Booking System For Pippbrook Open Again After Easter

You will be pleased to hear that with effect from Tuesday 6th April the booking system for Pippbrook will open again.  As before, there will be morning and afternoon slots.  Whilst the position remains that people should work at home where they can, these slots are potentially available for anybody meeting the following criteria:

• Those carrying out jobs/tasks which can’t be done from home
• Those carrying out jobs/tasks which are much slower/more difficult at home
• Those living in homes which don’t facilitate home working
• Those who need to attend the office to ensure their personal wellbeing

If you need to come to the office, for any of the grounds listed above, please discuss with your manager and, subject to their agreement, do make use of these slots. 

Places are first come, first served – and you may need to plan ahead to get a space.  Afternoons are usually quieter than the mornings.

You do not need to book a slot if you are part of one of the teams who have maintained a rota to work in Pippbrook throughout the pandemic or if you are working on the upcoming elections.  The Manager of the Day and duty First Aiders will once again be on site from 9 to 5.

Initially there will be 5 available slots in the morning and 5 in the afternoon.

This will be monitored carefully and reviewed after the May elections with a view to increasing the slots.

Looking further ahead, the government guidance remains to work from home where possible until Step 4 of the road map – which is 21^st June at the earliest.  A complete review of social distancing and other long-term measures that have been put in place to cut transmission will then inform decisions on the ongoing requirements for social distancing, the wearing of face coverings and other measures.  We therefore need to await the outcome of that review before working with all relevant stakeholders to determine our post-pandemic policy, which will take some time.  In the meantime, the aim is to increase office slots available for booking as the government road map progresses and over the summer.

Park House, the Fairfield Centre and Dorking Halls have their own arrangements in place already, if there are any changes they will make their own arrangements to communicate to their staff.

It is important to note that this does not change anything else about the way we are working – meetings must continue to be virtual and visits conducted in accordance with risk assessments.