Free parking for NHS staff and other initiatives

The government said that it would cover the costs of providing free car parking to NHS staff working in hospitals during this unprecedented time. Here we look at a few examples of how this has been carried out, alongside some other great work by the public

In March, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that the Department for Health and Social Care would be giving immediate financial backing for all NHS trusts to provide free car parking to NHS staff for the duration of coronavirus.

Whether he knew that the pandemic would still be as prominent in June then, only he knows, but since that announcement the government has said that it would cover the costs of providing free car parking to NHS staff working in hospitals during this unprecedented time.

NHS Trusts are responsible for setting car parking charges locally, but Hancock urged all trusts to immediately make use of government funding to abolish parking charges for their staff during the coronavirus pandemic. And that is what the majority did. Prior to Hancock’s public announcement, Newcastle City Council revealed that it wass offering 700 free car parking spaces to NHS staff to help in the fight against coronavirus. Eight car parks across Newcastle, both surface and multistoreys, were handed over to staff at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in the frontline saving lives. It was made clear that all spaces would be used by critical care staff.

Charges were fully suspended for more than seven weeks before, on 18 May, the council reintroduced charges as more members of the public returned to work, albeit with more than 300 free spaces in dedicated car parks for NHS staff. Healthcare staff were also allowed to park free of charge in pay and display bays.

Speaking last month, Nick Kemp, cabinet member for environment and regulatory services at Newcastle City Council, said: “As one of the first councils to introduce free parking for key workers we have been proud to support the vital contribution that frontline staff are making to our communities. However, what was initially a three week initiative has now lasted almost two months and cost us around £1 million.

“From the outset we’ve said we would review this temporary measure and, with government lockdown advice beginning to ease, we now feel the time is right to reassess, reintroducing fees for the increasing number of people who may be looking to park, and generating funds to support council services.”

London calling

In London, boroughs also set out their intentions to help NHS staff and other critical workers by taking a common sense approach to parking and driving fines. On 24 March, London Councils issued guidance for London boroughs on a pragmatic approach to enforcement of parking and driving offences during the coronavirus pandemic. As such, parking teams began focusing on enforcement of safetycritical controls and assisting key workers helping unwell and vulnerable people.

Although down to individual boroughs, some motions that were pit in place included: relaxing parking restrictions for vital members of staff around hospitals, clinics and emergency services control centres; giving parking permits to key workers allowing them to park more flexibly if there are no parking spaces available; taking into account when drivers demonstrate they are key workers; and making additional parking spaces available to key workers.

Much of this work actually followed initiatives set up by the public and local businesses to help NHS workers and carers with parking. In mid-March, JustPark launched a nationwide public appeal to ease the burden on travelling NHS staff and patients. JustPark, who run a parking app, urged the public and businesses located close to hospitals to offer their car parking spaces for free. The app enables unused parking spaces to be listed for others to reserve and pay for in advance, but is allowing free parking for healthcare workers and patients by making it possible to list spaces for free.

The appeal was for anyone with a suitable space near an NHS site to list it for free so a healthcare professional or patient can have access to it. JustPark announced that it would not levy any fees for either the space holders or the drivers and is offering this to connect key workers and patients with available spaces. With a network of over 50,000 locations and over 4.5 million registered users, it is hoped that this would provide an invaluable service for an already under-pressure NHS.

Other commendable initiatives

Beyond parking, other organisations also took a step forward to help key workers during the pandemic. For example, the AA launched a free breakdown service for NHS workers during the coronavirus crisis at the start of April, setting up a dedicated hotline for NHS staff and pledging free recovery to and from work as well as help if they break down at home. The AA also struck a deal with the London Ambulance Service to provide additional support to help keep clinicians on the road during the coronavirus epidemic. The partnership includes 24-hour breakdown and incident management services such as roadside assistance and vehicle recovery for London Ambulance Service vehicles.

From the start of April, NHS staff in Wales began receiving free travel on buses in return for hardship funding from the Welsh Government, covering the next three months.

Aside from travel, HomeServe launched a special offer for NHS and social care workers where they will send an engineer to their home free of charge to fix home emergencies any time until the UK lockdown is over, and has set aside £1 million to cover the cost of these repairs. In April, EE announced that it would enable unlimited mobile data for all NHS staff for the next six months.