With winter just around the corner, now is the time to start considering your bad weather contingency plans. Our trusted partners, Towergate Insurance, have a shared a host of helpful tips below for homecare organisations to cover the basics and avoid being caught out this winter. At HCPA, we are also offering FREE flu vaccination vouchers to care staff – see more information below the Towergate Insurance article.
Plan to stop your business catching a cold this winter
We all love a winter wonderland but the reality of your employees struggling along icy roads to care for vulnerable people or dealing with burst pipes at your premises is far from idyllic.
Every year we, as a nation, seem unprepared for the havoc bad weather wreaks on our living and working arrangements but home care business owners can’t afford to be complacent especially with emergency services expected to be stretched to capacity.
Time spent now planning for severe weather conditions will help keep your business running smoothly and prevent costly insurance claims. Contingency planning also lets employees and service users know you care about their wellbeing at a difficult time of year.
Your premises
Flood or service failure. Freezing conditions cause a variety of problems ranging from the failure of public utilities to burst pipes and flooding which could prevent you working from your usual premises.
What you can do: preventative measures include regular servicing of utilities, dealing promptly with problems like dripping taps, making sure pipes are insulated and keeping the heating on during freezing conditions. If the worse should happen ensure you have a contingency plan that enables you to work temporarily from another location.
Insurance Tip: make sure you have appropriate business interruption cover in place and ask for input from your broker and insurer.
Slips and trips. You’re responsible for providing a safe environment for staff and visitors to your premises so do what you can to make sure they don’t slip or trip when entering or leaving.
What you can do: sign up for severe weather alerts, buy grit or salt in advance, clear snow and ice as soon as possible, establish safe access routes, use warning signs and cordon off problem areas.
Insurance Tip: document what you do – it’ll stand you in good stead in the event of a claim.
Your employees
Travel problems. Ensuring your employees can reach service users can be a real headache during the winter months. Icy roads make driving more hazardous, increase journey times and put pressure on staff.
What you can do: promote good car maintenance, suggest employees keep a flask, food, warm clothing and a fully charged mobile phone in the car and make arrangements so that key staff can work from home.
Health and wellbeing: Your workforce is likely to be under increased pressure over the winter months and illness will only compound this. Unwell staff also risk the health of service users.
What you can do: encourage your workforce to stay as healthy as possible and advertise local schemes for things like flu jabs.
Your service users
Delivering care. Older and disabled people are vulnerable to illness, slips and trips and suffer the effects of the cold acutely so it’s a cruel irony that bad weather often means it’s difficult to reach service users at the very time they need you most.
What you can do: make sure you have a plan. Identify which members of staff live most remotely and which service users are most vulnerable, then work out alternative ways to provide care should the need arise. Consider different rota scenarios, make contingency arrangements with neighbours, family members and other organisations in the area, provide staff and service users with emergency contact details and liaise with local councils to become part of their wider emergency planning process.
Insurance tip: Don’t just have a plan, communicate it, test it and review it regularly. Document everything you do and check with your broker for any implications for your insurance cover.
Provide practical advice to help keep service users warm and well by advising them to:
- Keep living areas warm and heating adjusted to the right temperature
- Eat well and keep hydrated – drink hot drinks and eat at least one hot meal a day
- Wrap up warm using layers – indoors and outside
- Draw curtains and close doors to prevent draughts
- Wear shoes with a good grip in wet and icy conditions
Get advice
If there’s something you’re not sure about your insurance broker should be a good resource – so use them.
Towergate Insurance is a homecare insurance specialist and a trusted partner of HCPA. They provide a range of insurance products and proactive risk management tools that help homecare businesses operate smoothly whatever the weather.
For more information contact our homecare specialists on 0330 123 5172 or go to www.towergateinsurance.co.uk
Towergate Insurance is a trading name of Towergate Underwriting Group Limited. Registered Office: Towergate House, Eclipse Park, Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3EN. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
FREE Flu Vouchers available for your staff
We know from previous years that outbreaks of the flu can have a devastating impact on health and social care services. In some cases this has resulted in the temporary closure of care homes and higher than average levels of sickness absence. This impacts both residential and homecare services. HCPA, Hertfordshire County Council and the NHS are working together to build resilience across the health and social care sector.
Therefore, we now have FREE flu vouchers available for your staff as we will pay for them on your behalf. We highly recommend utilising this opportunity to limit the outbreak of flu among your staff and reduce the risk of it spreading to service users.
To obtain flu vouchers:
- Please work out how many members of staff require the vouchers (note: some may be eligible for free vaccinations already).
- Fill in the form here
When you have received your flu vouchers, you will need to:
- Find your nearest participating pharmacy that will accept the vouchers. You can check a list of suitable pharmacies easily here.
- Encourage and ensure that your staff use the vouchers – a leaflet is available here
- Please return any unused vouchers to HCPA to ensure we can forward them to someone who will make use of them. The address is: Flu Voucher Return, Attimore Barn, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL7 2AD