General H&S inspections are intended that we would normally identify problems before they escalate to a particularly hazardous stage. Several months without access could certainly allow something like mould to develop to a hazardous level. Or rats having had free run of the place for the past months might have lead to a situation which would not develop during normal usage.
Imagine Joe Bloggs CFAV who goes in after several months and later reports “there was some black stuff on the walls in the toilets, but I gave it a wipe over with a cloth and it looks fine now…”, or “The floor was covered in some strange, cement-like dust but I’ve swept it all up…” It turns out that Joe, not really understanding the risks, has just spent an afternoon stirring up and breathing in asbestos dust which the rats have spent three months digging out of the walls.
It’s an extreme example, but it’s a possibility, and that’s what they’ve got to think of.
No CFAV should be expected to carry out anything more than user maintenance. If indeed someone was being expected to ‘certify’ their own fire alarm system in lieu of a proper technician attending then there’d be a whole world of liability concerns opening up there.
We entered the building recently under prior approval to retrieve something and naturally had a quick look over the place whilst there. No obvious concerns apparent fortunately.
We haven’t discussed anything yet til we get guidance. I think those with larger premises will be let back first. Those with smaller buildings or huts will have to wait.
I had a whisper that if you have shared accommodation then the plan is a 3 day period between change of use.
So enforced 1 parade night a week on shared units.
So if we have to have reduced numbers (and we have more than the set limit I hope) then it could be some cadets only getting 1 night every multiple weeks…
We only have one corridor. Will have to go out the back fire exit and round the outside of the building to come back in the main door and try again if you miss your destination
I’m also picking up that schools (like us at work) are having people in on a rota basis and working in small groups.
Movement in corridors when you might only have one corridor in a hut would be unworkable.
Will the cadets come back if it’s distanced and operated like school? Will parents be happy for them to come back?
When they all go back to school there is no way on earth social distancing etc is possible, and will likely be dropped in schools fairly quickly. Everywhere else will be down to 1 meter, and nobody will be taking a blind bit of notice of it, much like lots of people have given up observing any sort of distance now.
So in fairly short order I imagine the 1 meter will be dropped and we won’t have to worry too much. There will be inclusion of Covid related items on risk assessments for a while, until this gets dropped too.
I’m not even thinking about how we might get back to it, as if you come up with a plan now it will likely change 10 times before we actually get back as the situation changes.
I can’t imagine there’ll be an awful lot of inter-squadron activity going on to start with anyway.
Bringing a bunch of people together from across a dispersed geographic area and then sending them back doesn’t seem like the best idea to me.
By the time we’re back to larger scale inter-squadron stuff or activities at a distance I reckon more of the distancing guidelines will have been lifted.
I personally think social distancing guidelines will be reduced in the near future and we may still see a return to F2F activity in September. I know from an NHS point of view, it is expected that COVID19 will be here for the long term, possibly even always be present, so we need to plan to live normally around it.
In the NHS, we are looking at newer ways of working to work as normally as possible during this pandemic, which reduces the risk of staffing shortages.
I don’t know so much the thoughts of school staff on here, the few I know have said the general feeling is schools are unlikely to go back to full cohorts in until Jan at the very earliest. They are now preparing for a part-time system from September as they got caught short in March. The ones likely to be prioritised are those with exams at the end of next year and those just starting, but even then they won’t be in all the time.
The crunch will come when there is a general return to work and or govt handouts stop.
We need to think about going back no point in waiting until someone says I’ve got a 2cm to 1m floor plan of the hut which a cadet did for us years ago, because I was curious and this has served me well over the last few weeks. However I don’t think we can lull ourselves into a false sense that whatever distancing or rules exist, we can generally ignore it. We are in the public bubble and will be expected like the retail/entertainment sectors to make a show of it.
This is just simply ridiculous, they need to get back asap. Without getting into a row about if all this has been overblown etc, in my humble they should all be going back now.
Exactly this - and that is all any of it is now, a show. There is no strict enforcement of distancing anywhere, and largely it is a massive joke. Lots of big stores have put up a few signs and marked the floor, yet this seems to be totally meaningless to the majority.
Like many things in life at the moment - everyone is desperate to be seen to be doing the right thing so the hysterical media and general public stay off their backs.
Now I’m starting to sound like a ranting old man… Look what this forum has done to me!!
The plans I’ve heard are objectively worse than distance learning, so they really shouldn’t be going back at all. Or only practical subjects should be going back because you really don’t need to go somewhere to do English.
With all respect, I would disagree with this sentiment entirely… The schools need to go back, the sooner the better. But like I say, no point getting in a discussion about that as the govt. ultimately decide and we can only deal with what is in front of us
