FMJ.CO.UK HEALTH & SAFETY FOCUS
KITTED OUT FOR COVID
Marta Kalas of Thomson Screening off ers useful advice on how to create
a COVID Safety Toolkit for your premises
MARCH 2021 39
Unfortunately, COVID-19 is still
with us, and will remain with
us for the medium term at least.
This means facilities managers need
to create processes and systems to
operate safely, on an ongoing basis
and avoid becoming overburdened.
One e ective approach is to create
a COVID Safety Toolkit; a package of
tools to help you keep track of the
changes and the ever-increasing
regulation and actions you need
to stay on top of the situation. For
example, Thomson Screening has
developed a toolkit* to help managers
work through what’s needed and what
action to take. It provides a checklist,
training and sample documentation.
The activities required aren’t new.
What’s di erent now, is that each
action needs a specific “COVID
flavoured” version to ensure every
one of your premises are managed
appropriately.
WHAT SHOULD A TOOLKIT
CONTAIN?
Rather than creating individual
processes and lots of standalone
documents, you bring together, all in
one place, every item you will need to
respond to COVID.
This includes:
Governance framework
Risk management including
individual and group risk
assessments
Action plans
Communications plans
Review and update plan
Let’s look at each of these:
Governance
You need to decide who is in charge:
Who has oversight of all your COVID
related activities; where does the buck
stop? Several months into COVID, this
has probably been done ages ago,
so you might as well put it into your
COVID Policy and make sure everyone
knows it.
Risk management
This is all the changes, adaptations
and new ways of working you put
in place in response to COVID, and
hopefully you shouldn’t need to
do them over again. If these are
risk assessment based and clearly
documented (a simple excel sheet
will do, the key is clarity, not length),
you can quickly check what needs
updating if there is a local or national
change in guidelines. Most of your
arrangements can probably stay as
they are, but do you know which
ones need to change and how? If your
original assessment is at hand, in an
easy-to-access document, you can
revise it very quickly.
You may need to assess
an individual
person’s risks
as well. For
example, a
member of
sta who
has recently
had COVID
will need
di erent
kinds of support
than someone
who has never had
it, or someone who lives
with an elderly relative. Our general
understanding of risks relating
to specific groups: young people,
healthcare workers, etc. is constantly
improving. You might want to finetune
your risk groups at regular
intervals. Again, this is where having a
central document will save you time.
Action plans:
This goes hand in hand with your risk
assessment changes. If there’s been
no change then no action is needed.
If there has been a specific change in
risk, then you’ll need to change the
mitigation that helps reduce that risk.
If you do this by modules or sections
for each area of your university, each
building or physical space, you will
be able to make the changes much
faster and you can also check that you
haven’t missed anything.
Communications plan
This is where COVID specific planning
pays a lot of dividends. It is worth
dedicating some time to this as it’s
the area that is likely to change most
o en. Here are the key points to
consider:
Understand your audience
Listen to them actively
Be clear about what you want to
say (and say it simply)
Use the appropriate channel(s)
Make sure your communication is
timely
You also need to use trusted
sources of information.
There is so much
conflicting,
confusing or
out of date
information
circulating,
it’s always
best to
check the
government
websites first.
Use templates
as much as possible
to save time and keep the
communications consistent. Ensure
anyone involved in any form of comms
(from PR to social media, from web
editor to marketing, from poster
designs to advertising) knows what
your university’s COVID-19 messaging
is and when and how to include it.
Review and update
You simply need to check at regular
intervals what the current regulations
are, and what you, your sta and those
working in a building you manage
are required to do. You’ll also likely
to need to have evidence that you
are carrying out your duties as an
employer.
TOOLS TO HELP YOU
These will be familiar and in COVID-19
related activities they are essential:
In electronic communications
(websites, newsletters, chats,
etc.) use links directly to the
relevant government websites
Used shared file systems (e.g.
Google Drive, One Drive or
Dropbox) for templates and
drafts
Have a log of where these
templates are kept and where
they are used, to make sure you
don’t miss one of them
It takes time to get everything
in one place, but it will pay
dividends when you suddenly
need to change something
It’s easy to get COVID-weariness and
when that happens, we sometimes
take our eye o the ball - it’s just
natural human response. However, it’s
also a reason why a Toolkit is essential.
As facilities managers, with so much
on your plate, you want to avoid extra
work. Having a toolkit means you
don’t have to repeat work, or ‘reinvent
the wheel’ or worry that everything is
up to date. This means less burden and
a significant reduction in stress.
FURTHER INFORMATION
• https://workscreener.com/covid-19-testmanager/
• https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-testand
trace-how-it-works#people-whodevelop
symptoms-of-coronavirus
• https://www.ons.gov.uk/
peoplepopulationandcommunity/
healthandsocialcare/
conditionsanddiseases/articles/
coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26
• Ethnicity and mortality rates up to 15th
May 2020 in England and Wales:
https://bit.ly/3bzRToD
• Finding your local Health Protection
Team: https://www.gov.uk/healthprotection
team
• Moderate and high-risk factors:
https://bit.ly/2ZHQkQ0
/2020-03-26
/coronavirus
/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works#people-who-develop-symptoms-of-coronavirus
/
/3bzRToD
/health-protection-team
/2ZHQkQ0
