Headway Northampton wanted to keep you updated and try to clarify our position, after the statements made by the government on Monday 14th, 20th and 22nd September. This is obviously a very difficult period due to the management of the corona virus, the keeping to the social distancing rule and the importance of the regular washing of hands. We have already made changes to the way we work in order to follow the Government, Public Health, and Social Services guidelines
We have re-opened our doors and begun to welcome clients old and new into the unit. As you probably have expected, a number of changes have been put in place to keep us in line with government guidelines. Staff have worked hard to ensure that we’ve done as much as possible to keep service users, support staff and staff of Headway Northampton as safe as possible at this very difficult time. We have had to limit the amount of people in the building at any one time to ensure all socially distanced rules are kept. Because of the government limits as to why we can and can’t offer we had to change our timetable. We are doing all we can at this difficult time and are asking that you please bear with us.
We are being asked about how the RULE OF 6 affects Headway Northampton and our attending clients. Does it mean we will have to close?
Headway Northampton is not going to close we will at the moment remain open to limited attending service users. We have sought clarification from a number of sources and it is felt that as long as we remain Covid secure following all government guidelines, continuously risk assess and update our policies where appropriate we can open for a limited number of service users ensuring that social distancing, the regular washing of hands and sanitising of equipment, toilets, door handles, and other surfaces are followed. We received an email from Headway UK Deputy Chief Executive Luke Griggs that I have taken the relevant paragraph from for you to read:
The government’s guidance on the new rules does suggests that there will be exemptions where groups larger than six people can meet. These include ‘for work, education or charitable services’ There is more information available from:
The health and wellbeing of our staff and clients remain our top priority. Everyone must play their part in order to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. At the present time our telephone lines are manned from 9.30am until 4.30pm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
