Advice to our suppliers on coronavirusThe safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers is our priority. Whilst the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues, we’ll regularly update our advice to you, as one of our suppliers, based on Government and Public Health England advice.
Travel
We recommend any travel to external companies and external contacts coming into our offices be postponed unless business critical, and where possible virtual meetings are held instead.
Greeting people
Although there isn’t any confirmed health advice in relation to hand shaking at present, as an added precaution, we are recommending that our colleagues do not shake hands with people they are meeting. Please don’t be offended by this; we are making this recommendation as we believe this will help protect them and yourselves from any potential spread of coronavirus.
Events
We are reviewing events on a case by case basis and are likely to cancel any events that involve large groups of people.
Our guidance
We are following Government and Public Health England advice, and the latest information can be found here:
The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers is our priority. Whilst the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues, we’ll regularly update our advice to you, as one of our contractors, based on Government and Public Health England advice.
Our customers
It is important that we don’t alarm our customers and that we manage communications and processes by following Government advice on how to stay safe by taking steps to prevent the risk of spreading. You must contact us if you are considering different methodology to your normal practices so that we can discuss this prior to any implementation.
Appointment setting
The contact for your appointment will have been asked these two questions before the appointment was confirmed:
We will only be visiting customers who answer yes to these questions if there is an emergency, i.e. an emergency repair and we have taken advice from Public Health England before a colleague or contractor visits the property. If the situation turns out not to be an emergency the job will be rescheduled, and no one will be required to carry out the work.
At the appointment
You should reconfirm with the customer that their answers are ‘no’ to the following two questions, before entering the property.
Should the customer answer yes to one of the questions, if it is a not an emergency appointment you should let the customer know that because the appointment is not an emergency, that it will be postponed until a future time when the risk of spreading coronavirus has gone. In this case you should encourage the customer to rearrange the appointment once they are well enough.
Emergency appointments where the customer has been advised to self-isolate or there is a confirmed case of coronavirus
There are some appointments that must take place even if someone in the property has been advised to self-isolate or has been infected with the coronavirus. However, you will be advised of this beforehand. You will usually have been told the work is classed as an emergency before you attend and the customer will have been advised on what to do to protect you. In this instance you should:
Greeting people
Although there isn’t any confirmed health advice in relation to hand shaking at present, as an added precaution, we are recommending that you do not shake hands with people/customers you are meeting. Please reassure customers not to be offended by this; we are making this recommendation as we believe this will help protect them and yourselves from any potential spread of coronavirus.
What is the Governments guidance?
If you have symptoms of the coronavirus:
However mild the advice is that you stay at home and do not leave your house for 7 days from when your symptoms started. This action will help protect others in the community whilst you are infectious. The NHS and Government has further information about what you should do: