New consultation: keeping children safe in education
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on proposed changes to statutory safeguarding guidance. If approved, the changes will come into force in September 2022.
It has proposed making the following substantive changes:
- Conducting online searches on shortlisted candidates
- Ensuring governors receive safeguarding and child protection training
- Incorporating child-on-child abuse into KCSIE statutory guidance
- Acknowledging the fact that students may not feel ready to speak about abuse or recognise they’re being abused.
You can access the consultation and respond here: keeping children safe in education, selecting ‘Give us your views: Online Survey’.
We recommend that schools and colleges take part in the consultation to ensure their views are taken into consideration. The consultation is open until Tuesday 8 March 2022.
Self-isolation rules expected to be scrapped by Thursday 24 March 2022
The government has indicated that it intends to remove all legal requirements for people to self-isolate, either because they've had the virus, or have been in close contact with someone that has, on or before Thursday 24 March 2022. This is part of its strategy to live with the virus. COVID-19 will be treated in the same way as seasonal flu, and people will be able to go out and about if they’re well enough.
COVID-19: new advice for pregnant employees
The Department of Health and Social Care has updated its advice for pregnant employees. It continues to recommend that pregnant women should be fully vaccinated and points to clinical data which suggests that the risk of COVID-related complications increases from around 26 weeks’ gestation. It also recommends that all pregnant employees should take LFT regularly if they’re coming into work.
Staff absences still rising due to COVID-19
The latest school attendance statistics for Thursday 20 January 2022 show that 24% of all state-funded schools had more than 15% of their teachers and school leaders absent on Thursday 20 January 2022, compared with 18% at the start of term on Thursday 13 January 2022, and 8% at the start of the academic year on Thursday 16 September 2021. There are more staff absent from state-funded primary schools than secondary schools and colleges. This is believed to be caused by high infection rates amongst unvaccinated children.
New advice on face coverings in schools and colleges
The Department for Education has updated its schools COVID-19 operational guidance to reflect the government’s approach to tackling COVID-19 now it has removed Plan B measures. Despite huge numbers of infections in schools and colleges, the guidance states that ‘face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors in classrooms’. It advises that pupils and staff should continue to wear face coverings outside of schools and colleges, including when travelling on public transport.
The guidance states that schools and colleges should only ask staff and pupils to wear face coverings where this is recommended by a director of public health.
We’re aware that some schools and colleges have ignored this advice and are continuing to ask staff and pupils to wear face coverings whilst infection rates remain high. The Minister for Education, Nadhim Zahawi has suggested that he’ll intervene where schools and colleges aren’t following his advice about face coverings.
SSP rebate scheme reopens to SME employers
The government has temporarily reintroduced the SSP rebate scheme for COVID-19 related absences. Local academy schools and other independent schools who have fewer than 250 employees can re-claim up two weeks’ SSP costs for staff who were self-isolating from Tuesday 21 December 2021. You can find out more about the rebate scheme here.
Changes to confirmatory PCR tests
The UK Health Security Agency has published new advice regarding COVID-19 testing. People who test positive on a LFT don’t need to obtain a confirmatory PCR test. Instead, they must report their result on the government website and self-isolate immediately.
Anyone who is eligible for the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment will be asked to take a confirmatory PCR test to enable them to access financial support.
Scottish government says it will introduce a ‘right to disconnect’ for its staff
In December 2021, the Scottish government committed to having ‘meaningful discussions’ on providing a ‘right to disconnect’ for government employees. The ‘right to disconnect’ focuses on allowing workers to disconnect from their jobs outside their contractual working hours.
There are regular complaints that remote working makes it difficult to properly ‘disconnect’ outside working hours as the distinction between work and home life is blurred, which we explore here.
Government pledge to cut EU red tape
The government has said it will introduce a new ‘Brexit Freedoms’ Bill to make it easier to amend or remove ‘outdated retained EU law’ which, it says, was a Brexit ‘bridging measure’. The government’s press release says that officials are reviewing all EU retained laws to determine if they are beneficial to the UK.
This could have a huge impact on employment laws such as those around holiday pay, which have been shaped by decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Read more – February 2022
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