On Friday we shared the updated SOA covid guidance to Club Chairs, Secretaries and Club Covid Officers to reflect the changes in Scottish Government Strategic Framework for Covid-19 which took effect on 21st March. Today we can publish the guidance available here. Our Safety Director, Tim O’Donoghue has also made changes to the risk assessment protocols required for club events and activities, we are pleased to inform you that covid measures are now embedded in the British Orienteering risk assessment template and available here for download.
Season’s Greetings! We know there are a number of events planned over the festive season and we are delighted to see that changes to Government guidance still permit outdoor activity and for events (under 500people) to go ahead. However we also wanted to reaffirm some of key guidance messages in place to ensure any orienteering events and activities are taking appropriate precautions to ensure they mitigate risk of the spread especially of the new, high transmissable covid variant of Omicron.
Our guidance issued 16th July still remains in place and the event risk assessments were updated in August should be used to help plan and organise events taking into considerations covid guidance. We felt it important to clarify a few areas of guidance at this time:
Minimise the number of people involved with on the day delivery of the event/activity
Indoor venues would ideally not be used for any part of the event/activity. However, we also recognise it is December in Scotland so if an indoor venue is in use it is vital that Scottish Government guidance is followed and 1m physical distancing is enforced. Further Scottish Government guidance is available at Coronavirus in Scotland – gov.scot No more than 100 people are permitted to be standing in an indoor venue so please take this into consideration.
Please ensure there is adequate hand sanitizer available at key touch points
Avoid display or provision of results at the event
Pre-registration is still a requirement of events in Scotland
We recommend no prize giving takes place to prevent crowds from gathering, even in an outdoors space.
Yesterday our Chief Operating Officer, Fiona Keir, joined 34 other CEOs of Scottish Sports Governing Bodies to connect with the Minister for Public Health and Sport, Mairi Gougeon, and Chief Executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, at the virtual meeting.
In light of the First Minister’s announcement that mainland Scotland has been placed in extended Level 4 ‘stay at home’ restrictions we are required to publish new guidance to reflect these significant changes effective from 8th January 2021.
Orienteering in Level 4 – Stay at Home: All club organised activities, coaching and events have been suspended until further notice.
Travel restrictions: To minimise the risk of spreading the virus, you must stay at home as much as possible. When taking part in sport, exercise or recreation participants should at all times follow Scottish Government ‘stay at home’ guidance.
Meeting other people: A maximum of 2 people from up to 2 separate households (12 years or over) can meet outdoors for sport, exercise or recreation purposes if 2m physical distancing is maintained, before, during and after the activity.
Members are still permitted to enjoy orienteering as part of their daily exercise and we encourage the use of permanent courses and MapRunF*.
We recognise this winter ‘lockdown’ is likely to have a significant impact on our clubs and members, please make sure you keep connected and do reach out for support if you require it.
You can download the guidance in PDF format below:
In light of Scottish Government’s announcement that the Scottish mainland will move to level 4 on 26th December for a period of 3 weeks. The SOA guidance published on the 7th December remains in place however the SOA have today published a clarification on the orienteering events and activities permitted in level 4.
We ask all members and clubs to comply with Scottish Government guidelines at all times, ensure they know the travel restrictions in place and follow SOA guidance set out to allow orienteering to continue. We are fortunate that orienteering in many forms is permitted in level 4, please stay local, stay active and stay safe this festive season. We must protect the reputation of the sport and also respect everyone enjoying the outdoor spaces available.
While we recognise that orienteering does not stop over the festive season, the Scottish Orienteering ‘office’ will be shut between 22nd December and 5th January with most of the staff using annual leave to extend their holiday after a busy year.
A note to all clubs and members to say that the SOA guidance published on 7th December will remain in place until 5th January.
Due to changes in the travel legislation there has been some amendments to our SOA guidance on orienteering activities and events. This guidance will be issued to Club Covid Officers and we advise any questions be directed to Fiona@Scottish-orienteering.org We have outlined below all changes that have been made to highlight those areas which have changed.
Thank you all for your patience as we sought clarity on the travel restrictions outlined in our guidance. Matters raised at the Covid Officer session last Thursday were really useful in our approach to these guidelines published today.
Due to a temporary issue with our website, we are aware a number of members have been unable to access documents and some resources. We are in the process of trying to fix this glitch. However we want to ensure everyone has access to the current SOA guidance document so the full text is available below. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
SportScotland have indicated that part of the Scottish Government’s wish to enable outdoor organised sport for under 18s is that coaches, both professional and voluntary, are allowed to cross Local Authority boundaries by more than 5 miles for coaching purposes so long as neither Local Authority is at Level 4.
