Planning for Coronavirus – a checklist

We have placed this checklist on Workplace so that we can get feedback from you on what else you think we should include, helping local Healthwatch to manage and prioritise Coronavirus (COVID-19) activity.

What should be our guiding principles? 

• Review and postpone any work with those who are most at risk 
• Support our staff and volunteers to keep safe 
• Do all you can to support efforts and activity in your drive against COVID-19 transmission

Reviewing our plans  

• Identify what work you need to pause to:  
  • Comply with Government guidance 
  • Protect older people and/or those with underlying health conditions   
  • Avoid putting a burden on your local NHS 
• Get agreement from key people (your commissioner, your board or local services) 
• Postpone events and enter and view visits 
• Inform your staff, stakeholders and your community what you are planning and why 
  • Think about any impact this may have on your partners 

Make sure you can work remotely 

• Make sure you have got up to date contact details for staff, volunteers and stakeholders that you can access when you are out of the office 

• Are your documents in the cloud – can you access your key documents, plans and shared calendars remotely?
• Can you divert your phones if people need to work from home? 

Keeping staff and volunteers safe 

• Promote regular hand-washing and other safety messages 
• Provide soap 
• Display NHS advice posters  
• Read the Government's guide for employers and circulate information for employees  covering issues like sick pay and working from home
• Understand if any staff or volunteers have caring responsibilities for people at higher risk and support them with this  
• Make sure staff and volunteers know how to let you know if they find they have been in contact with somebody with Covid-19 
• Review travel arrangements where necessary - can your staff work remotely? Alternatives such as Workplace by Facebook and Skype can help communication with staff during this time

Dealing with a shortage of staff 

• Have you thought about how you will manage if your staff or volunteers are ill? 
• Can you signpost to other sister Healthwatch for advice and information or encourage people to leave feedback on the Healthwatch England site?
• Do you have systems in place to make sure you can pay your staff and your bills? 

Supporting the battle against Coronavirus 

Deploying staff and volunteers 

• Can your DBS-checked staff or volunteers take on roles to support other organisations helping to get advice and information out or supporting high risk groups who have self-isolated?

Promoting correct advice and information 

• Do you have advice prominently shown on your website? Are you using all your social media, email and other networks to promote the advice? 
• Are you listening on your local social media and working with your local NHS to spot and help address public questions, myths and misconceptions? 
• Are you doing daily checks of advice from the NHS to see when this has changed?  

Being mindful of the demands on services 

• If you are planning communications or stakeholder activity about what people have told you about local services, be mindful of the ability of local services to respond to your evidence