If you are required to carry out essential repairs in peoples home, you can continue to work providing that you are well and have no symptoms. You should contact all clients in advance of your arrival to notify them that you will be visiting.

You should do the following:

• On entry to the home you should wash your hands using soap and water for 20 seconds.
• You should wash your hands regularly, particularly after blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing, and when leaving the property.
• Where facilities to wash hands are not available, hand sanitiser should be used, and you should carry this with you at all times.
• You should maintain a safe distance (at least 2 metres) from any household occupants at all times, and ensure good ventilation in the area where you are working, including opening the window.
• No work should be carried out in any household which is isolating or where an individual is being shielded, unless your work is to remedy a direct risk to the safety of the household, such as emergency plumbing or repair.
• No work should be carried out by a tradesperson who has coronavirus symptoms, however mild.

The Government state that construction work plays an important role in ensuring public safety and the provision of public services. It can continue if done in accordance with the social distancing guidelines wherever possible.

• Where it is not possible to follow the social distancing guidelines in full in relation to a particular activity, it should be considered whether that activity needs to continue for the site to continue to operate, and, if so, all mitigating actions possible should be taken to reduce the risk of transmission. If it is decided that the work should go ahead, staff should be advised to:
  • wash their hands frequently using soap and water for 20 seconds, and especially after blowing their nose, sneezing or coughing, on arrival at work, before and after eating, after using public transport, and when they arrive home.
  • use hand sanitiser where facilities to wash hands are not available
  •  keep 2 metres apart as much as possible.
• Work should be planned to minimise contact between workers and avoid skin-to-skin and face-to-face contact. Where face-to-face contact is essential, this should be kept to 15 minutes or less wherever possible.
• As much as possible, groups of workers should work together in teams that are as small as possible (cohorting). For example, keeping vehicle crews working together, rather than mixing crew members on different shifts.
• Staff should be able to wash their hands each time before getting into enclosed machinery (such as diggers) with others, and wash their hands every time they get out. To help with this, additional pop-up handwashing stations or facilities, providing soap, water and/or hand sanitiser should be considered.
• Employees should keep the windows of enclosed machinery or enclosed spaces open for ventilation and be careful to avoid touching their face at all times. The inside of cabs should be regularly cleaned, particularly between use by different operators.
• Stairs should be used in preference to lifts or hoists. Where lifts or hoists must be used, their capacity should be lowered to reduce congestion and contact at all times, and touchpoints should be regularly cleaned, such as doors and buttons.
• Colleagues should be reminded daily to only come into work if they are well and no one in their household is self-isolating.

• Stopping all non-essential visitors to the workplace
• Introducing staggered start and finish times to reduce congestion and contact at all times
• Monitoring entrances and exits to enable social distancing–they may need to change the number of access points, either increase to reduce congestion or decrease to enable monitoring
• Removing or disabling entry systems that require skin contact e.g. fingerprint scanners or keypad entry systems
• Allow at least two metres between people waiting to enter the building
• Regularly cleaning surfaces in common areas such as reception, office and delivery areas e.g. doors, scanners, turnstiles, screens, telephone handsets, desks etc. particularly during peak flow times
• Reducing the number of people in attendance at workplace meetings and consider holding them outdoors wherever possible
• Drivers should remain in their vehicles if the load will allow it and must wash or clean their hands before and after loading or unloading goods and materials.

• Providing additional hand washing facilities to the usual welfare facilities
• Ensuring soap and fresh water is readily available and kept topped up at all times
• Providing hand sanitiser where hand washing facilities are unavailable
• Regularly cleaning the hand washing facilities and checking soap and sanitiser levels
• Providing suitable and sufficient rubbish bins for hand towels with regular removal and disposal.

• Workplaces will need extra supplies of soap, hand sanitiser and paper towels, and these should be securely stored.

• Restricting the number of people using toilet facilities at any one time
• Wash hands before and after using the facilities
• Enhance the cleaning regimes for toilet facilities particularly door handles, locks and the toilet flush
• Providing suitable and sufficient rubbish bins for hand towels with regular removal and disposal.

With cafés and restaurants having been closed across the UK, canteens cannot operate as normal. Whilst there is a requirement for workplaces to provide a means of heating food and making hot drinks, these are exceptional circumstances and where it is not possible to introduce a means of keeping equipment clean between use, kettles, microwaves etc. must be removed from use. The workers should also be required to stay on site once they have entered it and not use local shops.

• Dedicated eating areas should be identified on site to reduce food waste and contamination
• Break times should be staggered to reduce congestion and contact at all times
• Hand cleaning facilities or hand sanitiser should be available at the entrance of any room where people eat and should be used by workers when entering and leaving the area
• The workforce should be asked to bring pre-prepared meals and refillable drinking bottles from home
• Workers should sit 2 metres apart from each other whilst eating and avoid all contact
• Where catering is provided on site, it should provide pre-prepared and wrapped food only
  • Payments should be taken by contactless card wherever possible
  • Communal crockery, eating utensils, cups etc. should not be used
• Drinking water should be provided with enhanced cleaning measures of the tap mechanism introduced
• Tables should be cleaned between each use
• All rubbish should be put straight in the bin and not left for someone else to clear up
• All areas used for eating must be thoroughly cleaned at the end of each break and shift, including chairs, door handles, vending machines and payment devices.

• There will be situations where it is not possible or safe for workers to distance themselves from each other by two metres.

  General Principles:

• Non-essential physical work that requires close contact between workers should not be carried out
• Work requiring skin to skin contact should not be carried out
• Plan all other work to minimise contact between workers
• Re-usable PPE must be thoroughly cleaned after use and not shared between workers
• Single use PPE should be disposed of so that it cannot be reused
• Stairs should be used in preference to lifts or hoists
• Where lifts or hoists must be used:
  • Lower their capacity to reduce congestion and contact at all times
  • Regularly clean touchpoints, doors, buttons etc.
• Increase ventilation in enclosed spaces, particularly in shared vehicle cabs.
• Regularly clean the inside of vehicle cabs and between use by different operators

• Only absolutely necessary meeting participants should attend
• Attendees should be two metres apart from each other
• Rooms should be well ventilated / windows opened to allow fresh air circulation
• Consider holding meetings in open areas where possible.

• Enhanced cleaning procedures should be in place across the site, particularly in communal areas and at touch points including:

• Taps and washing facilities
• Toilet flush and seats
• Door handles and push plates
• Hand rails on staircases and corridors
• Machinery and equipment controls
• Food preparation and eating surfaces
• Telephone equipment
• Keyboards, photocopiers and other office equipment
• Lift and hoist controls

• Rubbish collection and storage points should be increased and emptied regularly throughout the day and at the end of each day.