Keeping the Duchy Family Safe

The last few months have been challenging for the UK, including individuals and businesses across the Duchy family. We have seen a tremendous community spirit develop and acts of kindness from Duchy tenants and business owners as people help those in greatest need.

From farm shops and individuals delivering essential supplies to their local community, to one of our farmers even taking in a flock of sheep and lambing them while their owner was in hospital with the virus. 

 As the Covid 19 restrictions gradually ease and the country begins a return to a new normal, so too have our staff.  The priority is, of course, to ensure the safety of the Duchy family.  In accordance with Government guidance we have therefore updated our risk assessment to cover our return to the offices and our other places of work. These risk assessments will be kept under constant review and are publicly available here.  

The lockdown restrictions have meant that the whole team has grasped new ways of working - with video calling becoming the new normal. We hope that we can continue to make full use of technology in the future, not just to improve efficiency but also reduce the number of journeys that we all make to meetings. That said, we very much look forward to being able to resume face to face contact with all of our tenants and partners. 

The Land Steward team have also used this time to get involved in a number of virtual conferences and seminars.  One of note is a webinar series focussing on the ‘Future of Land Management’. Hosted by our Eastern District Land Steward, Matthew Morris, this weekly series has had a focus on natural capital and has brought together people from across the spectrum of land management with over 2,000 participants having registered. Learn more about it here.