All contents within this guidance are to be treated as OFFICIAL and the link to the platform is not to be shared externally.
During the current nationwide situation it is imperative that all staff are kept up to date with changing advice and guidance that is being centrally published. As you are all aware, staff will become more anxious when they are not included in communication streams. When the Service is operating in a business as usual status Governors generally have large gatherings via full staff meetings and within operational boardrooms. Although the temptation is to continue with this mode of communications, Governors should consider, where possible alternative arrangements for communicating with your staff. There have been reports of large full staff meetings and operational boardrooms with standing room only in the last couple of days. Although as a Service we have been identified as essential key work, this does not mean that we should not consider the Governments advice on social distancing where possible. We are doing everything possible to source PPE from around the world to help protect our front line staff but unnecessarily exposing them at meetings counteracts some of these measures. Different ways in which communications can be cascaded should therefore be considered, for example:
- Holding operational meetings in larger areas such as visits or the chapel;
- Asking people to dial in, where possible;
- Holding smaller meetings and asking managers to cascade messages to smaller audiences;
- Briefing papers sent out to staff.
Managing prisons is extremely difficult at the moment but if we can do anything to help protect our staff and keep all our families safe we should. Doing so will ensure resources within prisons remain as high as possible and assist with the operational running during the difficult period we are going to encounter.