Rebuilding our local sector to be stronger and more capable than ever is incredibly important to our team at CVS Falkirk. To help with these efforts, we have put together this page containing information, guidance and resources around COVID-19 recovery that we hope will be useful to our local third sector, including:
- training
- guides on reopening your premises to staff, volunteers and the public
- scenario planning
Our colleagues at Midlothian Third Sector Interface, Midlothian Council and Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) have drafted a planning framework around COVID-19 and other crisis, and kindly allowed us to share it locally.
The draft framework provides the structure at the heart of crisis response measures (for those unfamiliar), and a range of examples around COVID-19 which each group can adapt to suit your own needs and environment, along with a tentative timeline based on Scottish Government’s framework and ongoing scientific and health advice.
To download the COVID-19 Scenario Planning framework as an editable Word document, please visit the CVS Falkirk website.
Youth Scotland has developed a guide to help youth groups and organisations to plan for re-opening post COVID-19.
The “Post Lockdown Readiness Guide” aims to support groups and organisations and offer practical advice for re-opening. There is also a detailed summary of Scottish Government’s Framework, and which areas apply to youth groups and organisations, including physical distancing in youth work premises, and hygiene and infection control measures.
To view or download the guide, please visit the Youth Scotland website.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)’s Digital Team has created 3 new “How To” guides for third sector groups and organisations adapting their work in response to COVID-19:
Volunteering Matters has created a practical checklist around re-opening a building for work, for staff, volunteers, or anyone else.
The checklist is designed to inform a risk assessment (though not replace it; please see above for free risk assessment training, under “Health and Safety”), and covers equipment checks and tests (including Legionella tests on the water, to ensure the bacteria has not built up while the building was unused), signage, floorplans, and staff and volunteer behaviour.
To view or download the checklist, please visit the Volunteering Matters website.
- FREE Risk Assessment Training
Nina Fairweather, a chartered safety and health practitioner based in Dundee with more than 25 years experience in the international hospitality industry, has published a short, FREE training session on how to complete a COVID-19 risk assessment.
The session covers some of the key controls that must be taken into consideration when carrying out a specific Covid-19 risk assessment for your group, organisation or business (including social enterprises), and provides participants with informed considerations on how to carry out a risk assessment to re-open your business safely.
The session takes 45 minutes and is available at any time.
To access the training, or for further information (including other available courses), please visit the Fairweather Safety Consulting course website.
- Online Cleaning Knowledge and Skills Course
The Skills Network Scotland provides a range of accredited and fully-funded online training courses for people in Scotland.
Courses include a Cleaning Knowledge and Skills course, which covers learning about infection control, and may be particularly useful for local groups and organisations who are considering how to safely resume their services and activities as lockdown restrictions ease.
To qualify for funding for the courses, participants must:
- be aged 16 years old or over
- live in Scotland
- have been living within the EU for at least the last 3 years
For further information on all available courses, please visit the The Skills Network Scotland website, or go directly to the Cleaning Skills and Knowledge course page.
- The Curve: Digital Skills Training for the Third Sector
The Curve is a series of free, 90 minute workshops for third sector organisations from Third Sector Lab. These online workshops aim to build knowledge around best digital practices, raise awareness of digital tools and ultimately help increase impact with digital resources. The workshops may be useful for many groups and organisations looking to promote their activities and locations re-opening, or because their services have changed and moved online during COVID-19.
For a full list of available workshops, please visit the Third Sector Lab website.
Our team here at CVS Falkirk has put together a short and simple guide to using Zoom for meetings with ourselves and anyone else.
We appreciate that a lot of organisations already use Zoom, however, we know this is not always the case. We want to ensure everyone has access to our meetings, and the ability to keep in touch with people, as much as possible during these times, and decided to create this guide as a way of helping that. We will include this guide with invitations we send going forward.
To view or download the guide as a pdf document, please visit the CVS Falkirk website.
