With the temperature set to drop even lower over the next few days, it’s a good idea to take precautions to keep you and your family safe from the cold.

It’s very important that you keep an eye on friends and neighbours who might be more vulnerable to the cold. In extreme cases, cold weather can lead to an increase in serious health conditions, which is more likely to affect the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions. You can help by looking in on vulnerable neighbours, making sure that they have enough food, medicine and heat and offering to pick up shopping if it is difficult for them to leave the house.

Forecasters don’t expect the cold to become severe enough to threaten normally healthy people, but there are still steps that you should take to keep warm. Make sure that you have an adequate supply of any medications, choose hot food and drinks, wear lots of lighter layers rather than one big layer, keep active and make sure that you wrap up warm if you go outside.

If you have any health concerns during the cold weather, call NHS direct on 0845 4647 or visit www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk