We will continue to add to this list as we receive common themes of feedback to the plan, or as Government advice changes that requires clarification.
The Government has announced a four-step roadmap out of lockdown restrictions and has signalled a potential complete removal of social distancing guidelines by 21 June at the earliest.
Basketball England has liaised with Sport England and the department of Media, Culture and Sport and can confirm the approach for basketball outlined below in line with the organisation’s established Return to Play protocols.
Our updated roadmap will see all levels of basketball, indoor and out, move to RTP Level 1 from Monday 17 May.
The RTP is based on 5 key principles as below:
Yes.
Should any club or individual make an insurance claim (or protect themselves from liabilities) during the duration of the Coronavirus pandemic, their prospects of a successful claim would be affected on evidencing that they had complied with Government and Basketball England’ RTP guidance.
If you have had mild symptoms you should be looking to return to basketball after a graded period of 4 weeks of exercise. For more severe episodes that have required a hospital or doctor visit, you could be looking at a period of up to 3 months.
If you have been in hospital with COVID-19, you will hopefully get guidance on when you can return to exercise. It is important to remember that you have had a serious illness and therefore taking your time to return to exercise is very important.
Effectively, they are another member of your household. As long as the two of you do not have any high-risk factors then it should be fine to continue as you have been albeit, being mindful of good hygiene practices.
If one or both of you were to be infected, you would have to follow Government isolation guidelines.
If you are asked to self isolate either by the club or the NHS Test and Trace and if you live alone, you should self isolate for 10 days.
If the child is unwell enough not to attend school they should not be attending any basketball related activity.
The vaccination is meant to reduce the risk of serious health problems if you were to contract COVID-19. Unfortunately, this still means you can catch and therefore pass on the virus. Therefore you must continue to comply with the hygiene and social distancing guidance as well as complete the screening process at every training session.
A temperature of over 37.8˚C is one of the three most common symptoms of COVID-19 and it is also one of the easiest to give us a good reading; people can't cheat with it.
Using the infra-red non-contact thermometer is a non-invasive way to measure the temperatures of individuals. An individual can easily take their own temperature. If the person has run or jogged to the venue there would not be a rise in temperature as much as this therefore it is assumed that a temperature as high as 37.8˚C would indicate a fever and therefore the person has to isolate.
An in-ear thermometer is a more reliable method of taking core temperature, but they rely on the use of repeat caps and will probably need someone to administer it.
Yes.
We have to know if anyone has symptoms that may infect others. Stopping those people from participating is really important when we are trying to stop the spread of the virus amongst the community.
We also need to know who attended each session in case someone later contracts COVID-19 and we need to contact trace everyone that that individual came into contact with.
We are advocating that individuals (or parents) should take their own temperatures with the thermometer provided by the clubs at the training site.
Once taken the thermometer will have to be wiped down but it means that a member of staff does not have to get near all the people taking part in training.
Yes potentially, but this would be better than spreading COVID-19 throughout the club. A way reduce this would be to follow up the initial reading with an 'in-ear' temperature.
This is the more accurate measurement, although you would have to throw away the caps after use. If that indicates a normal temperature then that individual can take part in training.
They should be advised to return home as they are unable to attend the training session. They should not stop and talk to anyone at the session. They, along with their household, should self isolate and call 119 or go online to organise a test for COVID-19. The testing system will advise them after that.
The screening has to be conducted in a place away from others or where others will congregate. The car park is most likely the best place.
The screening must be conducted in a place away from others or where others will congregate. The car park may be the most ideal place.
We are recommending that the Club COVID-19 Officer keeps the screening and attendance documents safe for 21 days after the training session in order to help with contact tracing. It should be confidentially destroyed after that.
We now know that most people will not know they have the virus for 48 hours before the symptoms commence. It is also most easily spread in that 48 hours so we can be infecting everyone around us before we even know about it.
The Government believe this is the right way to reduce the risk of the virus spreading once an individual is aware of the symptoms.
By contacting and isolating all those that the infected person has come into contact with 48 hrs prior to symptoms, we should be able to reduce the risk of spread amongst the wider community.
We are also asking the basketball clubs via the COVID-19 Officer to contact anybody that was in contact with the infected individual. This is another layer of protection for all those involved.
Unfortunately even if the test result is negative you will have to continue to self isolate.
This is because you may still be incubating the virus despite testing negative. It is believed the incubation period may be up to 10 days after contact.
As long as the COVID Officer is happy that an individual can competently take the temperatures and record the answers to the screening questions, anyone will be able to conduct the screening before passing on the paperwork to the COVID Officer for filing.
The vaccination is meant to reduce the risk of serious health problems if you were to contract COVID-19. Unfortunately this still means you can catch and therefore pass on the virus. Therefore you must continue to comply with the hygiene and social distancing guidance as well as complete the screening process at every training session.
Whilst we know that sweat is very unlikely to transmit the virus, other bodily fluid can and therefore disinfecting the ball is a good way to reduce the spread of infection.
We are all aware of those players that wipe their nose, mouth, eyes etc before taking a free throw, it is these small transmissions that may infect other players.
Remember for Level 3 everyone has to have their own ball so the risk of infection is lower, especially if everyone disinfects their balls before and after the sessions.
Normal disinfection wipes such as the Clinell Wipes from Fit4Sport or a disinfectant spray.
