Members who have individual risk assessments currently in place should ask for these to be reviewed in light of the Government announcement (and the evidence available to date on the possible greater transmissible rate of the new Covid variant of concern) and for consideration to be given in these to working from home as a control measure. If members don’t have these individual risk assessments in place, and feel that they have additional vulnerabilities then you can ask for this to be completed with your line manager at the earliest opportunity. Members can request trade union support in any meetings if you require.
- The current (and likely next version of) ‘PPE and Safe Working Practices Guidance V12’ reinforces the crucial need for rotas to be in place for staff attendance at workplaces and the announcement last night only serves to underline how vital it is for these arrangements to be operative; there should be evidence of these rotas being in place that can also be referenced in General Risk Assessments (GRAs).
- This guidance also applies to Napo members working in prisons, and any Covid issues in the prison workplace need to be escalated through the SPOs on site to the senior Probation manager involved and the Probation Regional Health and Safety committee in the first instance.
- All GRAs will now need to be reviewed in light of the changes announced yesterday. If additional facility time is required by Napo representatives to fulfil extra health and safety duties or representation (for instance reviewing office/workplace GRAs or attending meetings with members to review individual risk assessments) then requests should be made to Regional Probation Directors as part of the local engagement process.
Napo members should first report any difficulties in respect of the above via your local Napo representative who will contact Napo HQ for further advice if necessary.