COVID-19 – sector impact WEBINARS


A ‘very important part of the process’ was bringing furloughed staff back to work to help ‘get growth back’, and Mr Davis said it was ‘worth remembering that when you bring them back you will have new welfare demands’, such as human resource issues. Cashflow problems were being helped by government and bank schemes, but there ‘could be an extremely deep recession’, so owners must ‘plan effectively from the worst to the most optimistic’ scenarios. Parts of businesses could be repurposed, which is something that is happening economy wide, and it was important in the fire sector to consider ‘whether areas can change or withstand’ this situation – you can get governance and cashflow issues sorted by seeing if ‘systems will be strong enough to withstand this extended drought’. Moving forward and ‘enabling success’ would be ‘all about communication internally and externally’, and ‘trying to make sure that new routes are open’, while supply chain issues might mean your company is ‘ready to go’ but suppliers may be experiencing difficulties with international deliveries and customs. The whole procurement process ‘could be the downfall of small and large companies’, with the ‘critical’ supply chain becoming ‘really so important’. Mr Davis believed we would ‘find ourselves


growing at different rates in different places’, while the COVID-19 alert service and national government differences ‘will change how we go’ forward, and businesses need to be alert to these differences. However, the sector was concerned about these issues as ‘we’re asking questions and not getting many answers’, so the fire industry needed ‘to provide our own answers – we have to try and interpret the rules and make them work’. Moving ahead with business ‘could be extremely


slow and very difficult’, as fire is an exporting sector with international customers, and it was right to ask ‘how long is this going to go on. Is this the new normal?’.


Mr Davis concluded by stating: ‘We know what to do and what’s been impressed upon us, and we know how to stop the spread – we’ve somehow got to work our way through that to try and ensure we can get the sector back up on its feet’, and highlighting that innovation is a key cog in this.


FIA


Mr Moore then spoke about issues relating to information, working conditions, financial implications and internal adaptations that the FIA had been making, stating that ‘clearly there are more people looking for more information’. The association was providing ‘useful, relevant information across media’, and had been seeking clarification ‘on what has been said’, with the ‘new normal’ a phrase ‘we use all the time’. The FIA was trying to ‘influence government decisions and liaise with other professional bodies’. It believes that the ‘best use of time in isolation is taking the opportunities to increase knowledge’. The biggest problem has been the ‘lack of clarity – some people need that definition’, and the FIA had found that ‘specifically in the area on key workers’ it had been ‘horrendous’, as ‘thousands of people were asking us about it’, so it ‘made a point of not interpreting the guidelines’. Instead, the FIA ‘went back to the government and


told them to clarify’ the guidance, and at the same time ‘pushed very hard for key worker status for the sector’. Mr Moore pointed out that the sector has to ‘make customers aware that they are contravening legislation when our staff are turned away from maintenance jobs’, as companies then ‘have to try and push things back down the line, within certain reason – but when will this be until?’. He also highlighted the furlough issues and argued


that clarity ‘is the main thing’, especially when it comes to the supply chain. Government clarification said that ‘as long as you’re going by the rules, you


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