Chaperoning contractors on schemes

Purpose

This procedure describes the actions to be taken by a Careline Officer when receiving a request to provide access to / accompany / lock up after a contractor at a sheltered housing scheme.

Responsibility

All staff

Process

During office working hours

Where a staff member is called by the contact centre and asked to provide access to or accompany an engineer or tradesperson during office hours, the contact centre must then liaise with the relevant housing manager or their team leader.

Outside normal office hours

Where staff are contacted by the contact centre and asked to provide access to or accompany an engineer or tradesperson outside office hours they should arrange to meet them onsite at a pre-arranged time.

In accepting an assignment the Response Officer should make clear to the contact centre that:

• Where existing emergency visits have yet to be completed, this request is of low priority and will be dealt with once the other response assignments have been completed, unless this is an emergency situation.
• Any emergency visit that is notified prior to undertaking this request will always have priority over this request unless the circumstances at the scheme represent an emergency of greater priority than that of the first emergency.
• Where staff are notified of a requirement to secure a scheme on or following the departure of an engineer or tradesman, they should ascertain whether the engineer / tradesman is still on site and the exact elements of the scheme that require to be secured. If the tradesperson has left the site and the elements to be secured would pose a risk to health and safety, scheme integrity or the protection of personal and company data if left unsecured, staff should inform the contact centre that:

• Where existing assignments have yet to be completed, this request will be dealt with once the other response assignments have been carried out. (Unless it is on route between existing response assignments.)
• Where other priority work is being discharged, staff should attempt to provide the contact centre with an estimate of the time that they are likely to be able to fulfil the request.

If the tradesperson has left the site and the elements to be secured are not critical, staff should respond as per the tradesperson being on site as stated earlier.