The UK’s COVID-19 alert level was raised from 3 to 4 to reflect the significant increase in infection rates and additional measures are now in place in the UK.

Chief People Officer Neil Wooding has reflected on the latest restrictions, focusing on what this means for how we work over the coming months and the expectations for our people. His update includes information on supporting colleagues, following guidelines and home working.

Actions:

• Flag Neil's blog to your teams.
• Share our wellbeing resources with your teams and encourage line managers to have active conversations on wellbeing with their staff.
• Remind yourself and your teams of the guide for when you will need to isolate and how you can order a test.
• Continue to refer to the Coronavirus guidance on the intranet.

The NHS COVID-19 app is available to download in England and Wales.

It will alert people at risk of coronavirus, asking them to isolate before they potentially pass the virus on to others.

Businesses will be asked to display official NHS QR Code in all venues – this will make it easier for customers with the app to check-in and allow NHS Test and Trace to alert users in the event of a coronavirus outbreak.

Features of the app include risk alerts by postcode, a symptom checker and test booking. Watch the video for more detail on the app.

Please continue to refer to our COVID-19 rolling news feed for further updates.

Action:

• Encourage your teams to download the new NHS COVID-19 app.

MoJ are marking National Inclusion Week (NIW) between 28 September and 2 October. NIW is an annual opportunity to raise awareness of inclusion in the workplace, and aiming to create a sense of belonging for all of us. Events this year will share an unprecedented range of staff stories, with colleagues reaching out to connect and inspire each other to make inclusion an everyday reality. All of the events are fully virtual, so we encourage everyone to get involved.

Black History Month also starts this Thursday and you can help celebrate the diverse contributions of black communities in the UK through our schedule of virtual events.

Actions:

• Encourage your team to sign up for some NIW events.
• If you would like to read the full briefing, contact the Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing team.

As part of our Healthy Environment campaign this autumn, Aatikha Pandor has shared her advice for coping with change positively and shares advice on how we can implement this in our teams.

With the new restrictions in place, this couldn’t be more important to make sure we’re supporting the diverse range of needs in our teams as we all experience more change and react to it differently. So do give it a read and share with your team members.

Chief Financial Officer James McEwen and Director General of Policy, Communications and Analysis Group James Bowler have explained MoJ’s Spending Review bid and thank all those involved. The bid sets out the money we believe we need over the next few years to successfully run the department and to deliver the Government’s priorities for the justice system.

Action:

• Share the blog with your teams.

We want to hear from you about how much you know about devolution in our survey - whether you’re an expert or a complete novice!  All responses will help us get a better picture of how you as a civil servant in either the devolved administrations or UK Government are interacting on these issues. This will be of real value to help improve the campaign going forwards and ensure that we all know how to work in a devolved and intergovernmental context and build strong partnerships with counterparts across administrations.

Actions:

• Fill in the survey and encourage your teams to do so by 2 October, it will only take ten minutes of your time.
• If you have any questions, or you would like to learn more about devolution. please devolutionteaminbo@justice.gov.uk or devolution@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.