CCP is following the advice of the UK Government as the country responds to the coronavirus pandemic; prioritising the health and welfare of our service users and staff and continuing to deliver services as fully as possible during this time.

 

Staff welfare

Most of our staff are equipped and able to work remotely, so staff have been advised where possible to work from home, regardless of whether they are feeling unwell or suspect they may have contracted the virus.

Staff have also been advised:

  1. To conduct meetings by conference call where possible and avoid travel
  2. To self-isolate for seven days if they are exhibiting symptoms
  3. To self-isolate for fourteen days if a family member exhibits symptoms
  4. To self-isolate if they have underlying health issues or are currently pregnant

Service user welfare

Many of our service users will fall into ‘at-risk’ categories and many will have underlying health issues. We feel it is particularly important to safeguard their health and wellbeing and have taken the decision to cancel or postpone home visits and face-to-face meetings, where possible offering advice over the phone instead.

We will liaise directly with our service users to find the best way of providing our service to them with respect to their current circumstances and the nature of their response to COVID-19.

Business continuity

We anticipate that COVID-19 will have an impact on the level of services we can provide during periods of isolation or social distancing.

We have put the following measures in place to limit the impact to our service users and staff:

  • Our flexible working policy allows employees to work from home with full access to our secure IT systems, allowing us to continue as usual if government rulings close offices
  • Staff laptops and mobile phones are equipped with webcams and software to conduct conference calls in place of face-to-face meetings
  • Our homelessness prevention, advice and inclusion, and community-based services in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire will be running a limited telephone service, and other contact options such as Skype and social media are available
  • Local arrangements are in place for service users in our supported accommodation and independent living sites.
  • Our internal succession planning is robust, so where staff fall ill there is contingency to continue delivering services throughout
  • If you have any concerns about the services you’re expecting to receive, please get in touch with your usual CCP Support Worker