Providing a critical service to keep you safe, warm and connected during Covid-19
Cadent are privileged to serve the communities across our networks and want to go further than their normal role to help those most vulnerable who may be adversely affected by the Covid-19 outbreak | Cadent
Cadent are providing a critical service during Covid-19: Keeping you safe, warm and connected.
There is no doubt that the ultimate heroes of this Covid-19 pandemic response are those on NHS frontline to whom we all owe lifelong gratitude for putting our lives and welfare above their own.
However, beyond that frontline, there are hundreds of thousands of critical sector employees working across the UK to ensure that essential services and supplies are maintained so that the rest of us can do the right thing and stay home to save lives.
The gas industry is amongst those listed as a ‘Critical Sector’ as issued by Cabinet Office and DfE on 18th March. It is our duty as Category 2 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act to maintain a service that keeps the public safe.
Therefore, following the Prime Ministers’ announcement on Monday 23rd March detailing enhanced restrictions for the UK public, we have liaised closely with Government authorities, Health & Safety Executive and the energy regulator Ofgem to amend our operational plans appropriately.
During this time, we are prioritising the following:
Keeping our customers and colleagues safe
If the work our employees do can be done from home, we’re insisting that they do that. However, a lot of the work we do means this simply isn’t possible.
Many of our colleagues are ‘critical workers’ and that means they need to leave their homes to provide essential services to keep your energy flowing. Where colleagues have to leave the house to carry out their job, they must follow social distancing rules where-ever possible and practical.
Keeping your energy flowing
We are prioritising the work we do to make sure that everyone continues to receive a safe and reliable energy supply. We will always prioritise emergency response, outages and urgent safety issues.
Our work programme reprioritisation has taken place in accordance with the new temporary flexibility that has been granted by our regulator Ofgem and with our own guiding principles to always do what is in the best interests of our customers and the safety of our colleagues and contract partners.
The work we do keeps you safe and warm and we will continue the critical maintenance and repair work needed to maintain a safe and reliable supply of energy. If you see us in your community or by your home, be assured that the work we are doing is absolutely necessary and is being undertaken with the sole aim of keeping you safe and connected. As a critical national infrastructure provider we will continue to prioritise connections projects where they are deemed to be essential.
Looking after those most in need
Those customers who are deemed to be ‘at risk’ who have received a letter from the NHS recommending them to take additional measures to protect themselves from Covid-19 , should consider signing up for the Priority Services Register. This provides free additional services to customers who have extra communication, access or safety needs.
We are very proud of our workforce and are committed to continue to contribute to the Covid-19 response and resilience endeavours.
We are privileged to serve the communities across our networks and we want to go further than our normal role to help those most vulnerable who may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Beyond the commitments highlighted above, the Cadent Foundation, our charitable foundation, has issued a £240,000 grant for the Trussell Trust who fund local food banks, to ensure that those people already in vulnerable situations across our networks are supported and helped during this crisis. We have also given all Cadent employees up to two days per month paid leave should they wish to volunteer their time and skills to help charities, community organisations and the NHS.
We are very proud of our workforce and are committed to continue to contribute to the Covid-19 response and resilience endeavours.
You can read more about what we are doing to keep the energy flowing during the Covid-19 both via our industry trade body the ENA here and on our website.
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