Sector Specific Guidance
Health and Social Care
UK Health and social care services will be at the forefront of the response to an influenza pandemic coming under, at times, extraordinary strain. The following section points to pandemic flu guidance documents currently available for health and social care sectors:
Infection Control Guidance
For planning purposes it is assumed that a pandemic strain of influenza will have properties of transmission, communicability and inactivation that are similar to those of 'routine' seasonal influenza. It is well established that influenza is transmitted from person to person through close contact. In view of this, standard principles of infection control and droplet precautions are the main control strategies and should be rigorously followed. Aerosol transmission may also occur. In certain circumstances, the standard and droplet control measures may need to be augmented by respiratory protection.
Scrupulous attention to hand hygiene and containment of respiratory secretions produced by coughing and sneezing are the cornerstones of effective infection control.
For more detailed guidance on infection control for the health and other critical sectors please follow the links below:
Ethics
The ethical framework is designed to assist planners and strategic policy makers with ethical aspects of decisions they face before, during and after an influenza pandemic. It may also help clinicians and other health and social care professionals with decisions they need to make in the same context.
Management of Deaths
Scientific modelling estimates that the UK could experience 750,000 additional deaths over the course of a pandemic.
These increases to the numbers of natural deaths in a potentially short period of time will place considerable pressure on local service providers. It is therefore essential that Local Authorities, Local Resilience Forums and other service providers (any private or public organisations involved in the management of deaths) develop plans for this eventuality.
Following completion of the consultation in November 2007 the Home Office guidance Planning for a Possible Influenza Pandemic – A Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths [PDF, 59 pages, 448KB] offers advice to local authorities and service providers who are responsible for producing and maintaining emergency and business continuity plans associated in the management of excess deaths.
On 30th August 2007, the Home Office published the draft guidance paper Planning for a Possible Influenza Pandemic: A Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths (henceforth "the Framework for Planners") for consultation. Responses were required by 30th November 2007.
A Summary of the Responses to Consultation on the Guidance Document - Planning for a Possible Influenza Pandemic: A Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths summarises the views of those who responded to the consultation on the Framework for Planners. The responses are grouped into ten categories, each covering a specific stage in the death management process. A revised version of the Framework for Planners will be published, taking into account the public’s responses and seeking to provide additional clarity in light of their comments
The Department of Health has published for further comment an interim update of draft guidance (first issued for public comment last November). The "Guidance on the management of death certification and cremation certification" proposes changes to the procedures for death and cremation certification that could be used in a severe influenza pandemic in order to enable doctors to spend as much time as possible on the care of the living and to ensure that processes for death and cremation certification can be managed as effectively as possible during a pandemic.
The consultation closes on 30 June 2008.
Pandemic Influenza: Draft Guidance on the Operation of the Coroner System in England and Wales [External website]
The draft guidance sets out proposals for the operation of the coroners system in the event of an influenza pandemic. It follows on from the commitment made to publish operational guidance for coroners in the Home Office document ‘Planning for a Possible Influenza Pandemic: A Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths’, published on 19th May 2008.
The guidance sets out potential measures that coroners and local planners can take without legislative change. It also sets out what legislative changes the Government intends to make if the severity of a pandemic necessitates legislative measures.
Education / Childcare
Department of Children Schools and Families has produced a range of guidance documents in consultation with other Government departments and various external bodies as part of the Government’s co-ordinated efforts to encourage prudent planning across all sectors, supporting the Department of Health, as lead department, in preparing and planning for a possible pandemic:
- Full guidance for schools, providers of childcare, early years and other children’s services and Local Authority Children service departments. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Summary version of guidance for schools. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Summary version of guidance for childcare and early years providers. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Model pandemic flu plan for schools. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Model pandemic flu plan for further education colleges. Department for Children, Schools and Families/ Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
- Guidance for further education colleges. Department for Children, Schools and Families/ Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
- Guidance for Higher Education institutes. Department for Children, Schools and Families/ Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
- Information for parents. Department for Children, Schools and Families. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Infection control guidance for day school and early years/ child care settings. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Infection control guidance for childminders. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Infection control guidance in residential settings. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
- Infection control guidance for Higher Education and Further Education. Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Judicial Processes
The Justice system plays a key role in the maintenance of law and order and public confidence in and respect for democratic institutions, rights and responsibilities, the safety of individuals and the protection of property. It depends on the effective participation of numerous agencies and other participants, so planning is vital to ensure services can be maintained during periods of disruption. The establishment of contingency plans for responding to a flu pandemic in the justice system is part of the government's wider pandemic planning.
The MoJ Consultation – Pandemic Influenza Planning Guidance for agencies and others involved in the Justice System sets out for consultation the planning assumptions and response strategies being proposed by the various agencies who together deliver the justice system in England and Wales. It does not apply to Scotland (other than a few tribunal offices that are part of the MoJ Tribunals Service). The consultation is aimed at the agencies and other stakeholders who have a role in keeping the system running.
The consultation closes on November 28th 2008.
This will enable planners at different levels within judicial agencies to check consistency of their plans with their agency's national position, and also check that their plans take account of the positions being taken by other agencies and the needs of other stakeholders.
To read this guidance document or to respond to the consultation please following the link below.
