Covid-19 update: Government guidance issued for the reopening of close contact services from July 13

GUIDELINES have been issued by the government for businesses including beauty salons, nail bars and tattoo studios as they prepare to re-open from Monday, July 13. Business owners offering close…

GUIDELINES have been issued by the government for businesses including beauty salons, nail bars and tattoo studios as they prepare to re-open from Monday, July 13.

Business owners offering close contact services will need to consider the following to ensure the operate in a Covid-19 secure way.

  • Using screens or barriers to separate clients from each other, and to separate practitioners from clients, such as in nail salons
    • Operating an appointment-only booking system to minimise the number of people on the premises at any one time
      • Keeping the activity time involved to a minimum
      • Increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning, as well as regularly cleaning equipment or using disposable equipment where possible
        • Avoiding skin to skin contact and wearing gloves where it is not crucial to the service, such as in nail bars and tanning salons
          • Maintaining sufficient spacing between customer chairs
            • Not allowing food or drink, other than water, to be consumed in the salon by customers
            • Making sure a limited and fixed number of workers work together, if they have to be in close proximity to do their jobs

            Detailed government guidance can be found here:

            https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ef2889986650c12970e9b57/working-safely-during-covid-19-close-contact-services-090720.pdf

            In addition, the Chartered Inst. of Environmental Health (CIEH) guidance is available here:

            https://www.cieh.org/media/4309/salons-reopening-guidance-covid-19.pdf

            Maintaining records of Staff, Customers and Visitors

            Organisations in certain sectors should collect details and maintain records of staff, customers and visitors on their premises to support NHS Test and Trace.

            Business owners should assist this service by keeping a temporary record of your customers and visitors for 21 days, in a way that is manageable for your organisation, and assist NHS Test and Trace with requests for that data if needed.

            This could help contain clusters or outbreaks.

            The government rules are:

            • You should only ask people for the specific information that has been set out in government guidance.
            • You should be clear, open and honest with people about what you are doing with their personal information.
            • You must look after the personal data you collect.
            • You cannot use the personal information that you collect for contact tracing for other purposes, such as direct marketing, profiling or data analytics.
            • You should not keep the personal data for longer than the government guidelines specify.

            The links below offer useful guidance on how to maintain adequate records:

            https://www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace

            Additional advice and support for businesses is available from the borough council's Public Protection team by emailing commercial@barrowbc.gov.uk