COVID-19 Safety Precautions

As hirer you are responsible for ensuring that your event is managed according to the current Government guidelines: Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) - Events and attractions. You will need to do some preparation before the meeting and you should familiarise yourself with the changing government guidelines. You must supervise your attendees who may not know the details of what they must do. These instructions are a supplement to the hall’s Public Safety Precautions which must still be observed.

1 General Rules and Restrictions

(i) Prepare your own COVID‑19 risk assessment.

(ii) Limit attendee numbers: The current advice to individuals is: “You do not need to stay 2 metres apart from people you do not live with. There are also no limits on the number of people you can meet. However, you should limit the close contact you have with those you do not usually live with, and increase close contact gradually.” Nevertheless, some attendees may be uncomfortable with less than 2 metres spacing.

You must not allow so many attendees that they cannot observe the current government advice on spacing. The number of people will depend on the activity during your event and the proportion of COVID-19 clinically extremely vulnerable attendees. It is not likely that you can achieve this with more than 50 people in the main hall or 15 in the club room.

(iii) COVID‑19 clinically extremely vulnerable people: The Government advice is, as a minimum, to follow the same guidance as everyone else. However, some optional additional precautions should be considered including:

  • “consider continuing to practice social distancing if that feels right for you and your friends”

You may need to reduce numbers to allow for this. Note that being over 70 does not automatically place people in this group.

Avoid allocating cleaning duties to COVID-19 clinically extremely vulnerable people.

(iv) The Kitchen and Coffee Room are no longer closed, but the doorways to both the main hall and the coffee room are narrow and it is unwise to have too many people trying to use them. Use a small number of people to prepare food and drinks and deliver them to the event location. Consider asking attendees to bring their own refreshments.

Shared use of the kitchen and coffee room area between different groups in the two halls is not advisable. Bookings that would require this will not be accepted.

(v) Avoid Speaking Loudly: To avoid risk of aerosol or droplet transmission you must take steps to avoid people needing to unduly raise their voices to each other, e.g., refrain from playing music or broadcasts at a volume which makes normal conversation difficult.

(vi) Activities:

(a) Where an exercise or sport activity takes place, you will organise your activity in accordance with guidance issued by the relevant governing body for your sport or activity.

(b) Singing is permitted, but there is some limited additional advice on safety in the guide for places of worship. Making Music also has a risk assessment template that you can download. It lists some further options for reducing infection risks.

(c) Where individuals in a group use their own equipment, you will ask them not to share it with others.

(d) You will ensure that any equipment you provide is cleaned before use and before being stored in the hall’s cupboards


2 Preparation

Before you arrive

(i) Plan the timing of your event to allow sufficient time for the setup before your attendees arrive. Also allocate time for the finishing up tasks.

(ii) Obtain your own cleaning materials to bring on the day. Household cleaning products are sufficient.

(iii) Obtain your own rubbish sacks. The previous user may have left bins devoid of rubbish bags. You need to be able to provide bags for each area you are using. Bins have been provided for each room to encourage adherence to the “Catch-it, Bin-it, Kill-it” campaign. Bin sizes are as follows:

  • Main Hall: 2 x 35L bins

  • Ladies; Gent’s; Accessible toilets: 3 x 35L bins total

  • Coffee room: 1 x 35L bin

  • Kitchen: 1 x 60L bin

  • Club room: 1 x 35L bin

  • Club room toilet: 1 x small bin. 35L bin liner will fit, but probably only 10L needed.

3 Setup

Before your attendees arrive, you must undertake the following actions.

(i) Set out furniture, if required, to facilitate social distancing between individual people or groups. If tables are being used, place them to maintain social distancing across the table between people from different household groups. Check government guidance for more detail on mitigation measures you can consider.

(ii) Clean door handles, light switches, window catches, equipment, toilet handles and seats, wash basins and all surfaces likely to be used during your period of hire. This is in addition to the regular professional cleaning arranged by the hall trustees. Use your own ordinary domestic products.

Do not spray the cloth upholstery on the seats but do wipe down the accessible metal and plastic surfaces. If you intend to use the window blinds, clean the plastic pull cords.

Please take care cleaning electrical equipment. Use cloths - do not spray.

If you need items out of storage areas, clean them before use.

When cleaning surfaces, it is not necessary to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) or clothing over and above what would usually be used. However, after undertaking cleaning duties, the person who has cleaned must wash their hands and use the sanitisers.

(iii) Fit your rubbish sacks to the rubbish bins.

