This Risk Assessment has been carried out following the guidelines on the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) web site www.hse.gov.uk
Assessment carried out by: Alison Thornton
Premises: Acorn Cottage, Beer Farm, Okehampton, Devon EX20 1SG
Date assessment was carried out: 30/06/2020
Potential Hazards
Contamination of the site by guests who are asymptomatic or who develop symptoms while in situ.
Transmission of the virus between guests or between guests and contractors/suppliers.
Who is at Risk?
Other guests with subsequent bookings, particularly the elderly or those with underlying health conditions.
Cleaning and Maintenance Contractors and their immediate families, particularly if they care for relatives who are elderly or have underlying health conditions.
The wider public locally.
Actions to Control Risk
Anybody who is exhibiting symptoms or who has any reason to believe they may have come into contact with the virus up to 14 days prior to their booking must follow the Government instruction to self-isolate and follow NHS guidelines. Therefore, they should not arrive on site.
Anybody in one of the vulnerable groups identified by the Government should follow Government advice to self-isolate, and if necessary they should not arrive on site.
Contractors who are exhibiting symptoms or who have any reason to believe they may have come into contact with the virus within the previous 14 days should not come on site and they should follow NHS guidelines.
While on site, guests will be asked to follow government guidelines on social distancing. Acorn Cottage is set on a former farm complex, which now consists of six residences, and it is the only one used as a holiday cottage. It is relatively easy for guests to avoid contact with permanent residents. It is also possible to have a relaxing holiday without undertaking long journeys.
Guests should arrange for groceries to be delivered to their cottage to avoid trips to the supermarket. This service may be available via local shops if supermarket slots are unavailable. Guests need to check with the shops as the situation is changing daily.
Guests are advised that there may be severely restricted opportunities to eat out at this time and they should be prepared to fully self-cater.
We will provide additional cleaning materials for guests to clean the cottage during their stay.
Implement Changes to cleaning policy
We always strive to maintain extremely high standards of cleanliness at Acorn Cottage. Under normal conditions we also strive to maintain high standards of sustainability. We recognise that at this time some sustainable practices will need to be compromised. For example, washing and reusing cleaning cloths and using mostly natural cleaning products. We promise to resume these practices as soon as it is safe to do so however for the duration of the Covid-19 outbreak we have decided to adopt the cleaning practices recommended by Public Health England (PHE) for Cleaning in Non-Healthcare Settings https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings
As guests may not exhibit symptoms until after they return home, we will treat every clean as if the guests had potentially been infected. Therefore, we will:
Use disposable cloths.
Wash mop heads at 60oC.
Clean with antiviral disinfectant, tested to BS EN 14476, BS EN 1276 and BS EN 13697.
Pay particular attention to frequently touched surfaces such as door handles and handrails.
Remove any items which are hard to clean and where the virus might be harboured.
Leave the property empty after cleaning for 72 hours if possible. Therefore, there will be a week’s gap between one set of guests leaving and the next set arriving.
To Protect our Cleaning Team we will:
Delay cleaning until the property has been vacant for 72 hours if possible.
Provide rubber gloves and plastic aprons.
Limit the number of team members in the property to one at a time.
Ask guests to strip their own beds and put used linen in bags provided.
Ask guests to empty all bins and place tied bags into the external waste bins.
All waste will be double bagged.
There will be a delay of at least 72hrs before used linen is laundered, thus providing an adequate buffer to protect cleaning staff.
This policy will be reviewed monthly until the Government advises that the Covid-19 threat has passed.