We round up the latest news affecting schools and colleges.
Right to work checks – Government extends deadline for physical checks
The government’s pushed back its deadline to reintroduce physical right to work checks from Monday 17 May to Monday 21 June.
From that date, you must either check the applicant’s original documents or check the applicant’s right to work via the online service. The online service is only available to those people who hold a biometric residence permit or a residence card, or have been granted UK immigration status under the EU settlement scheme or points-based immigration system.
Get answers to your right to work checks questions.
ACAS publish advice on long COVID
ACAS have recently published advice for employers and employees on long COVID.
Anyone hoping for detailed guidance about how to manage employees suffering from a myriad of post-viral symptoms will be disappointed. Instead, ACAS signposts some of the issues employers are likely to encounter once staff recover from the initial stages of the infection. It includes brief paragraphs on dealing with sickness absence, keeping in touch with staff, and making adjustments to their work or hours.
It skirts around the issue of whether long COVID symptoms can be sufficient to meet the statutory definition of disability (our view is that they can), and instead recommends that employers 'focus on reasonable adjustments rather than trying to work out if an employee's condition is a disability.'
UK businesses are urging employees to get vaccines
The Department of Health and Social Care has reported that a number of larger employers, including Santander, Asda and IKEA, have pledged to encourage and facilitate staff receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. They’re doing so by disseminating positive messages about the vaccines and allowing workers flexibility in their hours so that they can go to receive their shot.
DHSC has urged more organisations to do the same.
ESFA releases guidance relating to termination of funding agreements
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has published guidance for providers, employers and learners who are affected by the termination of provider agreements for apprenticeships, funding agreements and contracts between the ESFA and providers.
Providers who want to terminate their agreements must give ESFA formal written notification.
As the guidance only relates to ESFA-funded apprenticeships and post-19 further education, neither 16 to 19 funding nor European Social Fund provision is affected.
Workplace conflict costs UK employers £28.5 billion each year
The cost of conflict to UK organisations, pre-pandemic, was £28.5 billion, according to an ACAS report. That’s the equivalent of more than £1,000 for each employee.
Close to 10 million people experienced conflict at work. Of these, over half suffer stress, anxiety or depression; just under 900,000 took time off work, nearly half a million resigned, and more than 300,000 employees were dismissed.
Written by academics, the report’s based on data compiled in 2018/19. The authors argue that anecdotal reports and research suggest that conflict was suppressed during the height of the pandemic. They anticipate that, as working life returns to some form of new normality in 2021, it’s likely that job insecurity, rapid change, and continuing economic pressures will lead to a re-surfacing of conflict between individuals.
The report recommends that organisations take the following steps to minimise workplace conflict:
- Invest in early intervention and make sure that managers have the skills to start uncomfortable conversations
- Intervene at the ‘critical time’ – in most cases that’s before you need to invoke formal procedures
- Re-frame conflict by focusing on learning rather than blame.
Cabinet Office opens review into coronavirus certification
The Cabinet Office has announced it’s considering introducing coronavirus status certificates as part of its strategy to help the country to re-open safely.
If they go ahead, they’ll use testing or vaccination data to confirm that people have a lower risk of transmitting the virus to others.
The government expects to complete its review prior to Step Four of its lockdown easing plan, currently projected to be 21 June 2021.
Read more – June 2021
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