Dear colleagues

With changes to advice to keep us safe changing daily, it highlighted to me just how difficult things are, and will get, in the coming days – these really are unprecedented times. With that in mind, I hope you are all keeping well personally, as families and as businesses.

At CITB we are focused on skills and training and during this time we will be doing all we can to support the industry to protect those skills for when things return to normal, hopefully in the not too distant future.

We have been both implementing existing plans and putting in place new ones to keep our business running during this period – doing our best to ensure that grant payments continue and that we maintain delivery of our essential products and services. Together with other industry bodies we will ensure that we provide our customers with regular updates on our supporting activity on a specific page dedicated to coronavirus on our website: https://www.citb.co.uk/urgent-messages/ and on our social media platforms.

My Executive and Leadership Teams are actively gathering information from industry at this critical time. Initial analysis of the feedback to date is that CITB should focus its efforts on the following areas:

Support for apprentices – having provided support for apprentices in previous crisis situations and during Carillion’s collapse, we are assessing what practical support may be required now and in the coming weeks and months to ensure we secure the future for any impacted apprentices. There is no need for you to take any additional action on apprenticeships at this moment.

Signposting for employers – we are collaborating with federations and employer bodies to compile an agreed a list of the best support agencies who are available to assist employers, their workers and supply chain with advice on staff issues, and other business support including sick pay. Once completed this will be circulated widely and be available on the dedicated website page and our social media platforms.

Guidance for keeping sites working – as we develop good practice for running sites in these conditions,  we will publish Toolbox Talks and other learning materials that will help employers keep sites running during this pandemic.

Time bound qualifications and cards – card schemes are urging site managers to show appropriate lenience to those with cards expired from mid-March and have relaxed renewal windows. CITB has waived some of the fees for rescheduling or cancelling HS&E tests and for the duration of this crisis we will  accept SSSTS and SMSTS renewals beyond expiry.

 We remain committed to protect the construction industry as best we can and we are working closely with our industry partners and Government to make sure construction’s voice is heard and listened to at this extraordinary time. If you have any specific suggestions that you don’t believe are covered by the above or areas that you believe should be top priority please let me know or another CITB representative.

Wishing you well at this tough time,

Sarah Beale

Chief Executive

See below link to CSCS statement regarding Covid-19

www.cscs.uk.com/covid19

Preventative measures
1. Ask the candidate to wash hands upon arrival at your centre, in the bathrooms provided. This follows the guidance from the World Health Organization and will help to keep your hands clean and prevent potential contamination.
2. If the candidate would like to use a medical face mask this can be permitted. Masks need to be removed for identification checks and/or where candidate photographs need to be taken.
3. Provide hand sanitizer throughout the centre, encourage applying before they enter the classroom.
4. Kleenex/Hand tissue should be available. Please cover the nose and mouth in case of sneezing or cough.
5. At frequent intervals clean each work area with disinfectant products to ensure a clean & hygienic environment for candidates.
6. Regular cleaning of the reception areas and waiting areas with disinfectant products.
7. Introduce distancing measures increasing the distance between candidates to a minimum of six feet, additionally you may wish to restrict the number of people attending a course at one given time. You may wish to apply the same distancing measures in your waiting areas too.
8. Stagger refreshment breaks to avoid congestion in waiting areas and toilets
9. Regularly clean any tools or training equipment once it has been used with disinfectant products

Please read the attached information regarding the recent outbreak of COVID-19.  We are still running courses but will monitor the situation and advise if courses have to be cancelled.

COVID-19

A coronavirus is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China in January 2020.

The incubation period of COVID-19 is between 2 and 14 days. This means that if a person remains well 14 days after contact with someone with confirmed coronavirus, it is unlikely that they have been infected.

The following symptoms may develop in the 14 days after exposure to someone who has COVID-19 infection:

• cough
• difficulty in breathing
• fever

Generally, these infections can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease.

If you have been nominated to attend a training session at the HCTG please take note of the following advice:

How COVID-19 is spread

From what we know about other coronaviruses, spread of COVID-19 is most likely to happen when there is close contact (within 2 metres) with an infected person. It is likely that the risk increases the longer someone has close contact with an infected person.

Droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes (termed respiratory secretions) containing the virus are most likely to be the most important means of transmission.

There are 2 routes by which people could become infected:

• secretions can be directly transferred into the mouths or noses of people who are nearby (within 2 metres) or could be inhaled into the lungs
• it is also possible that someone may become infected by touching a surface or object that has been contaminated with respiratory secretions and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes (such as touching a door knob or shaking hands then touching own face).

There is currently no good evidence that people who do not have symptoms are infectious to others.

Preventing spread of infection

There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to the virus.

There are general principles anyone can follow to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, including:

• Washing your hands often – with soap and water, or use alcohol sanitiser if hand washing facilities are not available. This is particularly important after taking public transport
• Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throwing the tissue in a bin.
• People who feel unwell should stay at home and should not attend work or any education/training setting
• Course candidates, staff and visitors should wash their hands:
  • before leaving home
  • on arrival at the training centre
  • after using the toilet
  • after breaks and practical activities
  • before eating any food, including snacks
  • before leaving the training centre
• Use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
• Avoid close contact with people who are unwell
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces

Your co-operation in this matter is important if we are going to prevent the spread of this virus