The ongoing coronavirus crisis is having far-reaching effects on businesses worldwide.

New challenges are being faced every day across every industry, not to mention the impact on people’s personal and home lives. This is especially so during this current lockdown.

While the COVID vaccines continue to roll out across the UK, until they have been administered to the majority of the population, the key focus is on reducing the spread of the virus.

This is vitally important and, here at Key Forensic Services, we are taking every step necessary to manage the crisis and ensure our workplace is COVID-secure, and that the impact on the service we provide is minimised.

As a business, we continue to follow the latest government and Public Health England advice, and will continuously work to provide up-to-date COVID guidance and support to our staff and customers.

We have invested significant resources into managing the risks around COVID, to ensure that anyone who sets foot on our premises is safe in the knowledge that their welfare is paramount.

To that end, KFS is now undertaking lateral flow COVID testing of every consenting member of staff and every visitor to all four of our sites – Coventry, Warrington, Norwich and Bristol.

What other steps are KFS taking to manage the risk of COVID?

We have implemented a number of other additional safe-working measures at all four of our sites to combat the impact and spread of coronavirus. These include: 

• Physical alteration to our buildings and workspaces: We still have a number of employees who work on the premises, so we have implemented screening at workstations in all departments and redesigned the layouts of our laboratories, offices and break out areas. We have also enhanced and improved our video conference facilities because, like many other businesses, this is now an integral feature of how we communicate and operate
  
  
• Staff, where possible, will work from home. When that is not possible, the policy and procedure regulations we have introduced allow more flexible working arrangements to minimise the density of staff on site at any one time
  
  
• Court appearances are an integral and valuable requirement of the nature of our work. Now, many of these appearances are held virtually
  
  
• We have improved and enhanced our quality and supply of PPE and cleaning materials
  
  
• We have improved internal communications, including regular meetings of our dedicated Emergency Management Team, who regularly discuss and evaluate the on-going COVID-based risk assessment

These vital measures have resulted in the effective management of the COVID risk to our staff and services, and we are extremely pleased to report that KFS continues to keep infections within our workforce to a minimum.

We would like to thank all our staff for their professionalism and diligence in following the new ways of working shaped by COVID, and their continued commitment to supporting our valued customers.

Dr Des Vanhinsbergh, Chief Operating Officer