All UK nations have now removed Covid restrictions and moved to a ‘living with Covid’ phase. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ takes the health of everyone who works with us very seriously and will continue to follow UK government public health advice and that from the devolved nations.
This page gives guidance on what are now considered reasonable steps to manage Covid in the workplace.
You should not go into the offices or workpalces if you are feeling unwell, and should avoid contact with colleagues for 5 days after the day you took your test or you started feeling unwell.
What Can Go Wrong?
- People at higher risk of serious illness from Covid could pick up the virus from colleagues or other persons when working for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ at a place of work or production location.
- A Covid outbreak at a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ workplace could have significant business continuity impact.
Legal/Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Requirements
- Covid 19 remains a public health consideration throughout the UK and is subject to public health guidance issued by the UK devolved governments.
- Public health guidance may change in response to new variants and/or case rising events within the community. There may be significant differences between advice issued by each of the devolved nations.
- The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ will follow government issued public health advice relevant to businesses and continue to take a risk based approach to managing Covid in the workplace.
Risk Based Approach
- Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ productions and business areas should continue to take a risk based approach, when considering business continuity impacts from Covid absence and whether it is sensible to take steps to minimise risk of Covid entering and spreading within the work area.
- If staff/others are likely to come into direct contact with Covid 19 at a specific location e.g. a clinical setting, viral laboratory, Covid should be considered as part of the location health and safety risk assessment.
- Special consideration should continue to be made in relation to individuals who are at higher risk of serious illness from Covid. Managers should follow the guidance below and liaise with HR where needed.
People at higher risk from Covid
Please also see ‘useful links’ and ‘docs’ at end of page
- Staff, freelancers, contributors and contractors are encouraged to inform line managers if they are at higher risk from Covid and to seek advice from their health professional as appropriate to help inform the risk assessment process.
- A one to one conversation should be held between the individual at higher risk and their team leader/Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ host to discuss concerns.
- An aide memoire is available to help with that conversation and can be found under ‘useful docs’ at the bottom of this page.
- Consider Covid as part of the individual risk assessment for New and Expectant Mothers: see A-Z for Pregnancy.
- Specific government guidance is published for people who are immunosuppressed. See useful links at the bottom of this page.
- Refer to NHS guidance for those at higher risk from Covid, which in turn links to guidance on a number of specific health conditions. See useful links at the bottom of this page.
Managing Covid cases and close contacts
- Continue to follow government advice. This is summarised .
Ventilation (Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ controlled buildings)
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ continues to monitor and manage the standard of ventilation in Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ controlled buildings.
Ventilation (non-Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ controlled locations)
- Liaise with the venue/location management to check they are managing and monitoring ventilation in line with Government and HSE Guidance.
- Where mechanical ventilation is in use, check that the system is set to pull fresh air and is not just recirculating.
- Consider monitoring carbon dioxide levels to identify poorly ventilated areas.
- If necessary, open doors and windows where possible to increase fresh air supply.
Hand hygiene
- Encourage team members to regularly wash hands with soap and water, or to use hand sanitiser where unable to wash hands.
- Provide hand washing facilities, including running water, soap and paper towels/hand dryers.
- Remind people to catch coughs and sneezes in a tissue or the crook of their arm and avoid touching their faces.
- Provide bins to facilitate easy disposal of contaminated tissues etc.
Cleaning
- Regularly clean communal areas using standard cleaning methods and materials.
- Identify and regularly clean frequently touched surfaces, eg door handles
- Where it is reasonable to do so, provide dedicated equipment to avoid sharing.
- Clean shared equipment regularly, ideally between uses.
International travel
- Research any local Covid testing and isolation requirements for country of travel and plan accordingly.
- Review airline specific requirements including for any transiting countries.
- Review Covid impacts on local health access and emergency care/medivac provisions.
- Individuals travelling to consider post Covid risk of DVT/PE – see attached further guidance under useful docs.
Health screening
- Ask staff, freelancers, contractors and contributors to stay away if they have symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as Covid-19, have a high temperature or do not feel well enough to attend work.
- Encourage those at higher risk from Covid to inform their manager or named contact.
- Consider use of testing where supported by your risk assessment, e.g. for intimate scenes for key cast, protecting critical business continuity impacts.
- Consider use of pre-arrival screening for Covid. An MS Form solution is available for this purpose at the following links. For data protection reasons there is a separate tool and link for Public Service and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Studios. See Video for guidance
Reducing contacts
- Consider limiting close contacts for team members where practicable, eg consider fixed teams and partnering.
- Consider reducing contacts between people who don’t normally meet.
- Consider the amount of available space and allow the team to maintain reasonable distance between themselves and others, so they can make their decisions about maintaining personal space.
Face coverings
- Encourage use of face coverings in indoor spaces where distancing cannot be maintained.
- Consider a face covering protocol for specific work areas as part of your risk based approach.
Division Specific Advice
- The JSG (Journalism Safety Guide) includes a page for managing Covid risk during news deployments.
- A separate A-Z myRisks page exists for internationally based colleagues.
Audiences
- Consider whether and if so what steps are reasonable to take under your event/production risk assessment, to limit close contacts with audience members.
- Consider the interaction of crew, contractors and freelancers with members of the public.
- Encourage audience members who may be a higher risk of serious illness for Covid to provide information, raise concerns or ask questions prior to attending.