Community & Support News

Message to SFA Residents

Please see the message below to all SFA residents, about the current situation.

'As you know, MOD is taking the spread of Coronavirus in the UK extremely seriously, and you will have seen the recent messages from CDS and Perm Sec on the steps being taken to reduce its impact across Defence in line with Government advice.

I realise this is an anxious time for you all and I wanted to update you on the actions we are taking to continue to support you during this time and to ensure your safety and that of our staff and supply chain partners. To date we have taken the following steps:

Customer Service Advisors for Amey, Mears and other providers are asking callers if they, or anyone living at their property, is undergoing a period of self-isolation or social-distancing.

Industry partner personnel attending appointments will call ahead to ask occupants if they, or anyone living at the property is undergoing a period of self-isolation or social-distancing.

Where occupants are self-isolating, operatives will not enter a property to undertake planned or non-critical reactive maintenance or Move In/Out tasks for a period of 17 days or until such time as it is confirmed that there is no longer any risk.

Operatives will attempt to resolve critical tasks with occupants through telephone dialogue. If resolution is not practical, Regional DIO/Amey teams will seek to identify alternative temporary accommodation.

If you or your families have been self-isolating, at the end of this period, in accordance with Public Health England Guidelines and the guidelines of the devolved authorities, occupants are asked to ensure the property is clean prior to any 3rd party visiting. These guidelines can be found here

The definitions of self-isolating and social distancing are as follows:

Self-isolation: staying at home because you, or someone in the same household, has symptoms.

Social distancing: staying at home and/or working remotely if possible, keeping at least 2 metres from others, and staying away from public places even if neither you nor anyone in your household has symptoms.  

More detail is available at NHS,  Amey and Mears websites.

In addition to the well-being of all concerned, our focus will remain on providing the full range of accommodation services. However, given the increasing scale and pace of the virus, and the experience of other countries, over time our ability to deliver is likely to reduce. Whilst we will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated through your Chain of Command and the Families Federations, we will have to make some hard decisions about the services we can continue to provide. Given the uneven spread of the virus, those impacts are likely to be different from region to region. To help mitigate these as much as possible I would ask, if your issue is non-urgent, to ease pressure by delaying your call until the pandemic starts to subside.

I am grateful for your support and understanding as we navigate through this difficult period.

I wish you and your families the very best of health during this difficult time.

Air Commodore Wendy Rothery

Head of Accommodation DIO