Skip to main content

How will we social distance when we are restricted to the venue/room that we use?

Depending on the situation, social distancing (SD) means different thing to different people.  In some cases, SD can mean staying at home and sometimes it's about keeping a safe distance in person to reduce the likelihood of infection from proximity.

The first stage in staying alert would be to encourage your members to only attend when they are well.  If they feel or display any of the symptoms, to protect themselves and others, they must not attend.  You must also be vigilant, challenge those that appear unwell and be prepared to send anyone home that does present with symptoms.  This applies to all illnesses not just C19.  You can add a point about not attending when you are ill to your Code of Conduct.

For those well enough to attend there are some considerations:

Things to Think About

What does the venue say?

Work with your venue and establish how many people you can have in the session.  Check with them to see if there have had to be any changes in furniture arrangements which may alter your delivery.  Your venue may also have capacity limits and you may have to change the time of your session or limit the number attending.  These numbers would also have fire evacuation factored in.  

Spacing and Positioning

As we as a society learn more about the virus and how it is transmitted, the rulings on how far apart people should stay to avoid passing it on will change.  Make sure you are aware of the current legislation but also work with the comfort of your members, some people may be uncomfortable being as close as 1 metre to someone from another household for the duration of an activity.

As a prevention method, 2 metres is the recommended distance between people.  This may mean that you have to remove every second chair or rethink sitting in circles or rows.

Using the 2 metre rule, we planned the Gateway with a range of spaces and rooms, the consistent formula we discovered for SD was half of the original capacity, sometimes half minus 1.  So, a boardroom style long arrangement of tables with two people sat at each table can now only host one person per table, therefore, halving the capacity.

You may have to half your group or enter into more complicated maths like only being able to host 2/3 of your members at one time.

Think about how you are going to make it clear to people (beyond removing chairs) that spaces are left for SD purposes and not for them to spread out their stuff.  You may have to use tape or stickers, talk to your venue.

There are some visual examples and a guide which is full of useful thoughts.

When you are planning your space, consider which direction people are facing, are there ways in which you can prevent people directly facing another person?

Workstations

Keeping people to one fixed space is easier to clean and maintains SD through the sessions or working day. 

For offices or fixed environments, hot desking is no longer going to be possible and those who are non-essential workers or those that cannot work from home have to have a fixed workstation that only they touch and work at.

If your group hires a space, you do not know who will have been in the space before you.  Talk to your venue about their cleaning regime and you can always bolster it by using your cleaning kit to give it a once over to you and your user's satisfaction.  During the session ask your members to stick to their table / station and keep their equipment in that space.  Encourage them not to share equipment.

PPE

There is a range of advice on PPE and it can be a personal choice to wear it or not,  read around the guidance and see where you feel most comfortable.

You can explore the World Health Organisation's guidance on masks which comes with visual and video guides.  The UK Government has also posted information on face coverings and a guide on how to make masks easily.

About Us

Warrington Voluntary Action supports the development of a vibrant, thriving and sustainable VCSE sector to meet the diverse needs of local communities.