Everyone in Thurrock who is attending a workplace should get a free COVID-19 test as soon as possible even if they do not have any symptoms. This includes everyone whose current place of work is a council building or out in the local community such as staff who work outdoors or need to visit people’s homes as part of their job. Staff who are working from home are not part of this group as their current workplace is their home.
It is important that everyone who is working outside of their own home gets this test even if they do not have any of the symptoms of COVID-19 as 1 in 3 people with the virus do not display any symptoms and could be spreading it without realising. These tests are only for those who are working outside of their home, not for their families or homeworkers.
Three new pick up locations for tests for those without symptoms are operating at East Tilbury library, Chadwell library and Belhus library in the South Ockendon Centre. You do not need to make an appointment for these sites, you can pick up your test, bring it home to do, then drop it back off again. These locations will be open from 8am to 7pm on weekdays and 9am to 4pm at weekends.
The libraries will only be open for this purpose and no library services will be available, including returning books or using computers.
You can also book an appointment at a drive through test centre online. You will be asked a series of questions before you can book, details of how to do this are at www.thurrock.gov.uk/coronavirus-test. If you do not live in Thurrock, you can either get a test from one of the libraries listed above or through testing in your local area – please check the council website where you live for that information.
If you receive a positive test result, you and your household should immediately self-isolate. Self-isolation and other absences must be logged on Oracle Cloud, full guidance is available on the intranet.
|
Working from home
Staffing levels in the Civic Offices remain on average at about 60 per day at this time for those unable to work from home. Please continue to work from home – you may only visit the Civic Offices with permission from your manager.
Council staff with school aged children
If you have school aged children, the Government guidance is that children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents should keep their children at home if they can. Vulnerable children should attend school.
Council staff are critical workers and able to access the schooling provision for their child if this is the only option for their family that enables them to continue to work.
If you have children at home with you and are home-schooling, please discuss your circumstances with your line manager as soon as possible. This will enable suitable support arrangements to be considered - this may be a combination of an adjustment to working pattern, annual leave, unpaid leave or other arrangements depending on the circumstances of each case and the needs of the service.
Mailroom – reduced staff levels
Staff levels at the mailroom are currently reduced, meaning that print and mail jobs may take additional time to be completed.
If you could please provide the service with as much notice as possible for any mail shots, mail merges and any large print jobs this will greatly help the team to organise and prepare accordingly.
If you need to go into the Civic Offices to use printers as part of your job and existing arrangements for your service, for example printing notes from a visit to a resident, please use those on the ground floor rather than travelling through the building to use those on other floors.
 We are proud to announce the full list of nominees for the Staff Awards 2020. Congratulations to everyone who has been nominated and thank you to our colleagues who took the time to recognise their work. We received a total of 215 nominations across our ten award categories, which included recognising the fantastic work and achievements of colleagues throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.
All nominations are now with a group of colleagues across our services to privately mark each nomination against a scoring criteria and ultimately decide our winners. We will announce our shortlisted colleagues at the end of January ahead of our virtual week of celebrations taking place from Monday 22 February. Although we are unable to come together in the usual way this year preparations are underway to make the event as special and exciting as possible. Keep an eye out for more details coming soon.
On Monday 18 January a new corporate payment system will go live that will provide residents with an improved system for managing their online payments to the council. This will be used for a number of online payments the council manages including council tax payments, business rates, parking penalty charge notices and more.
The launch of the new system is the culmination of 9 months of collaboration between IT and many services across the council, and forms part of the long term digital future for the organisation. The new highly secure, easy to use payment system will provide an improved user experience for our residents. Thank you to the many teams involved for their hard work in delivering this piece of work.
|
