Coronavirus Statement – March 2020

Background

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continues to spread across the UK and the rest of the world. Link CCTV is monitoring advice from the Government and Public Health England, and are taking appropriate recommended action to protect our employees and ensure continuity of service to our clients.

Advice to our Employees

All staff have received a Coronavirus Toolbox Talk with advice on taking necessary precautions, how the virus can spread and what to do if they think they may have the virus. The focus is on:
• Hand hygiene;
• Symptoms of the virus;
• How to contact the NHS safely;
• Self-isolate if contact with the virus is suspected.

All staff have been issued with our policy on the arrangements to be implemented in the event of a highly contagious disease and how they can work from home.

In-house Precautions

Alcohol based hand sanitizer gel has been provided at the reception desk and in our office. Staff and visitors are required to use the gel on entering the building and office. Sanitizing wipes have been provided for hard surfaces for use on key boards, phones, headsets, and cleaners are required to wipe down door handles, light switches, etc.. Additional advice has been provided on how to reduce contamination in public places

Anyone taken ill at work will be sent home to self-isolate, if they are safe to drive. A room has been provided as an emergency isolation room if medical attention is required.

Travel

Staff will be required to take the recommended precautions when travelling within the UK and, where possible, staff are encouraged to arrange conference calls and online meetings via MS Teams or Skype to reduce the need to travel. Staff are strongly advised not to travel to any ‘at risk’ countries for vacation or holiday purposes. Any staff returning to work having travelled to a high risk area will be required to self-isolate and work from home for up to 14 days.

Business Continuity Planning

Our aim is to ensure continuity of service to our clients in the event of the virus affecting staff at Link CCTV.
Link CCTV has ISO9001 certification, and has developed a robust Business Continuity Plan which is monitored and reviewed regularly and can be implemented at short notice.

Field-based technicians work remotely within their own geographic catchments. This means that if the technician dedicated for your site should become unavailable, then his activities will be covered by the technician who covers a neighbouring ‘patch’.

The support team based at our offices here in Stevenage have the opportunity to work from home (currently 30% of our office staff are already working from home) and a contingency is already in place to increase this to 90% should the UK Government escalate the Delay stage to Mitigate.

Due to the nature of the rapidly changing situation, government guidance is being regularly monitored and arrangements will be adjusted accordingly.

Client Expectation

We here at Link CCTV are mindful of the need for all businesses to document a strategy for dealing with COVID-19. In accordance with this understanding we would request that Link CCTV is incorporated within your in-house containment policy and would welcome a documented version for our own records.

Supply chain

We are continuously monitoring our suppliers, and checking lead times of equipment, to ensure that we can update our clients in the event of longer supply times due to manufacturing delays.

Monitoring

News reports continue to be monitored on a daily basis and we will provide updates to staff and clients as the situation changes.