Following recent measures put in place by the UK and Scottish Government in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Orkney Islands Council has clarified the categories of ‘key workers’ required to support essential services locally.
The aim is to help ensure essential services can function, while minimising the risks of travel and contact – and to ensure that key workers providing critical services can access the support they need.
In line with a request from Government, the Council has prepared a list of services and functions which fall into Government’s ‘key worker’ categories, to help local businesses, industry and the third sector to determine which of their staff are business-critical during the pandemic.
Three categories of key worker have been identified at a national level:
- Category 1 – health and care workers, and associated staff, directly supporting the Covid-19 response; health and care workers supporting life threatening emergency work, as well as critical primary and community care services; energy suppliers (small numbers have been identified as top priority already); staff providing childcare/learning for other category 1 staff.
- Category 2 – all other health and care workers, and wider public sector workers providing emergency/critical welfare services (e.g. Fire and Rescue, Police, Social Workers, etc.), as well as those supporting our critical national infrastructure, without whom serious damage to the welfare of the people of Scotland could be caused.
- Category 3 – All workers (private, public or third sector) without whom there could be a significant impact on Scotland (but where the response to COVID-19, or the ability to perform essential tasks to keep the country running, would not be severely compromised).
Locally, some services are deemed to have ‘key worker’ status only when dealing with situations which pose an immediate threat to human wellbeing, animal welfare or the functioning of other vital services.
In general, all services, businesses and sectors should take every measure possible to ensure that unnecessary travel and contact is minimised or eliminated, and follow official Government guidance at all times.
Travel to Orkney should only be permitted for contractors who provide specialist skills, or urgent and emergency services that are not already available in the islands.
