St Denys Church: Guidelines for Hosting Groups at Your Home

Reducing the Risk of Covid 19

Date:  First written 1st July 2020. Updated 

These Guidelines aim to balance being welcoming, acting safety and caring for the well-being of all those involved, and to reflect government guidelines. The key elements are maintaining a safe distance, ensuring there are high hygiene levels and avoidance of different people handling the same item. There is also ongoing awareness of safeguarding responsibilities and data protection.

So:

• -If serving refreshments, aim for high levels of hygiene & minimal multi-handling of items. Ideally only the Host and one guest should touch an item, so serve directly to the consumer. Don't pass plates or cups from one person to another (even though it feels the polite thing to do).

• -Consider numbers for the meeting and ensure they are in line with government guidelines at the time as these are changing regularly (6 people on date of Risk Assessment - 26th June 2020)

• -Where possible the attendees should go directly to the garden via garden path or if travel through the house is necessary then all doors should be opened by the home owner.

• -The laying out of chairs/blankets should follow the government guidelines (from 4th July at least 1m apart)

• -Attendees should bring their own papers/pens/laptops/Bibles

• -Please consider the individual needs and situations of your group members when deciding the best approach to meeting eg are any shielding, do any have challenges with mobility which might make it hard to access a garden?

• -If the likelihood of confidential information being shared within the meeting is high, consider whether your conversation is audible to non-group members. You might need to change location if it is.    

Remember, it is possible for you to make use of the Church Zoom account if that is better for you group. Contact Sera Rumble, Cat Rawlins or Sam Shackleton for information on how to book it.