Leadership Team update
From: Colin Lewis
Date: 6 April 2020
To: All Staff
Purpose
The purpose of this short note is to provide you with what will become a weekly update from me to all of you to briefly outline where we have been focussing our efforts as a department as we continue to respond to an unprecedented global crisis.
PIMT
The Pandemic Incident Management Team (PIMT) now meets every weekday morning via teleconference to be briefed on the latest situation and to address emerging issues that impact on all aspects of our delivery of services.
Rollout of laptops
This week we continued to work with ITAssist and have issued around 76 laptops for staff working in essential roles and we hope to issue another batch today. This has been a complex and detailed project and I appreciate the co-operation and patience of those involved in its delivery.
Redeployment guidelines
We are also finalising guidelines to allow us to temporarily redeploy staff from non-essential roles so that we can maintain essential services and respond quickly to new and emerging needs as they arise. We are of course consulting with TUS and we provided them with an update on the work we have done in the past two weeks since I last met with them.
Keeping in touch
Effective communication is always important but particularly now given that some staff are working remotely while others remain at home without access to work.
This is why I want to personally communicate with you, probably each Friday morning, by way of a short bulletin that will also be placed on the DfE website for access by those not on the NICS network. It can be found on the Home page under Corporate Information – COVID-19 – Staff Communications:
This memo and earlier ones from the Minister, and Mike Brennan and myself are all available there. Please ensure that your staff and colleagues are aware of how to access this information and actively encourage them to do so.
Business and other policy interventions
There has already been an enormous amount of work done to develop and launch various policy initiatives designed to alleviate the hardship being experienced by Northern Ireland’s business base. You might have seen various announcements in the media with regard to these. In the weeks to come, I will use this forum to elaborate more fully on the absolutely tremendous work that is being done.
DoH guidelines
The Department of Health is projecting that a surge in infection will start to be evident this week. I am therefore asking all staff who do not have a key worker letter from the Permanent Secretary to work from home (if you have remote access) and not visit any DfE buildings. Your health and wellbeing is of paramount importance and I urge you to follow government guidelines and please, stay safe.
COLIN LEWIS