By Leigh Thomas, Safety, Health and Environmental Manager at Imagile Professional Services Limited (IPSL)
The pandemic has been attributed to the COVID-19 virus which was discovered in early January this year. The virus can be traced back to the Chinese City of Wuhan, the most populous city in central China. Since January, the global speed of transmission has grown, with the first two confirmed cases of the Coronavirus identified in the UK at the end of January.
Whilst the number of cases in the UK began to surge in March of this year, around that time the number of infected also sharply rose in other countries and the virus jumped to the top of the global agenda, overwhelming worldwide news media outlets while changing everyday life for many. The pandemic has dominated political discussions and has negatively impacted the global economy, clearly for many businesses across the globe this has been very a challenging time.
Statutory Obligations
The Coronavirus is a contagious and often symptomless disease, but its impact has changed the working landscape and working practices for the foreseeable future. Individuals and businesses must now be more aware of infection control and must consider their health and safety in relation to mitigating the transmission of disease.
Our role as Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) Managers has become very important in supporting businesses to navigate their way through their day to day operational tasks, while supporting them to implement and adhere to suitable controls measures (COVID-19 Secure arrangements) for operating safely.
In line with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA 1974), the law makes it a criminal offence to breach the obligations contained within the Act and those principles have still applied through everything we’ve experienced as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The HSE published guidance in relation to statutory tasks, i.e. those tasks that companies must maintain in order to remain compliant with the law. The message from the HSE was simple: the legal obligation to ensure that workplaces and equipment is maintained and is safe to use remains in place.
Statutory inspections must still go ahead in line with HSE guidance – to be clear there has been no relief on these obligations. Thorough site examinations must take place in line with established statutory frequency, so the need to stay up to date with testing is paramount.
For our clients, the challenges of meeting their statutory obligations has run alongside the welfare, health and safety of their workforces and the wider public. We have successfully assisted organisations to implement controls that fit practically into their day to day operations. Our clients have turned to us for our expertise and assistance, and we have been proud to be involved in helping them to create safe working environments while continuing to support businesses to operate within the law. Our role is to continue to offer sound practical support that enables companies to meet their legal obligations.
A renewed focus in an ever-changing environment
Since March, when the World Health Organisation officially declared that COVID-19 was a global pandemic, there has been a national effort and a strong focus on health and safety standards driven centrally by the Government.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – the body responsible for regulating and enforcing health and safety legislation in the UK – recently received an extra £14m in funding from the UK Government, which to many highlighted the national emphasis on SHE principles currently. The funding was earmarked to provide extra call centre employees, inspectors and equipment as part of a phased re-opening plan for workplaces across the UK.
The funding was announced before the government gave workplaces the green light to re-open from August 1, if it was safe for them to do so. Other facilities such as gyms, sports courts and swimming pools were given a slightly earlier date of July 25, as outlined on the gov.uk website.
These were promising and welcome moves, but this is an ever-moving feast with the situation changing dynamically week by week. We continue to monitor the national message that ensures the work of our team and other SHE professionals remains coherent with Government advice as we currently move towards tighter restrictions through local lockdowns adopting the three-tiered approach.
Planning and communicating our next steps
IPSL has continued to manage a wide range of variations and lifecycle works for those essential PFI projects, across primarily the Healthcare and Educational sectors that remained active during the national lockdown.
One of our primary focuses following the national lockdown involved safely remobilising projects that were closed/shut down – a programme that will be rolled out through various phases that will take us towards the end of 2020. To make this possible, we have been in continuous contact with our Principal Contractors and sub-contractors, some of whom have been impacted by COVID-19 both financially and in terms resources, particularly their workforce.
The effects of social distancing measures have impacted the number of people allowed on-site, which has consequences on our delivery timeframes. All factors are carefully considered on a case by case basis and are subsequently built into our work plans. We effectively manage remobilisation while adhering to the evolving government guidelines and messages around social distancing and other associated Safe Operating Procedures (now version 6) established by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC).
Different sectors will have varied requirements in the months that lie ahead, with Schools, Hospitals, Prisons, Universities and other Public Sector buildings having to be risk assessed on a case by case basis. Our IPSL SHE team are specialists in supporting business continuity in these areas, not only in terms of the mandatory testing of safety critical assets, but also regarding remedial work and the timely repair of assets. We support our clients to ensure suitable risk assessments are regularly conducted and associated statutory and maintenance works are completed in accordance with industry specific requirements and health and safety law.
Preparing for a resurgence of COVID-19
Within Imagile Group, our team is making the necessary arrangements in preparedness to return to our offices across the UK, considering 3 key tests that must be met before reopening:
- Is it essential?
- Is it safe?
- Is it mutually agreed?
We will comply with all associated Government guidance on managing the risk of COVID-19 beforehand, having carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and shared the results with our employees; introduced cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures, we will have taken all reasonable steps to maintain a 2m distance in the workplace, and where our employees cannot be 2m apart we have taken all reasonable practical steps to manage transmission risk.
However, a resurgence of the virus is a current global threat, and the UK is experiencing tighter restrictions as we move forward. Therefore, forward planning is imperative for businesses, with any expected difficulties needing to be carefully considered and mitigated.
IPSL have experience of supporting clients during shut-down of plant, sites and unexpected events such as fires and the management of legionella outbreaks. These processes involve mapping out scenarios and working with leading industry bodies to meet the challenges and requirements.
As we navigate this intense period of change and try to maintain appropriate standards of service, businesses must take a precise and detailed response to health and safety measures. While post-COVID recovery plans should already be in place for most organisations, greater emphasis on the safety of their workforce and the associated activities needs to be a top priority.
Whatever area of SHE you look at, there are a whole range of works and services we must continue to provide in order to keep organisations operating safely and efficiently. We are in a complex and fast-moving landscape and adapting to it is a challenge we are already helping our client rise to, and we are looking forward to continuing to play a critical role for all of our clients.
In my team at Imagile Professional Services Limited (IPSL), we have been faced with many challenges, for both our own staff and those of our clients, and as with all businesses the welfare of our teams remains paramount. We have worked to adapt our policies and procedures to ensure continuity of our services, our systems are designed to keep our teams safe while we carry out our business function. Our delivery standards remain high as our teams are aligned to new business processes in light of the pandemic. Our risk mitigation and control systems have enabled our staff to carry out their work activities without compromising on their health and safety.
If you’d like to know more about the work of the IPSL SHE team and the role we play in supporting the Safety, Health and Environmental requirements of our clients, please drop an email to laura.evans@imagileps.com