(iv) Keep the area well ventilated by opening all windows and doors including emergency exit doors wherever possible.

4 Starting the Event

(i) Main Hall one-way system: Main Hall event attendees should enter by the main door from the road rather than using the more-restricted coffee room route.

To use a one-way system, ask attendees to exit via the double doors to the right of the stage. There are appropriate arrows to encourage this. Use this option if there is a significant chance of people leaving as others are arriving.

(ii) Turn people with COVID-19 symptoms away. Anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 (a new, persistent cough; a high temperature; or loses/has changes to their sense of taste or smell) should self-isolate and take a PCR test, even if these symptoms are mild.

(iii) NHS Test and Trace: Although it is no longer a legal requirement for venues to display an NHS QR code or request that customers, visitors and staff ‘check in’, this is still encouraged. The hall displays NHS QR code posters, though you do not have to ask customers to check in or turn them away if they refuse. You should also have a system to collect (and securely store) names and contact details for those who ask to check in but do not have the app.

If the hirer already has contact details for the attendees, there is no need to have a separate system, though the hirer should keep a record of who attended each event. The ICO Advice recommends that most event organisers should use the “legitimate interest” reason for using data for this purpose, rather than asking for specific consent from each attendee. You should, however, make attendees aware that their contact information may now also be shared with NHS Test and Trace.

It can sometimes be necessary to have specific consent before passing an individual’s name or contact data to NHS Test and Trace. Guidance explains that consent would be needed if knowledge of attendance at your event could reveal something sensitive about the person involved, such as their health status, religious beliefs or political opinions.

(iv) Face coverings are no longer required by law, but the government expects and recommends that people should continue to wear them in crowded and enclosed settings, to protect themselves and others. It is strongly recommended when entering any possibly congested area such as the toilets.

(v) Remind your attendees that they should make use of the sanitisers.

(vi) Remind your attendees that they should try to keep space between themselves.

(vii) Ask your attendees to tell you if they develop COVID‑19 symptoms within 48 hours of your event. If you receive such information, tell the booking secretary on 504485 but do not reveal the name of the ill attendee. That is sensitive personal information that should not be disclosed. Also, you should not tell the other attendees. That task is for the Test and Trace team to undertake. The only reason for the report to us is that we must tell the local authority if we have more than one such event.

5 During the Event

(i) Keep the premises clean through regular cleaning of surfaces during your hire, paying particular attention to wash hand basins.

(ii) Maintain social distancing when anyone uses the toilets. Consider appointing an attendee to keep track of occupancy to avoid social distancing issues in the corridor areas.

(a) Only one person should be in the ladies and one in the gents at any one time.

(b) The facility must be sanitised by each user or the supervisor to their own satisfaction before and after use, to include the basin.

The momentary loss of social distancing that may occur in the corridor outside the ladies and gent’s toilets is low risk but not acceptable for the clinically vulnerable. They should use the accessible toilet where the corridor access is wider.

(iii) Managing an Unwell Attendee: In the event of someone becoming unwell with suspected COVID‑19 symptoms while at the hall you should remove them to the designated safe area which is a chair at the wooden table in the Coffee Room where they can await any transport. Use the chair on the end of the table nearest to the radiator. The nearby First Aid box contains a pack with some PPE, a small sanitiser pack and a copy of some government advice. The unwell person should make exclusive use of the Club Room toilet facilities for any handwashing etc. If the club room is in use, tell the users that they should stop using that toilet, and should use the main hall toilets. The unwell person should then access the club room toilet via the external route out of the club room external door. They should not interact with the people in the club room.

Ask others in your group to provide contact details if you do not have them and then leave the premises, observing the usual hand sanitising and social distancing precautions, and advise them to launder their clothes when they arrive home. Inform the hall booking secretary on 504485.

For further guidance see COVID-19: guidance for first responders at gov.uk.

Any tissues etc that may have been touched by the unwell person need to be double bagged and stored for 72 hours before being placed in the main bin. The booking secretary will take charge of this.

6 Finishing

(i) Remind main hall attendees to leave by the door to the right of the stage if you have decided to use the one-way system. This will avoid loss of social distancing should someone decide they wish to re-enter.

(ii) Clean all surfaces as you did during setup. Clean any items before returning them to storage;

(iii) Return the seats to the original site from which you took them.

(iv) Remove your rubbish from the hall before leaving. You may take it to the main rubbish container in the car park. Please sanitise your hands before and after.

(v) Close the windows and doors that were opened to enhance ventilation.

Version 6, 31 Aug 2021

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