Latest Updates

22/10/2020: Job support scheme update: The government has announced today further changes to its job support scheme (replacing furlough on 1st November 2020). Under the amended scheme, the minimum proportion of hours which the employee has to work has been reduced to 20% (formerly 33%) and the employer contribution to the unworked hours has been reduced to just 5%. Our webpage will be updated shortly. Detailed information on the operation of the scheme is still awaited.

13/10/2020: Updated advice for clinically extremely vulnerable people was published today; this has been differentiated to reflect the new local COVID alert levels and also makes provision for shielding to be introduced in some very high alert areas where advised by the Chief Medical Officer. We have updated our advice on clinically extremely vulnerable employees to reflect these new guidelines.

06/10/2020: Information about the government's Job Support Scheme (replacing furlough next month) and the Job Retention Bonus have been added to a new web page: Job Support Scheme & Retention Bonus.

28/09/2020: The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020 came into force in England today. It is now an offence for an employer to permit a worker (including an agency worker) to  leave their place of self-isolation in order to attend work. If a school knows a worker is required to self-isolate (e.g. is a close contact of a confirmed case in the workplace, or has tested positive, or lives with someone who has tested positive, or has been contacted by NHS Test and Trace) the school is now responsible for stopping the worker from attending the workplace.  Failure to do so will result in the school receiving a fixed penalty fine of £1,000. Subsequent failures will lead to increased fixed penalty fines up to a maximum penalty of £10,000.

22/09/2020: The Prime Minister addressed the nation and stated that government  is asking "office workers to work from home if they can". At the time of writing (23/09/20) the guidance document Guidance for full opening: schools has yet to be updated. Once changes are made we will update our web pages accordingly.

01/09/2020: Government guidance on contingency planning in areas of local lockdowns was published late on Friday (28th August). Our September reopening guidance has been updated.

27/08/2020: The government has, this week, updated its advice for the education sector on the wearing of face coverings. See our latest news article for more information.