Cherwell District and Oxfordshire County services will continue with large numbers of staff working from home

Large numbers of  Oxfordshire County Council and Cherwell District staff have been told to work from home from now ownards in line with the government’s strategy on the coronavirus.
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The council will await guidance from government on how formal council meetings could be managed online before making further decisions on how these should proceed.

Chief Executive of both Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council, Yvonne Rees, said: “The advice from central government is clear. If people can work from home they should. We will be following that advice.

“For some time now we have been working with staff to ensure that they are equipped and ready to work from home and we have now reached the stage at which we are asking them to do so. People who can work from home, will work from home.”

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Critical frontline services such as fire and rescue, waste collections, highways and adults and children’s social care will continue to operate as normal.

Yvonne Rees added: “Senior staff will be talking on a daily basis to keep a very close eye on how individual services are managing and decide whether any new arrangements need to be made. Change is happening at pace. If this guidance alters we will make it clear.”

Director of Public Health Ansaf Azhar said: “We have urged all of our staff to follow advice from central government and Public Health England we say the same to the people of Oxfordshire.

"Advice will change as we move through the next few weeks and keeping in touch with those changes will be very important as we all seek to look after ourselves, our families our friends and our work colleagues.”