The Scottish Government has published Coronavirus (COVID-19): close contact services which is for people who provide close contact services such as hairdressers, barbers and beauticians on working safely during coronavirus. This has previously been held within the Retail Sector guidance but has now been separated to have its own guidance.

The guidance has a downloadable checklist and now includes a section services offered in high risk zones and also mobile contact services.

Guidance for the retail sector, including procedures for staff and customer safety and an operations checklist has been updated. The update also has moved Close contact services which was once contained in this guidance to separate guide.

The guidance has been designed to be applied to cover the spectrum of different retailers in Scotland from department stores to independent traders, with additional guidance for food retailers on the Food Standards Scotland Website. 

The key mitigations are as follows:

• Ventilation
• Face coverings
• Physical distancing
• Capacity
• Hand hygiene
• Cleaning
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Test and Protect- only required for betting shops due to dwelling times associated the shop 

The Scottish Government have updated the Coronavirus (COVID-19): tourism and hospitality sector guidance on the 20 April to reflect changes in the guidance. 

Some of the main points are as follows:

• Collection of Customer/Visitor Details – Businesses are required to record every customer/visitor contact details to support Test and Protect – Customer detail collection guidance has been updated, in addition, the check-in Scotland app will help manage this requirement.
• Physical distancing – Everyone visiting a hospitality setting must remain at least 1 metre apart from the next person, unless from the same household or a carer. On playing areas in bingo halls and casinos 2 metres must be observed.
• Capacity management – Businesses are reminded that capacity should be determined by the need for physical distancing and numbers must not exceed safe limits.  A maximum limit for the premises must be calculated on the basis of physical distancing constraints and should be displayed clearly at or near the entrance.  Further guidance have been published, currently in draft, to help with this process.
• One metre zone signage for hospitality settings – It is essential that clear signage is displayed at entry points and throughout the premises to inform customers that they are within a 1 metre physical distancing zone and, most importantly, that everyone is reminded to observe the requirement to remain at least 1 metre from the next person, unless from the same household or a carer. 
• Cleaning and hygiene arrangements – There should be robust cleaning regimes in place around all shared and hard surface contact areas, including toilets, door handles, tables and chairs and service items. Equally, provision of adequate facilities for regular handwashing or sanitising is a simple and effective measure to reduce the risk of transmission and should be a routine practice in premises, for staff and customers. 
• Management of toilet facilities – Management of toilet facilities presents an added challenge and is an area of increased risk, particularly in contained and narrow spaces where physical distancing is difficult.  Existing guidance on the safe use of toilet facilities will help with this.
• Socialising rules – Socialising rules for indoors and outdoors apply to all sectors and are critically important. Businesses must ensure staff are aware of the limits when taking bookings and that they are ready to challenge any attempt to make bookings for numbers that clearly exceed the limits. Staff should ask whether limits on mixing of households is being observed when taking enquiries and either reject a booking request which would exceed the limits or offer an alternative for a booking within the limits.    
• Improved ventilation – Adequate and good quality ventilation should be standard in indoor commercial spaces – businesses should consider current arrangements and whether additional measures are required to make improvements. HSE guidance on this issue may be helpful.
• Table service – Table service is mandatory in hospitality. Systems should be in place to ensure this requirement is met in line with physical distancing and hygiene protocols.
• Low level music is now permitted so long as you do not have to raise your voice
• Alcohol can be served on its own

The Scottish Government have published an updated Strategic Framework Protection Levels table showing the route map for future easings. The First Minister has also confirmed that all parts of the country will move to Level 3 from Monday 26 April. 

This means that:

• shops will be able to fully reopen with precautions including physical distancing requirements, face masks and hand sanitiser in place
• gyms and indoor sports facilities, including swimming pools, will reopen for individual exercise, with group activities permitted for under-18s, and all organised outdoor activity can resume except adult contact sport
• limits on attendance at life events, including weddings, civil partnerships, funerals and receptions for those will increase to 50, with alcohol permitted
• pubs, cafes and restaurants will reopen outdoors for groups of up to six people from up to six households with alcohol in line with local licencing laws, and indoors for groups of up to six people from up to two households without alcohol until 20:00
• takeaways will be able to resume normal service, with physical distancing and face masks in premises
• mobile close contact services such as hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons can resume
• non-essential work in other people’s homes will resume – such as painting, decorating or repairing – will be permitted, subject to mitigations
• adults on the shielding list can return to the workplace, if they cannot work from home, while children who have been shielding can return to school
• non-essential informal childcare will resume
• driving lessons and tests can take place
• non-essential travel between Scotland, England and Wales will be permitted, and tourist accommodation in Scotland can reopen subject to socialising rules 

The Scottish Government expect to move through the levels on the following dates:

• 17 May: all of Scotland will move to Level 2
• 7 June: all of Scotland will move to Level 1
• June (late): all of Scotland will move to Level 0

The First Minister has announced that rapid coronavirus (COVID-19) tests will be made available to anyone in Scotland and to those planning travel to the islands.

From 20 April, anyone planning travel to the islands next week can order a free home test kit online. The first test should be taken three days before travel and the second on the day of departure.

