The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued an amber warning for cold weather for the East of England and a yellow for London. Please consider any impact on your services and the people you support, including:
- Where you deliver services from a fixed location, monitor the temperature.
- Where you are supporting people who may be especially at risk, consider checking in on their welfare.
- Ensuring staff and volunteers know how to escalate concerns within your organisation.
- Consider any other impacts on your organisation’s activities, including referring to any business continuity planning. Have you reviewed your Business Continuity Plans (BCP) ready for the Winter? If you need help the HCPA Business Development Team offer free support to HCPA Members to update your BCP or to create a new one. Contact us via businessdevelopment@hcpa.co.uk for further support. We highly recommend creating action cards for your various BCP emergencies. View our sample action card for snow here.
All organisations should read the Adverse Weather and Health Plan. This is important if you provide health and social care. The plan explains what you should do before and while a cold health alert is in place.
Forecast weather is likely to cause significant impacts across health and social care services, including:
- a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions. We may also see impacts on younger age groups
- a likely increase in demand for health services
- temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks
- challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people
- staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays)
- other sectors starting to observe impacts (such as transport and energy)
Useful resources
- Click here for the care homes and other residential settings action card
- Click here for the homecare services action card
- Click here for guidance on staying safe in cold weather
- Click here for detailed cost of living support from HCC
- Click here for a directory of ‘warm spaces’ available in Hertfordshire
- To sign up to weather health alerts click here
- Click here to view all the weather health alerts currently in place across England
- Click here for more cold weather resources
Thank you for everything you are doing to keep the people you support safe and well.