12th May 2020 | Coronavirus

On 11 May the UK Government published its COVID-19 recovery strategy for England, called Our plan to rebuild. The document sets out a three-stage roadmap to lifting restrictions.

A key message is that there can be no relaxing of all social distancing measures right now. The Government has made clear that England is still in lockdown although certain restrictions have been lifted. The sectors which have been allowed to return to work include food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and scientific research in laboratories.
 
You can read Our plan to rebuild  here.
 
Devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own measures in place which differ from the approach taken in England. Essentially their restrictions on working have not been eased. Their approaches can be summarised as follows:

  • Scotland: Lockdown restrictions remain in place for Scotland and the Scottish Government is not currently encouraging more people to go back to work. Find out more here.
  • Wales: Apart from modest changes in Wales, the advice remains to stay at home. In an announcement made on 8 May, the Welsh Government extended restrictions for a further three weeks. Find out more here.
  • Ireland: On 12 May, the Northern Ireland Executive published a five-step roadmap to end restrictions. The steps are not time bound to allow for flexibility. Their decision-making approach can be found here.


CNHC’s guidance to Registrants
In light of all the above, CNHC’s current guidance remains in place – face-to-face consultations and ‘hands-on’ therapies for the disciplines we register cannot take place until further notice. Those of our Registrants who are able to, should continue to work remotely.

We will be monitoring further Government announcements closely and will keep you informed.
 
In the meantime we are working on return to practice guidance for our Registrants, so that you can start to prepare for practising face to face when this can finally go ahead.
 
Support if you are self-employed and unable to work
As there is no definite date for returning to practice, if you are self-employed or a member of a partnership you may want to check if you are eligible to claim a grant through the Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). You can do this via the online eligibility checker on the Gov.uk website.