At the end of a session, a bucket with a Miton disinfectant tablet should do the trick as well. Clearly making sure there is no excess water on the court is a priority as well.
We would recommend the following as good facial coverings; Surgical masks, three-layer masks, fabric or cloth masks.
FFP3 masks should be reserved for clinical use by the NHS and stocks preserved for this important work. As the individuals will be screened, we do not perceive there to be a need for FFP3 masks, although this relies on all clubs to screen properly.
First Aiders should use their own clinical judgement.
It is advisable to wear these, firstly to stop any aerosol spread (water droplets from mouth during coughing, sneezing, talking etc) and secondly as a reminder not to touch your mouth, nose, eyes.
There is some evidence that performing vigorous exercise whilst wearing face coverings may cause some lung damage. Although the risk is small it is still there.
However recently we have seen an increase in athletic face coverings. We cannot advocate those above others but they might be more easily used by athletes.
At this moment in time Basketball England do not have any funding opportunities for the purchase of PPE. We are however engaged in conversations with stakeholders and partners in relation to this matter and we will update everyone accordingly.
It doesn't matter who provides the ball as long as there is good hygiene to wipe/disinfect the ball before and during use.
We recommend:
In line with Government advice and following what other sports across the country are doing, we are asking that there is a designated individual that is able to be the 'Go To' Person in the club to provide guidance for all members about how to reduce the risks of COVID-19.
They should have a good knowledge of the Basketball England RTP Roadmap and what the club must do to keep their community safe. They should be able to pass information easily to all members when new content is released to our clubs and teams.
Click here to access the RTP guidance document, as a role description has been included as appendix 1
Yes.
Please do ask other members of the club to help with the roles as we do understand this initially might be a large task. Once processes are in place then it should be a fairly easy job to maintain the communications.
Anyone. It doesn't have to be a medic necessarily although a person with good access to communications at the club would be advisable. This is because a key component of the role is effective and timely communication with team managers, coaches, players and parents.
Essentially, as long as they follow the RTP Roadmap document then it should bean easy role to undertake.
However, we will be offering a webinar solely for Club COVID-19 Officers to ask questions and help iron out any questions. This will be announced in the coming weeks.
We are only asking that the club contact the individuals that would have come into contact with the infected individual 48 hrs before symptoms arise.
We need to make sure the infection does not spread further than just the individual and the people they met, rather than the whole club or community.
The Government NHS Test and Trace service will be able to contact the other people that individual will have come across outside of the basketball court.
We are asking clubs to hold both attendance records and also information about members health.
This may be the first time clubs have had to do this and we are aware that this is not normal practice for some clubs. We can assure you that the stance BE is taking is to make sure that the health and safety of all members is paramount.
The UK Government is also asking sports to monitor players and staff before they play sport so we are no different in this regard.
There a a number of processes clubs have to go through for handling this information. For advice on how to ensure you are compliant with GDPR in the handling of special category data, visit the ICO website. Further information can be found by clicking HERE.
We are keen to see as many people as possible to get access to basketball courts at a time when sport and exercise are so important for people's physical and mental health and we’ve encouraged court owners to give all members of the basketball community access to courts where it is safe to do so.
Unfortunately, we can’t order facility providers to open up their courts. Each facility will have to re-open with their own procedures and policies in place that everyone will have to adhere to.
The screening must be conducted in a place away from others or where others will congregate. The car park may be the most ideal place.
Each facility will have their own regulations but we are advising that you use the changing rooms to a minimum.
The toilets should be regularly cleaned and individuals should follow excellent hand hygiene practices.
Spectators are allowed indoors, but the total number of all in attendance - participants, coaches, officials and spectators - must be agreed by and aligned to the capacity permitted by the venue. See Game Day Guidance
Each venue will have their own regulations that you will have to adhere to.
We advise making the venue aware of the Basketball England Return To Play guidance, highlighting the social distancing and hygiene guidance that you will be adhering to.
Ultimately, you will have to observe venue guidance in addition to our RTP guidance.
We are aware that some venues will have slower openings than others. This maybe worse in educational institutions.
We have provided a letter of support for clubs to take to their venues outlining some of the processes that BE have taken to mitigate the COVID-19 risks.
We strongly recommend all clubs take these letters to venues along with copies of the RTP guidance so venues are able to see what responsible clubs will be doing to reduce the risks of transmission.
To download the letter of support, click HERE.
It doesn't matter who provides the ball as long as there is good hygiene to wipe/disinfect the ball.
Yes. Bubbles are no longer a requirement though clubs may use them as a precaution.
The total number of people on court for organised training is outdoor and indoor organised basketball permitted - maximum 30 people per court.
Organised is defined as any level (elite, youth and senior) of basketball undertaken by Basketball England affiliated clubs and registered members at Return To Play Level 1.
At Level 1 we have to do our best to maintain maximum distance between individuals:
We have significant detail on how to set up your venue in our Game Day Guidance.
In a game situation, officials have the power to enforce a technical foul on a team if either an individual or the team are not abiding by the RTP guidelines.
Outside of a game, individuals can alert Basketball England if they feel that a venue or club are not adhering to the advice via support@basketballengland.co.uk and we can look into the situation on a case by case basis.
Please see Appendix 8 of the RTP to see our actions on breaches of the RTP.
Yes it is advised to complete the Level 1 Risk Assessment for training and games. These can be found here.
