Safeguarding jobs in the South Hams

Leading South Hams property management and housekeeping company and employer of 100+ local employees, launches Safeguarding Programme and a range of new job openings

As the South Hams prepares for the easing of lockdown next month, everyone’s health and safety is on our minds.

At Pebbles, one of the South West’s leading property management and housekeeping companies, based in Salcombe, they have launched a unique Safeguarding Programme with that in mind, complete with a number of job opportunities, including those for people looking to work in family or friend ‘bubbles’.

The Safeguarding Programme has been designed to be incorporated into all existing services, including housekeeping (the company offers property management, laundry, maintenance and gardening services and also has a refurbishment team), and achieves a proportionate response to the risks of Covid-19.  Pebbles is retraining every employee, advising every contractor and informing all other parties involved with holiday homes that they manage, to make sure procedures are followed.

With the help of Holy Trinity Church Salcombe, last week 50 – 60 colleagues from Pebbles were unfurloughed and provided with the training at the requisite 2m distance.

Within that, there is training on a range of Personal Protective Equipment including goggles for Housekeepers when they change beds, masks for maintenance personnel when sharing a vehicle is unavoidable, and additional uniforms for all colleagues to wear clean daily.

Pebbles is also finalising new Safeguarding Programme communications, like the extension of their software, to enable them to send a text message to guests 24 hours before departure. They’ve designed a badge for guest communications including holiday home marketing websites to reassure guests when they’re booking, and they also have new information sheets about the Safeguarding Programme for Welcome folders.

Their approach has exhausted Government Guidance available to-date (reviewed daily), it is benchmarked against travel industry practices, and in it they have tried to account for every particular recommendation from one or other of the many letting agents, in order to make sure employees, property owners, and guests all feel as safe and reassured as humanly possible when visiting or working at the properties they care for.

James Spencer, Managing Director of Pebbles, who is also Vice Chairman for the area’s Chamber of Commerce, said: At Pebbles, care is the very heart of what we do, and we want our team, the community around us, our clients and their guests to be able to be able to enjoy their experience, with us knowing that we have done everything we can to look after them. Our Safeguarding Programme has been created with expert support and paying attention to every detail and guideline available to us. It is continuously reviewed and will be subject to ongoing development and team training as time goes on. It is vital that jobs are supported and protected within our community, and by striving to provide the best knowledge, equipment and training we can, we hope to do our part to ensure that.”

The company has been asked to share its expertise with other UK providers of holiday lets and is working with a training provider to launch online to offer the training more widely from July.

Further information

For more information please contact james@pebblesofsalcombe.co.uk