|
Dear Colleague
We know that many of you are wondering what the lifting of Government COVID restrictions means for us?
As part of our New Ways of Working programme we have carefully considered our approach to taking our first steps safely as we come out of national restrictions and for our organisation we have decided that:
We will retain existing COVID safety measures across all council services for now - where it is practical to do so.
We understand that given the range and diversity of our services a one size fits all solution may not work – and that for some services practically this may be difficult. We are asking staff in services to work with their managers to discuss and agree service specific issues and potential solutions – after all you know your service, your team(s) and your customers best. This will help you formulate the very best service specific safety measures going forward – services will be supported by Health and Safety and Public Health working in partnership with our trade union colleagues.
Corporate Management Team (CMT) have agreed this approach taking into account some key factors:
- Our duty of care for all our employees
- Our commitment to protecting our colleagues who have been working and continue to work out in our many communities
- The needs of our customers and our service users
- Taking a sensible, risk based approach
- Minimising the risk of contracting the virus for staff and residents
Our decision has been underpinned by:
- The NWOW Programme principles
- Government guidance and the national position in respect of infection/transmission rates
- Insight and guidance from the Health Protection Board.
- Staff engagement work
- Partnership working with Trade Union colleagues
CMT will continually review these arrangements and any changes will be informed by your feedback and insight from the Health Protection Board.
In the meantime if you have any comments or feedback please send these to ask.tracy@cumbria.gov.uk and look out for additional Question and Answer Sessions where you can have your say and share your thoughts with Health and Safety, Public Health and People Management.
Finally we hope that everyone will respect our decision but if you experience any personal conflict from customers or clients please share this with your line manager so we can ensure that you and your team(s) have the right support in place.
|
