Preparing the way
John Shonfeld, recently appointed Master of the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners, shares how it’s preparing to help its members re-enter the marketplace following quarantine.
As the lockdown eases and businesses awaken from their pandemic- induced hiatus, the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners (WCEC) is focusing on how to support the cleaning industry, as always.
During the enforced break, I’ve quietly slipped into my new role as Master. With my colleagues at
the WCEC, we’ve been planning how to adjust to the strange new world we have all found ourselves in. The biggest question for us has been ‘how can we help our members right now?’
With some relaxation in lockdown rules, we now feel as if there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. Anyone who is a member of a livery company knows that their activities are underpinned by support and a strong sense of ‘giving back’. More than ever, we are trying to give back by supporting the cleaning industry’s ‘COVID-19 opening package’.
This initiative supports our members as they re-enter the market. Because of the nature of the pandemic, deep cleaning has become the number one priority for businesses who want to make their premises ready for re- occupation, and thereafter safe to work in. Many standard cleaning companies have not had the usual volume of work because of the rapid cessation of occupation in clients’ premises. The Coronavirus has informed how they will service their clients in the future.
Starting again in the ‘new normal’
So now we are helping our members get back to work, by coordinating information on government rules and guidelines for hygienic preparation of public buildings and spaces. This goes above and beyond regular cleaning
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protocols. Instead, this is about delivering deep cleaning services to make sure workers return to a COVID-free environment. The WCEC has also liaised with other livery companies on behalf of our members, informing them that the cleaning industry is offering this new package of services to prepare office and commercial properties for employees to re-enter.
Many companies have been talking to the cleaning industry about the COVID opening package already. We are taking care in coordinating the government rules so everyone follows a protocol. All the livery clerks are offering this package among their respective liveries’ members to help them get their premises ready for the workforce.
This involves supplying a deep clean on site as well as using steam and chemicals. All surfaces would be thoroughly sanitised to make buildings ready for occupation. On top of that, the internal spaces are then configured to allow personnel distancing of one metre apart, with screening put in place.
Planning ahead but with caution
We too at the WCEC have had to adjust during the 2020 quarantine. All our events have been postponed. My tenure as Master started during the lockdown and I haven’t been officially installed with the traditional ceremony and banquet. However, we aim to hold that later in the year at the Drapers Hall, public health permitting. Although, apart from my appointment, we do welcome another newcomer at the worshipful company – our new Almoner, Steve Wright, who succeeds the now retiring Michael Bisley.
Despite the current challenge and cautious outlook for the future, we are doing our bit to get Britain back to work. With care and practical adaptions, we can do it. It will seem strange; the way we interact with our built environment will be very different for a long while probably.
However, with some creative thinking, scientific approaches and collaboration, I believe we can achieve what we want to, and recover some recognisable normality in our post- lockdown world.
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