CEO Update 11 May

COVID continues to challenge all of us as its impact morphs from an extreme threat to a chronic one.  Our community is slowly embracing increased freedoms and at Bayley House we are doing all we can to ensure that our clients’ experience of our services reflects those community practices.

The flip side of the equation, understandably, is that we are seeing a significant increase in COVID positive cases across all areas of our community and whilst the health impact for most people is relatively mild the inconvenience factor is high.  With this in mind, we are endeavouring to strike a balance which minimises restrictions for our clients whilst keeping them as safe as possible and reducing the risk of staff shortages.  Most of our group activities are delivered 1:4.  The inevitable maths of that is that, with severe workforce shortages, for every staff member out of action we have four clients potentially without a service.

With that in mind the following approach will be adopted across our services, effective immediately and in place for the next month during which we will review –

Home & Living (including Short Stay)

• Staff have been wearing N95 masks at all times whilst on shift and will continue to do so
• Full PPE is available for use as required
• Residents are encouraged to maintain helpful spacing as well as hygiene measures but are otherwise unrestricted
• Residents who test positive for COVID will be encouraged to isolate as much as is practical
• Close contacts will be required to have daily RATs and provided the RAT is negative and the person has no symptoms are free to attend day service or other activities

Day Services (including Community, Leisure and Recreation)

• Staff will move from wearing surgical masks to N95 masks for the next month/review
• Clients are not required to wear masks but are welcome to do so to support maintaining good health
• Hygiene and social distancing are regularly prompted
• Clients who are unwell for ANY reason should not attend day service
• Clients who test positive for COVID need to remain home for the period of time determined by health authorities
• Close contacts (clients or staff) of those clients will be required to have daily RATs and provided the RAT is negative and the person has no symptoms are free to attend day service or other activities

Thank you as always for your support of Bayley House as we continue to navigate our way through genuinely uncharted waters.  We are doing all we can to continue to provide services in as unrestricted manner as possible whilst keeping people safe and ensuring we have the capacity to keep activities running.  Feel free to reach out if you need further clarification or wish to raise any concerns

Take care and stay safe.