Category: Covid 19

A number of pieces of Covid guidance have been updated.  You can find links to the relevant documents below but key points are: 

• The new ‘stay at home message’ replaces self-isolation for people who have symptoms or have tested positive for Covid-19. 
• Testing for the general population has ended and with it all test sites.  However testing will remain available to certain groups to protect high risk settings, support clinical care and for surveillance purposes. These groups include health and social care workers and care at home workers.
• All contact tracing has ended. 
• The High Risk list – formerly known as the Shielding list – will end on the 31^st May.  The Chief Medical Officer will write to everyone on this list to advise them of the change and sign-post them to ongoing support.

https://www.gov.scot/news/new-stay-at-home-guidance-published/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested/pages/changes-from-1-may-2022/

https://www.gov.scot/news/end-of-the-highest-risk-list/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-use-of-face-coverings-in-social-care-settings-including-adult-care-homes/

In terms of the 12 week protection period for Covid related illness – the previously agreed temporary amendment to the red book has now expired.  COSLA proposed reducing the protection period to 10 days – we, along with the other SJC trade unions, have argued that the protection period should remain at 12 weeks until at least the end of this school term.  COSLA have not agreed that.  We are aware that some local authorities are bringing in the 10 day period anyway, arguing that since the Teaching unions had signed up to that it would bring SJC into line with them.  We will continue to fight this but suspect they may impose it without our agreement.

Please see the revised Covid guidance for adult and older people’s care homes and changes to the testing programme for social care.  Please note that these documents contain links to other relevant and associated information.

New schools and ELC guidance has been published – Routine Covid Protection Measures in Schools and Routine Covid Protection Measures in early learning and childcare, school age childcare and childminding settings  

All updated guidance will come into force at the same time as the asymptomatic testing programme comes to a close – i.e. from 18th April. In some local authority areas, this will mean after schools return from their April break if they are not open on the 18th. Should there be any changes to infection rates in specific areas there will still be capacity for local public health interventions and localised measures.  This means that school and ELC guidance will be in line with measures for other workplaces.  

School Support Statistics

Some useful statistics on selected categories of school support staff have been published – it outlines numbers for pupil support assistants, home-school link workers, behaviour support staff, educational psychologists, school nurses and library staff.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

Ventilation Guidance

The Ventilation in Schools guidance was recently updated and you can find the updated version here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-ventilation-guidance/ 

The First Minister this week announced a new staged approach to easing protective measures and recovering from the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  In her statement, she confirmed the details of the updated Strategic Framework to manage COVID-19 primarily through public health advice, vaccination, and treatment rather than legal restrictions and set out an indicative timescale for remaining legal protections to be lifted. 

Key points are:

• Vaccine certification will no longer be legally required from Monday 28 February, although the app will remain available so any business that wishes to continue certification on a voluntary basis to reassure customers will be able to do so.
• Current legal requirements on the use of face coverings, the collection of customer details for contact tracing purposes, and for businesses, service providers and places of worship to have regard to guidance on Covid and to take reasonably practicable measures set out in the guidance are expected to be lifted on 21 March, subject to the state of the pandemic.
• Access to lateral flow and PCR tests will continue to be free of charge, ahead of a detailed transition plan being published on the future of Scotland’s test and protect programme in March.
• People who test positive for COVID-19 will continue to be asked to self-isolate to reduce the risk of infecting other people. Any changes to the recommended period of self-isolation will be considered on an ongoing basis.

Full details of the announcement are here:  https://www.gov.scot/news/living-safely-with-covid/  And a copy of the updated Strategic Framework is here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-scotlands-strategic-framework-update-february-2022/

The Workforce Issues Group will be discussing this at its next meeting on Friday 4th March so if you have any views or comments that you would like us to feed into that please drop me a line.

Covid 19 – Second boosters for at-risk groups

The arrangements for second boosters to be delivered to at-risk groups has been announced – details here: https://www.gov.scot/news/second-boosters-for-at-risk-groups/