From Monday 26 April, lateral flow home test kits will be available to 

anyone in the wider population who does not have COVID-19 symptoms. They can be picked up from local walk/drive-through test sites for people to test themselves twice-weekly. Anyone in Scotland who develops COVID-19 symptoms should self-isolate and book a PCR test.

The expansion is aimed at finding cases that would otherwise go undetected, so those people can self-isolate and avoid transmitting the virus to those around them.

For more information on community testing see here.

Martin Keeley, Environmental Health Manager at West Dunbartonshire Council discusses how Environmental Health is arguably the most diverse and adaptable professional public health service in Local Authority and how the technology advances made during the pandemic may cause a shift in how we work going forward.

1.Describe your work before the pandemic

The Environmental Health Manager is responsible for leading the service, setting its objectives, planning delivery to meet those objectives and ensuring the financial and professional resources are in place to deliver Environmental Health for West Dunbartonshire  communities. 

That was a busy and challenging body of work pre-pandemic and I’ve been fortunate to have a fantastic group of professionals to work with, making all of that happen across the service areas from Food Law to Health & Safety regulation, Pest control to Houses in Multiple Occupation, Contaminated Land to Noise control and much, much more. It seems a long time ago before the pandemic changed life for everyone.

2.What have you been doing since the pandemic started

It was busy before and it’s changed and become even more busy since the pandemic started. In public health and pandemic response terms, Environmental Health is arguably the most diverse and adaptable professional Public Health service in Local Authority. It was part of Council resilience planning before the pandemic and was already linked directly with NHS Public Health for public health protection. It’s a core Public Health workforce that provides public health protection and these key aspects of Environmental Health lead to it supporting the Council in developing its pandemic response quickly and effectively. 

The service was an early adopter of technology and this helped support good communication and service delivery from early on in the pandemic and continued to provide all of its services even when Council offices closed. As a result, visits and enforcement activities continued, advice and support for businesses was developed and delivered and other council services key to communities were supported throughout. We continued to deliver all of Environmental Health services during the pandemic as well as developing covid regulation procedures and working with Police, other agencies and Council services to deliver public health protection throughout the pandemic, investigating outbreaks  and being involved in planning for the additional deaths the pandemic produced. 

As well as providing for regulation of the changing covid restrictions during the pandemic and working closely with Regulatory and other colleagues, Environmental Health has provided Test & Protect function for the Education sector. This has meant working closely with Head Teachers and Education colleagues to ensure delivery of covid measures designed keep schools safe and reduce the risk of transmission and it’s been a great success. 

One other key area I’ve been fortunate to lead is the development of covid testing in the Council area for asymptomatic cases and symptomatic cases. Working with Council and NHS professionals throughout, has allowed the delivery of testing in communities which has been a key measure in the pandemic response and is set to continue for as long as it’s needed.

When I look back over the past year, It’s with great pride for the Environmental Health service in West Dunbartonshire and the huge amount of work it’s delivered under difficult circumstances and changing demands. In any organisation, it’s the people that are key to success and that’s absolutely true here.

3.What are / were the main challenges

The challenges have been many. Losing an office base; new and regularly changing restrictions; the volume of work the pandemic has generated; high case numbers, deaths in the community and an ongoing demand on Environmental Health staff and other resource throughout the pandemic. I could go on but I prefer to look at the positives and each challenge has been met with diligence and professionalism and a desire to bring improvement. Those are the core qualities of Environmental Health and the ones I promote in the Service.

4.Do you think any of these changes will last beyond the pandemic period.

There are some different ways of working that have shown their value during the pandemic, more efficient ways of delivery that I’ll take with me. The technology has been a help and there are aspects of Environmental Health that could benefit further from technological aid. It’ll help the professionals do what they need to do with less travel and better use of time. 

It’s likely that society will keep some of it’s adaptations and it’s possible that how people live in and around towns and cities may change with the use of technology making remote working possible. That will create both opportunity and challenge and with more of life being delivered through remote service, Environmental Health and services in the Council will have to respond to that. 

I’ve yet to see anyone accurately predict the future and I’m not about to try here. It’s likely we’ll have a blend of old and new after the pandemic and what I hope for is an improving society and to have the professional and other resources to provide excellent public service to support improvement. 

From 1 April 2021, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) will take on formal responsibility for making sure businesses comply with laws ensuring feed for animals is safe in Scotland. 

FSS will pick up this role (and become the ‘Competent Authority’) from Scottish local authorities which have been responsible for delivering the service, delivering official controls (statutory duties with regard to the production of food all along the supply chain) to date.

FSS will provide additional support and funding to organisations involved in this important work and, under new regulations laid in the Scottish Parliament, will be able to delegate functions to other qualified organisations to help with delivery.  

FSS intends to delegate routine official controls such as inspections and sampling to local authorities who have capacity to deliver. Confirmation of the participating local authorities and the areas they will cover, are available on the FSS website.

FSS has consulted widely with local authorities and industry stakeholders and there is broad support for this new delegation model, which will help maintain the skills and knowledge of local authority officers and maintain the benefits of local knowledge.

The Institute is sad to hear of the death of His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Our condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family.