Tony Walker, National Gas Compliance Manager, raises awareness of our gas safety measures during the pandemic

Globally the last six months or so have been a very difficult and problematic time. The pandemic has created many challenges for the maintenance service sector. One of them was maintaining access to residents’ homes to complete the annual Landlord Gas Safety Records and general repairs. However, throughout this challenging period, MSPS has managed to maintain a Gas Safety Record Compliance of 99.82% over all gas contracts, which is a fantastic result!

We continue to work closely with our clients and partners to ensure appropriate measures are in place to protect our people and the communities we serve. During the pandemic we implemented and adopted Safe Systems of Work as part of our six COVID-19 Secure Standards, for example:

• We reduced the risk of working in occupied properties to the lowest practicable level.
• While working in communal areas social distancing measures were in place (including physical barriers to maintain 2m safe working zones). Strict and recorded cleaning regimes as well as clear signage to divert and reduce risk of foot traffic. Please note special consideration was given to working in areas of vulnerability, such as sheltered accommodation.
• Informed by the Government guidelines, our engineers wore Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as engineers and resident’s safety is imperative. Our engineers have various levels of PPE, ranging from gloves and masks, which are mandatory, to a full PPE suit for people that have COVID but urgently require our assistance for heating or hot water problems.
• We also take the welfare and wellbeing of our employees very seriously, and we have a clear methodology for identifying vulnerability within our own workforce.

Our COVID portal
Also to help support our customers through this pandemic MSPS launched its COVID portal. The portal provides customers with a platform for all their COVID queries – it now includes FAQ’s and information on Gas Safety Checks for residents. Residents can find out about our working practices, what repairs we are carrying out, how best to access our services and what they can expect when our engineers attend their property.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without the fantastic team and I’d like to thank all our gas engineers and staff who make this all possible, well done and keep up the good work!