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Our experience of the novichok attack has helped us prepare for this public health crisis

The Salisbury poisoning was a once-in-a-lifetime event. But, as Sue Shirt reveals, one landlord’s response has provided lessons for dealing with coronavirus

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Picture: Getty
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Our experience of the novichok attack has helped us prepare for this public health crisis, says @sue_shirt of @StonewaterUK #ukhousing

What @StonewaterUK’s response to the Salisbury poisoning tells us about how housing associations can respond to public health crises

The BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings, which aired last week and focused on the internal mechanisms of a public health crisis response, brings obvious parallels with the current coronavirus pandemic.

The drama followed the work of Tracy Daszkiewicz, director of public health for Wiltshire Council, as she worked with colleagues to try to combat a lethal and invisible enemy: novichok.

The public health response team that Tracy assembled instigated a lockdown; they also closed aspects of the local economy, set up an elaborate system of contact tracing and testing, sourced and distributed personal protective equipment for people on the frontlines, and they dealt with a terrified and frustrated public.

Perhaps one of the less well-known elements of this incident is Stonewater’s involvement.

On Saturday 30 June 2018, we received reports of an ambulance attending one of our flats on Muggleton Road, Amesbury. Two people were treated: Charlie Rowley, a Stonewater resident, and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess. Initial reports suggested the use of contaminated drugs was the cause but a much darker scenario began to emerge, and by 4 July both Dawn and Charlie were in a critical condition after a suspected nerve agent poisoning.

The next day it was confirmed the couple had been exposed to novichok. Charlie’s flat, along with a neighbouring Stonewater property, then became the focus of public attention.

While the government’s counter-terrorism team were the public face of the unfolding events, Stonewater also played a key role in joining with other agencies, including the local council, police, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the South Wiltshire Recovery Co-ordinating Group, to manage the incident on the ground.

We had three priorities:

  • To support the multi-agency response by co-ordinating statements, clarifying information and preparing for a potential evacuation of residents in the vicinity.
  • To support our customers, many of whom were afraid, confused and desperately seeking assurance, while also being a of media attention.
  • Identify and support our business colleagues, including frontline staff who had visited the homes before the presence of the nerve agent was uncovered.

We immediately established a crisis response team, making sure that we were visible and accessible to affected customers and partners.

Our focus was on predicting what was required before we were asked and to make life easy for those whose homes were affected or whose role it was to keep the community safe and investigate the situation.

So, we dedicated resources at an executive and operational level and gathered together useful data, maps and scheme designs. You would be amazed at the level of demand for this information, and it was helpful to everyone to be ready to push that send button immediately.

We also managed the day-to-day things such as preparing Q&As and keeping the regulator, board and frontline colleagues in the loop.

Events at Amesbury were constantly evolving and we aimed to put people and the local community at the forefront our response. We made sure we undertook welfare calls to the local residents, often daily, and worked hard to find a new home for our customer from the flat below who had just 30 minutes to move out.

When Dawn sadly died on 8 July 2018, we liaised with Stonewater’s charitable arm – Longleigh Foundation – to help cover funeral costs. At a time like this, taking away the worry about paying for a funeral just seemed the right thing to do. Local colleagues asked to attend the service – a true reflection of how deeply they felt about the people involved, and a request we were happy to support.

“Nothing could have prepared me for seeing our new home stripped back to its shell, but if I wasn’t willing to go in, I could not expect colleagues or customers to ever do so”

Charlie’s former home was finally declared safe in January last year and I attended to see first-hand the impact of the clean-up operation. The pictures showed just how dangerous novichok is.

Nothing could have prepared me for seeing our brand new home stripped back to its shell, but if I wasn’t willing to go in, I could not expect colleagues or customers to ever do so.

This month Mr Rowley’s former home has once again been the focus of attention from both local residents and national media as we consulted on plans to demolish the property this summer and shared our vision for what we hope to do with the site once it is cleared.

While crisis management is something we expect to do at Stonewater, for any organisation it is hard to imagine a more unlikely scenario than a Russian nerve agent attack. Nevertheless, all across the business, we stepped up and delivered an exceptional response. We were decisive and demonstrated outstanding capability, insight, sensitivity, flexibility and professionalism.

As we continue to respond as a business to the effects of COVID-19, we have no doubt drawn from our experience of dealing with what we thought then was a once-in-a-lifetime incident.

Sue Shirt, executive director – customer experience, Stonewater

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