What to include in a smoking policy if you provide care in clients houses? (These homes are your employee’s place of work). 1,How do you control your employees exposure to passive smoking if the customer smokes ? 2, Is it acceptable for your employee to smoke in their own car whilst travelling to & from clients homes ? In some instances the employee will be paid whilst travelling from one client to another. ( Note car sharing may be used & one person may smoke can the policy ban smoking in private vehicles)? Has anybody implemented this type of smoking policy if so could you forward a copy to me . Thanks Johnny Holly

Many Local Authorities have "adopted" a Policy of requesting clients refrain from smoking for 1/2 -1 hour before the carer's visit. A big ask for the chain-smoker and utterly futile in that circumstance as the thick fog will not have disappated. In practice, such "policies" are ignored by all parties and tend to fall into disrepute. The contamination of clothing, bags and other personal effects is another matter - do you pay laundry allowance? The passive smoking issue in the context of full-time, live-in care remains effectively unanswered. Where the house is a Local Authority rental, extraction systems can be considered, although these are noisy and distracting in a domestic situation and may have an adverse & undesirable effect on some clients. They will also tend to take away heat from the room - to the detriment of the frail (but chain-smoking) pensioner. Vehicle use:If you pay your employees an allowance or rate for using their private car, only then you can stipulate conditions about smoking when they carry passengers, otherwise it is a private car, totally outwith the employers control. The employer then has to bear in mind that other employees (passengers) can rightly refuse to share that journey.