3 April - Daily Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bulletin

Date Published: 03 April 2020

Daily staff bulletin Friday, April 3, 2020

We are continuing to follow national guidance and all the links you may need for health advice or impact to services can be found on our website and staff microsite

National Clinical Director Jason Leitch has just issued a new video reminding everyone to stay home this weekend, unless out for essential reasons.

During the #coronavirus outbreak, please only call 111 if your symptoms worsen or don't improve after 7 days. Find the latest guidance at https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus


Working safely: changes in use of PPE guidance

The Scottish Government, in line with changes made by Public Health England, has issued an update to guidance on the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) You can read the full guidance on the Health Protection Scotland website: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/a-to-z-of-topics/wuhan-novel-coronavirus

As your employer, we will do all we can to ensure you can carry out your duties safely, taking steps to redesign the way jobs are done to protect you, providing guidance on how we expect you to carry out your duties safely, and taking responsibility for our own individual actions to protect ourselves and others.

The most effective means of doing this continues to be regular and thorough hand washing, cleaning equipment and surfaces, and avoiding, where possible, coming into close contact with other people.

However, some services require staff to come into close contact with people, and in these circumstances, services' will undertake risk assessments to cover different job roles.


Specific advice for staff in the Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership

The newly updated national guidance has meant that there are a number of changes which particularly impact on our services.

The new guidance means that all of our teams must now wear PPE when working with anyone who is in the Shielded or self-isolating category as well as those who are symptomatic or who have a diagnosis of COVID-19.

Please refer to table 2 in this link for what PPE you should wear and when: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control

Requesting/ordering PPE for all AHSCP services 

All PPE orders for all AHSCP services (Care at Home, Community Hospitals, AHPs etc.) and commissioned services are being collated through the Joint Equipment Centre (JEC). To place an order a Manager or Senior Charge Nurse (SCN) must complete a PPE order form which has been sent to them. Once complete the form should be emailed to covid.ppe@aberdeenshire.gov.uk From there, the JEC will order the required PPE and will take delivery of PPE stock which will then be distributed to one of nine local hubs. The Manager or SCN who placed the order will be notified and asked to arrange collection from the nearest hub.

Local Distribution Hubs:

Peterhead Community Hospital

Fraserburgh Community Hospital

Chalmers Hospital, Banff

The Bothy at Ythanvale Care Home, Ellon

Turriff Community Hospital

Jubilee Hospital, Huntly

Inverurie Community Hospital

Glen O Dee Hospital, Banchory

Kincardine Community Hospital, Stonehaven


Specific advice for Roads, Landscape and Waste Services

RL&W Service has reviewed the guidance issued by the Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland.

Across our service a review of risk assessments and safe systems of work has been carried out to ensure we adhere to the relevant guidance.

Adequate PPE supplies, appropriate for the task at hand, have been procured and distributed to those that require it.

Social distancing can be harder to achieve where close contact or working in close proximity with other staff members is unavoidable. Appropriate measures have been taken to mitigate any potential risks and staff are reminded to follow good hand and respiratory hygiene.


Specific advice for Housing

The housing service is providing essential services only at the moment, including emergency response and work to turn around empty properties for those who are presenting as homeless and others who urgently require accommodation.

Where staff need to work in a property, please maintain social distancing at all times, use the hygiene products provided and raise any concerns immediately.

Teams should not respond to any non-urgent requests at this time and should not enter a property if anybody inside is self-isolating or displaying symptoms of coronavirus.


Ordering PPE (all other services)

It is important services manage demand for PPE and allow at least one week for new orders to arrive, after carefully considering service requirements based on the above risk assessments.

If you have a source for the supply of this equipment, you can continue to order through iProc and there is no need to contact the procurement team directly. Please only get in touch via euan.aitken@aberdeenshire.gov.uk if you are struggling to source the items you need and please be ready to raise a purchase order.

The team is continuing to work around the clock on behalf of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Highland councils to identify new suppliers so if you know of any organisations who could lend a hand, please also get in touch.


Message from the Scottish Qualification Agency

SQA has just published a message for schools and colleges regarding the arrangements for quality assurance and the certification of National Courses and Awards this year. Details are available via the link - https://bit.ly/3dQtADa

We have also published a FAQ that aims to provide learners, parents, and carers with answers to some common questions about how we will deliver a fair, safe and secure set of results over the coming months. It will be updated regularly, and again can be found via this link - https://bit.ly/2UD5Laq


Extended opening hours for our childcare hubs

The 17 childcare hubs set up in primary schools across Aberdeenshire are to operate extended opening hours from Monday (6 April) in order to offer a more flexible provision to key workers. 

