Here at Morgans Consult, we’ve fortunately been able to continue operating throughout the UK lockdown. Like many businesses, we experienced a lot of uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have kept busy creating a range of safety products and PPE to assist with safe working, which can be found on our online shop.
From the initial announcement regarding the Coronavirus back in early January, we felt a great deal of concern regarding the safety of our staff members and the future of our industry. At this point, we continued working as normal, carrying out projects as scheduled but keeping ourselves informed with all news regarding the virus.
After the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the UK on the 29th January, we held discussions regarding whether we should place large ongoing projects on hold. We had an incredibly busy start to the year and were reluctant to let any clients down, but the safety of our staff was of paramount importance to us. We decided to continue working throughout February and much of March, ensuring we were following all government guidelines to guarantee we were operating as safely as possible.
The UK entered full lockdown on the 23rd March and, following government guidelines, we ceased all non-essential work and retained just a small number of staff to keep lines of communication with our clients open. We felt helpless at the situation that we and so many others were in, and began to think about ideas of how we could offer our support to those on the frontline.
We soon realised that the ongoing pandemic had caused unprecedented demand for PPE which was not being met. Through friends and family, we discovered that frontline health staff and key workers were struggling to obtain the necessary PPE required to work safely. We soon realised that we could be of help. Using our in-house facilities, we began manufacturing and donating full face visors to the NHS across South England and Wales. As of today, we have donated over 2500 safety visors to the frontline workers of the NHS.
During the UK lockdown, we also discovered that many of our long-standing clients were unprepared for a safe re-opening and required a range of safety products to help with COVID-19 infection prevention. These clients needed to find solutions for restarting their operations and working safely when the UK lockdown ended, which we knew we could help with. As well as manufacturing face visors for key workers, we soon found ourselves busy creating virus prevention products for use on business sites. We quickly developed a range of products to facilitate a safe working environment and reduce the risk of infection, including:
- Acrylic protection screens
- Safety notice signs & graphics
- Social distancing floor graphics
- Door handle openers
RNLI/Nick Mailer
We started by producing a large number of site safety signage for Welsh Water in April, before working with BOF to create a system of health & safety signage and wayfinding signage for a large selection of university and public sector buildings across England and Wales. These large-scale projects were carried out by our limited team of essential staff, operating via video conferences so that we could safely yet effectively communicate with our clients. Our production staff operated in shifts during this time, allowing a socially distanced environment while they worked to keep up with the demand.
BOF
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
In May, we then started to produce store re-opening packs for The Royal Voluntary Service and Coffee #1, which included safety posters, floor graphics and acrylic protection screens. These ongoing projects ensure that all sites are able to reopen safely with clear indicators of all restrictions that are in place.
We then began working on other large-scale safety and wayfinding signage projects for Spire Healthcare and Unite the Union in June. The high demand for virus prevention products allowed us to continue operating throughout a period of great uncertainty, and slowly we have been able to rebuild our team back up.
Lockdown in Wales began to ease on the 29th June, leading to more and more businesses beginning to re-open and more requirement for virus safety signs. The ever-growing number of requests from our new client base mean we are now back to operating a full team, ensuring that we can meet the high demand for safety equipment.
As a team, we all feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to continue operating throughout these difficult times. We are proud that we have been able to help so many organisations resume working safely and in line with government guidelines, while also being able to donate a large number of PPE to frontline key workers. We have also now been provided key worker passes by the government, allowing us to physically attend surveys for important projects that will enable other companies to operate safely.
Contact us today to find out more about how we can help with your safety signage requirements.
