Covid 19 Guidelines for Harland Works Tenants and Visitors

Although freedom day has been declared, we know that Covid is still prevalent in Sheffield. We are continuing to encourage all tenants and visitors to follow the guidance of Greg Fell, Director of Public Health for Sheffield, to ‘take it steady’:

As most restrictions on social contact are lifted today, Sheffield City Council’s Director of Public Health is urging people to take it steady and continue to look out for each other. Greg Fell has said a big thank you to Sheffielders for their amazing efforts throughout the pandemic so far, as the Government moves the nation into Stage 4 of its roadmap out of lockdown. The Government has said that cases are “high and rising” nationally and that “everybody needs to continue to act carefully and remain cautious." In Sheffield, cases are 516 per 100,000 and rising quickly, with an increase in hospital admissions, so we just need to remain vigilant. Sheffield City Council’s Greg said: “Moving into the next stage of the roadmap is really positive news for many people, and for local businesses. If you can, I’d encourage you to get out and support them this summer. It’s important to remember though that restrictions may have been lifted, but the pandemic isn’t over, and we all need to look after each other. There will also be people who are nervous about these restrictions lifting, so please do give people the space and consideration they need. Thank you for your amazing efforts so far – your response has been fantastic. Please, take it steady, and keep taking steps to stay safe.”

Covid Guidelines* at Harland Works

*following 19 July these are no longer mandatory, but we are asking all tenants and visitors to continue to observe as many sensible precautions as they can, when at Harland Works. Thanks for your continued support and efforts to look out for one another.

As a base for over 20 different businesses more than 50 people regularly use Harland Works in normal times. That doesn’t include cafe visitors or yoga students. 

During Covid 19 businesses are experiencing a disrupted time and have lots on their plate to navigate. 

The purpose of these guidelines are to provide a helpful and clear list of things to remember to do, or not to do as you use the buildings or bring visitors here. 

We want to take all sensible steps to minimise risk so that people feel able to go about their business in as normal a way as possible. 

As we’re all dealing with a lot of change I’ll start the guidance by asking that we’re all extra tolerant of others. These are stressful times. If someone here does something you find difficult, please err towards assuming they didn’t intend to cause offence and give them the opportunity to correct it by telling them about your concerns. 

The aim is to make the building work for everyone’s business in these new circumstances: we may need to figure out how that works as we go and may make mistakes along the way…  until we get to a good solution.

I’ve divided up things to think about under the following headings

• Prevention

• Social distancing and masks

• Track and trace

• Shared space inside

• Inside space - shared space 

• Inside space - your unit

• Inside space - shared toilets 

• Outside space - the courtyard 

• Visitors 

Prevention

• Please only come to the building if you do not think you have Covid19. Don't come to the building if you have Covid symptoms, or have been in contact with someone in your household/friendship group who has, or have been asked to quarantine by track and trace or any other public health guidance.

• Please use the hand santisers provided when arriving at the building.

Social distancing and masks

• Please observe social distancing

  • inside: please observe social distancing when moving about the building and consider using a face covering if closer than 2 m for anything other than a brief moment 

  • outside: please keep at least 1 m distant. 

• Please respect other people's social distancing. You may feel comfortable to be closer than they do. They may have reasons to be more cautious that you don’t know about.

• If you wish to keep 2 m distance and someone is closer, please gently remind them - they may temporarily forget and unwittingly come closer than you are comfortable with

Track and Trace

• Please keep records of who is in your unit and when they are there so that you are in position to co-operate fully in the event that any business based at Harland Works needs to respond to a track and trace notification.

Inside space - shared space 

• Please assume that touching surfaces in shared use areas such as door handles or buzzers may infect you. 

• Shared areas are cleaned with disinfectant 2 x a week - but that will not be enough to guarantee that the virus is not present on hard surfaces at the point when you are in a shared space.

Inside space - your unit

• What you do inside your unit is your responsibility, but I would recommend that you help reduce the risk of transferring the virus within your unit by:

  • having a hand sanitiser on hand, and use it every time you go in

  • ventilate the unit as much as is comfortable

  • observe social distancing with others who share your unit

  • enhancing cleaning of toilet’s in your unit

Inside space - shared toilets 

Apparently shared toilets can be a source of transmission, particularly if they are not well ventilated. You will see notices in each of the shared toilets setting out our enhanced approach to cleaning toilets at Harland Works in the light of Covid19 but please also follow these guidelines when using shared toilets: 

• Please maintain social distancing while waiting to use a shared toilet. 

• If you can’t maintain 2M distance, please wear your mask

• Keep the window open / fan on to ensure good ventilation

• Please use the disinfectant and blue paper supplied to clean the toilet before and after your use.

• SHUT THE LID when you flush the toilet. 

• Please limit use of shared toilets to visitors to reduce the risk. If they do use them, please ask them to follow these steps.

Visitors 

• Please reduce the number of visitors (and therefore risk) by considering NOT having any visitors who are unnecessary for your business at the moment

• If your business attracts traffic of people in / out at certain time (eg like yoga classes) please work with your neighbouring tenants so they know your timetable and are able to choose to avoid shared passages at that time. 

• Please be responsible for any visitors you have at the building. This includes:

  • Informing them of the building Covid 19 guidelines and ensuring that they understand and comply with them

  • Asking them to use hand sanitisers provided before entering the building

  • Asking them to use a face covering when using narrow corridors in Harland Works to access your unit. This is to help reduce risk of transmission from visitors to other people based at Harland Works, who share your corridor access

  • Asking them to observe social distancing and not to congregate in narrow inside spaces which are not well ventilated (they are welcome to congregate at 1 M distance in the courtyard, or to use the cafe)

  • Keeping a record of who comes, when and how to contact them in case you need to comply with track and trace

• If you want a larger space for your meeting to enable social distancing we will be happy to reserve a table in the cafe for your use, and you are also welcome to sit in the courtyard if the weather allows.

Outside space - the courtyard 

• Transmission of the virus is thought to be far less outdoors than indoors. As mentioned, you are welcome to use the courtyard tables/chairs for meetings outside if the weather allows. 

• Please maintain 1M social distancing outside. 

• Please respect others choices if they prefer to use a mask and/or to use 2M distancing outside

• Access points to the building: because of the nature of the building most of our entrances serve for access in and out. Where space does not allow 2M distancing please use a mask if you are passing in close proximity. Being quick reduces the opportunity for any transmission: if you stand and chat it is better to do this outside rather than in narrow entrance ways.  

Ongoing review

These guidelines will be reviewed and changed in the light of what we learn about the best way to respond to Covid 19. If you have concerns about anything here please let me know as soon as possible so we can see what can be done to respond to them. It’s a very difficult situation but I hope that by working co-operatively we can work out the best way forward for ourselves and our businesses.