Re-occupying buildings:
Many organisations will not be able to deliver services remotely therefore, you may have to reopen your building or use another Organisations Building.
Checklist for reoccupying buildings – (UK Wide) 23rd June 2020
Managing Risk:
Covid-19 means we can’t avoid that risk plays a big role our every day lives. It is now at the forefront of our minds and this may not be a wholly bad thing for the voluntary sector who have traditionally been risk avoidant. We can move to a place of managing and embracing risk rather than fearing and avoiding it. This can be done through robust risk assessment a big part of which is making plans equipping volunteers with the information and equipment they need to maintain their minimise risk to their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.
Bristol Council example risk assessment*
*Note in this example that volunteers considered vulnerable are not barred from volunteering, the risk is just managed.
Insurance:
Have you checked that your insurance covers volunteers in the event they contract Covid-19? Rob Jackson did a straw poll on twitter and found that 81% of the 26 respondents had not checked with their insurers.
NCVO Insurance, volunteering and coronavirus
Also if you want to engage volunteer drivers they may need to check with their insurer that they are covered to use their car for volunteering. According to the Association of British Insurers ther is no need to contact your car insurance provider if you are a volunteer helping the fight against Coronavirus – but vounteers may want to check that their volunteering falls into this.
Safeguarding:
You may be working with larger numbers of volunteers and service users, working closer with your service users or offering new services in response to new needs. This makes it even more important that volunteers and staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and your procedures for reporting as well as the measures your organisations have in place to mitigate risk (see above).
Safeguarding for volunteer managers
Safeguarding for informal volunteer-led groups
Track and Trace:
As part of managing risk you may decide to implement collect contact information from visitors to your site so that, if a volunteer or staff member becomes in you can inform NHS Test and Trace with. You can find more information here.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has put together advice for organisations and small businesses that are asked by government to collect and retain customer and visitor information, for a limited time period, for the purposes of a COVID-19 contact tracing scheme.
There is also an online tool from Time to Spare which is free to registered charites. This provides a secure way to securely keep a register of visitors to your site or activity.