Islington Council PPE position statement

Islington Council PPE policy

Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of our residents and staff.

Islington Council has adopted the Public Health England national guidance on the use of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic. PHE Guidance has changed a number of times as the Covid-19 crisis has evolved and the Council has adapted its policies and guidance accordingly.

The Council is acutely aware that increased demand for PPE, as a result of the latest guidance, poses significant challenges for services providing support to residents, for both our internal teams and our providers.

The PPE supply issue is not simply a local, but also a regional and national, issue. Access to PPE is critical and the Council is working extremely hard to source as much PPE as is needed to provide a back-up supply route for Islington’s external providers who can’t access PPE through their standard supply routes. This is in addition to supplies to ensure internal services, Direct Payment employers, Shared Lives carers, and unpaid carers (who do not live in the same household as those they care for) have access to the PPE they require.

Providers

Camden & Islington Public Health has provided additional local information to support understanding of national requirements and PPE supply routes.

If providers do not have the necessary PPE to comply with the guidance, and therefore cannot provide care for an individual on a given day, providers are expected to follow standard processes for notifying the Council. We ask providers to be proactive in identifying where this may be an issue so the Council can identify an alternative provider as far in advance as possible so that our most vulnerable residents get the essential care they require. 

We ask external providers to use their existing supply chains in the first instance. We also ask that providers consider mutual aid to see if other providers can loan some PPE to enable residents to receive continuity of care wherever possible. The Council requests all providers complete daily data returns. This data, including PPE stock levels and how long stocks will last) is really important because it is being used to inform the supply and demand modelling.

Council departments, including Adult’s Services, Children’s Services, and Environment and Regeneration have identified a number of officers who will request supplies of PPE on behalf of providers which are experiencing challenges in securing supplies. Please refer to separate PPE guidance for information on how to request Islington supplies.

Individuals

The Council will prioritise individuals (Direct Payment employers, Shared Lives carers, childminders and unpaid carers who do not live in the same household as those they care for) for PPE, as they do not have easy access to the supply routes organisations have access to.

We have produced guidance for Direct Payment employers, Shared Lives carers and unpaid carers. Please refer to that guidance for more information on when PPE is required, the correct use of PPE and how to access supplies.

Our commitment

Whilst we cannot guarantee the Council will have the types of PPE equipment or the levels of stock services require, we are working extremely hard to secure supply routes and stock levels.

To date, we have supplied more than 400,000 pieces of PPE equipment to individuals and organisations who need it.

We will continue to support wherever we can. We will usually supply a maximum of 7 days of equipment within 48 hours of receiving requests.