Advice on adapting activities
Hazard: The virus can spread around groups that work closely together
Controls and mitigation: If you can split the group into smaller self-contained groups for activities it will reduce the risk of spread.
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When splitting the meeting into smaller groups please consider grouping members with people they already spend time with, eg: siblings, school bubbles. Your members will know what these groups are so this does not require extensive pre-planning. Particular care should be taken on activities with the potential for close proximity, eg: two scouts sharing a fire for a cooking activity.
Hazard: The virus can spread from surfaces (including shared equipment), and from the air, onto hands and from there into mouths and eyes.
Controls and mitigations: Keeping hands clean reduces the risk of spread
- Insert hand cleaning into instructions at appropriate points, e.g.: after touching shared surfaces and equipment, before and after handling food and drinks.
- As a minimum, everyone should wash their hands or sanitise them on arrival, before departure and at least once an hour during meetings.
- It's ok to share equipment where appropriate controls are in place, think about the who is using the equipment, what type of equipment it is and when hand washing would be appropriate.
Hazard: The virus can spread more easily from person to person when they work face-to-face since it is carried on the breath
Controls and mitigations:
- Don’t have a group huddled round a table face-to-face to do an activity. Consider alternative formats, e.g.:
- Group works in a circle, spread out by the distancing guideline applying at the time
- Or group works in two lines back to back - Plan in advance how to help a child that is struggling to follow instructions, without a leader moving into the distancing zone to intervene: e.g.:
- Coach from outside the distancing area
- Demonstrate from a distance with your own set of equipment
- Show a video of the activity on a phone - Get a neighbouring young person to demonstrate
It’s not worth taking the risk of going too close to solve this sort of problem.
- Separate guidance on first aid is available to explain the trade-off between distancing and providing necessary help.
Hazard: The more time a group is together, the more chance the virus has to spread from person to person.
Keep activities as short as we can, thinking about the following:
- Could the activity be simplified?
- Could more up-front preparation by leaders reduce the time it takes the young people to complete the activity, without diluting their learning?
- Could the activity be finished off at home? E.g. make something in the meeting but do the decorating at home?
Hazard: Sometimes young people may step outside the rules agreed, increasing the chances of the virus spreading.
As part of the planning for the activity, think through:
- What you will do if young people leave their groups .
- What you would do if young people don’t follow social distancing instructions within their groups.
COVID-19 safe programme ideas
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