The Met office has issued an AMBER cold weather health alert for London. The cold weather alert is in effect until 10am on Sunday 11 January 2026. 

Forecast weather is likely to cause significant impacts across health and social care services, including: 

• a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions. We may also see impacts on younger age groups
• a likely increase in demand for health services
• temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks
• challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people
• staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays)
• other sectors starting to observe impacts (such as transport and energy)

You can see all the weather health alerts currently in place across England on the UKHSA data dashboard.

Children aged 5 years and under are particularly vulnerable to the effects of adverse cold weather.

There are several actions which schools should be undertaking to protect staff and pupils. These can be found at the following webpage. 

Further guidance can be found here.

If school staff have any questions about the actions they should be taking to protect staff and students, please email Public.Health@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Guidance on how to take action on "Winter Readiness" can be found here.