Hub opening hours from 6th April and throughout the Easter Break:

07.30 to 18.45 Monday to Friday (5 days per week)

Hub opening hours from 20th April:

07.30 to 18.45 Monday to Sunday (7 days per week)

Those accessing hubs are asked to discuss requirements with hub staff. You may also be asked to complete an online schedule of your childcare requirements to allow us to track demand and continue to review these opening hours. 

At present, we are continuing to focus this provision on prioritising places to Category 1 key workers but may be able to place others with our partner providers. If you have already completed our request for childcare form, a member of staff will be in touch. If not, and you would like to, email earlyyears@aberdeenshire.gov.uk 

View Scottish Government guidance on critical childcare and learning provision for key workers.


MOD call for Volunteers

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is calling on volunteers of armed forces reservists or veterans to provide support in the response to Coronavirus (Covid-19).

Medics, combat medics, logisticians (drivers and planning), liaison and planning officers and engineers are being called up in the first instance.

This is not a compulsory call up so it is expected that where such people are identified as key workers they will remain in their usual roles at the council.

Jim Savege, Chief Executive, said: "The response by colleagues across the council to Coronavirus (Covid-19) over the last few weeks has been fab. I am really pleased with the links we have made with the armed forces community over the last year or so. By working together, we can continue to provide residents and businesses in Aberdeenshire with an effective coordinated response to this global pandemic.

"Many armed forces personnel and veterans have obtained invaluable experience during their service which will be really useful now in the fight against Coronavirus. I would ask all colleagues who are armed forces reservists to let Glenda Gray, HR Team Leader know as soon as they can by emailing Glenda.Gray@aberdeenshire.gov.uk ."

The council currently holds the MOD Armed Forces Employee Recognition Scheme Gold Award, which means we will support reservists who are council employees called up to serve and can be released, where they are not identified by the council as a key worker.

If you are a veteran, there is a possibility that you may be called up if you have left the armed forces within the last three years. It would be useful for the council to have records of employees who this applies to. Please let Glenda Gray, HR Team Leader, know if you meet this criteria by emailing Glenda.Gray@aberdeenshire.gov.uk. She is happy to answer any questions you may have.


Recruitment Support

Recruitment continues, with priority given to key worker roles and revised processes are in place to ensure pre-employment checks are carried out whilst allowing for rapid deployment.

Guidance for Managers who wish to recruit at this time is available here http://jobs.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/recruitment-guidance-covid-pandemic/.  This includes additional guidance for interviewing remotely. To discuss any options and for additional guidance or advice, please do contact the Resourcing Team on recruitmentadvice@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or your HR Assistant working on your vacancy.


Supply Teachers and Relief Staff

Our supply teachers and relief staff working across all council services are valued members of our workforce and we are working at a national level with other councils to ensure this group of staff receive the appropriate level of financial support during these unprecedented times. 

We are working towards a pay agreement for this group which would see an average payment over the next 3 months based on the average hours worked over the last 12 weeks.  Further detail on this will be provided in due course. 


Information for North East Scotland Pension Fund Members (NESPF)

The Local Government Pension Scheme have produced an FAQ document for active members of the LGPS.  The document has been made available on our website www.nespf.org.uk.  The guide provides useful information for employees but also provides some clues for employers as to how pension contributions are to be deducted from payroll.


​​​Grampian Assistance Hub update

In the 4 days since the launch of the Grampian Assistance Hub the team have already been able to match over 600 people who have asked for help with people or groups in their community, who have offered their time and help. Things that people have requested help with range from picking up and delivering shopping and medicines through walking pets to having someone to chat to, to help with feelings of isolation.

With the Red Cross and Local Authorities working together to ensure the safety of both the people asking for, and offering help, this is the best way we have of providing much needed support and help to everyone.

So far over 1,200 individuals, 475 Community Groups and 30 businesses have all offered help and support to people across Grampian. Anyone can ask for help and support, even if it is on behalf of someone else, and with so many offers of assistance we would urge people to get in touch either on the phone or through the website  www.GCAH.org.uk or call freephone 0808 196 3384 (8am-8pm 7 days a week). 

If you look after social media feeds for any council service, or want to share to your own accounts, please search #grampianassistancehub and share the content from partners to spread the word.

Bulletins

From next week, we will be producing staff bulletins three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Special bulletins will be issued if there are any items of news that need to be shared more urgently.  Remember, all the bulletins we have sent so far are archived on our microsite so you can read previous ones at any time.