COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS)  – COMMUNICATION FOR CLIENTS

With the increasing spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, we want to reaffirm that the health and safety of our clients, agency workers and staff is our top priority.

We are actively monitoring the situation, and we have put in place a series of measures to help ensure the safety of our employees and agency workers, and the continuity of our business, so you can continue to have confidence in our support during this time.

Some of these measures are set out as follows:

• Communication sent to all agency workers informing them of symptoms, basic hygiene requirements and directing them to the gov.uk website for further advice.
• A dedicated page on the Acorn website, which is updated on a regular basis.
• Agency workers to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from the 4th day of absence for COVID-19 related absence and self-isolation (to be changed to the 1st day of absence when revised legislation is confirmed by the UK Government).
• Additional questioning/assessment of agency workers at registration regarding COVID-19 symptoms.
• Implementation of our pandemic-specific Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which was most-recently tested on 31st January 2020.
• Activation of our Pandemic Response Team that meets bi-weekly.
• Provisions made for home-working wherever possible.
• Infection control measures introduced at all Acorn premises e.g. visitors questioned/assessed upon arrival, hygiene posters displayed, additional hand sanitiser and hand wash purchased, banning of handshakes, minimising face-to-face meetings etc.
• Full compliance with the Government’s rules on self-isolation
• Overseas business trips have been prohibited.
• Ensuring that we have an additional pool of available workers to meet customer demands; should there be an increase in orders for agency workers as a consequence of employee illness / self-isolation, or an increase in demand for your products/services.

We will be closely monitoring developments and will aim to act quickly and in the best interest of customers, workers and employees at all times.

If you have further questions or business-specific requirements, please contact your Acorn Representative.