice may be unsettling for those affected and I want to reassure you that we will fully support you during this time. We will be in direct contact with those affected with further advice.
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if you live with others and you are the first in the household to have symptoms of coronavirus, then you must stay at home for 7 days, but all other household members who remain well must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days.
- If you fall into one of the above categories and you can make full use of agile working to continue working at home virtually, please do. If you are sick, please let your line manager know who will record this on unit 4 in the usual way.
Delivering Services
The Governments’ advice means that our current approach to delivering services as near to business as usual is no longer viable – colleagues will be unavailable, and clients will be unavailable or unwilling to be in close contact with other people, or travel.
While this clearly presents challenges we have a range of activity that we can continue, especially via telephone, email and video-conferencing, and we will be implementing the following changes with immediate effect:
- Suspending delivery that involves groups of more than 20. We will continually review this approach and advise immediately of any changes. - Where client group sizes (such as classes and workshops etc.) have traditionally been greater than this they will be reduced in size accordingly.
- Individual one-to-one meetings can continue where you and your client fall outside the categories outlined above (vulnerable and self-isolating), however we would still recommend that these move to a virtual setting where possible.
We will also, in line with many other businesses, have to review and adjust our approach to business and how we support clients as we secure our future.
We have accelerated our plans around digital delivery and we are proactively exploring alternative methods of delivery from webinars and interactive Q&As to virtual open days. In addition, we are engaging with commissioners on future contract flexibilities and to address practical issues such as digital signatures.
In the meantime, I would urge you to share any creative ideas you might have around how we might best use the technology available to us to continue to support our clients, learners and partners at this time.
Internal communications
We will shortly be providing you with details of a coronavirus (Covid-19) hub for staff which will include the latest updates, FAQs and resources e.g. practical support if you are remote working. Meanwhile, you might find the following information helpful.
I appreciate many of you may be feeling anxious at this time and I’d like to reinforce the importance of looking after your mental health and wellbeing, as well as physical wellbeing over this period.
We will continue to communicate frequently by email at Group level, through regular calls with all People Managers at business unit level, and via the ECC.
Finally, we’d appreciate it if you could complete this short survey (no more than 5 minutes) to provide your feedback regarding the information and support you have been receiving.