BAME Risk Assessment

Covid-19

Manager’s Guidance

May 2020

Fran Talbot - Head of Workforce

1

Overview• You will be aware of the widely reported concerns about the impact of

coronavirus on people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. GSTT is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of all of our staff, so have extended our COVID-19 risk assessment process to include colleagues from these groups

• The risk assessment matrix is already in use for staff who are pregnant or vulnerable due to an underlying medical condition, and can now also be used to assess the risk and identify any measures needed to enable our BAME colleagues to work safely

• We are aware that there are some areas with a significant number of staff who may require a risk assessment and therefore recommend that risk assessments are prioritised for those BAME staff with other risk factors in the first instance

PrioritisationIt is recommended that you prioritise offering risk assessments to your BAME staff who;

• Are over 55*, or;

• Have an underlying health condition in the following list:

– chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis

– chronic heart disease, such as heart failure

– chronic kidney disease

– chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis

– chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy

– diabetes

– problems with the spleen – for example, sickle cell disease or if the spleen has been removed

– a weakened immune system as the result of conditions such as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or chemotherapy

– being seriously overweight (a BMI of 40 or above)

* A list of all BAME staff, including age range has been circulated to your Directorate Management Team to aid you with this. Your DMT will arrange for onward distribution of this list

Risk AssessmentThe risk assessment form can be found here on Gti

Purpose & MitigationPurpose

In its simplest form the purpose of the risk assessment process is to try and reduce the risk of unprotected exposure to COVID-19

Mitigation

Actions which can be taken to reduce this risk are as follows (in order of those which offer the greatest mitigation):

• Working from home

• Redeployment to a non-clinical area

• Redeployment to a lower risk clinical area

Where the above are not possible you will need to review with the employee how we can reduce the risk unprotected exposure in the workplace. This would include measures such as:

• Reinforcing IPC measures such as regular hand washing and maintaining social distancing where possible

• Ensuring PPE is available for the employee and that this is correctly used

Mitigation ContinuedOccupational Health guidance states that where BAME staff are:

a) over 55 or;

b) have a further medical condition covered in the vulnerable section or;

c) are over 28 weeks pregnant

then you should look to move them to a low risk area.

Where this is not possible then you should refer the employee to Occupational Health with their completed risk assessment and the OH team will guide you further.

The OH department have committed to assessing staff within 2 days; in the meantime, if it is possible to temporarily move an individual to a lower risk area then please do so. If this is not possible the staff member can remain in their role as long as they have access to the appropriate PPE.

Staff wishing to remain in their current role

There may be situations where staff wish to continue working in their current role and ask not to be moved to a lower risk area. Where this is the case, staff can remain in their current role but their request to remain in their current role must be documented in the risk assessment paperwork.

Supporting Guidance The Trust have produced a Line Manager's Guide to having wellbeing conversations with your staff which you may find helpful in preparing for the risk assessment conversation with member of your team.

Additional Support AvailableThere are a number of other avenues of additional support available, including;

• Asking your line manager to sit in and support you in completing the first few risk assessments with your team

• Occupational Heath will soon be publishing dates for a series of webinars to support managers undertaking risk assessments. More information will be circulated when this is available

• Advice can be sought from the Occupational Health Team on 020 7188 4152 or email OHAdministrator@gstt.nhs.uk (Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm)

• Advice can be sought from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team via email - equalitydiversityinclusion@gstt.nhs.uk

• Advice can be sought from your HR support, Jaskiran Gill or Fran Talbot