Covid-19 latest schools advice and guidance

Devolution

Devolution means that official guidance may be different across the four UK countries and updates may be announced at different times. Therefore please see the links below:

• UK-wide and England-specific updates will be placed on our COVID-19 schools page and via Facebook & Twitter.
• UNISON Cymru/Wales will post updates on its website and Facebook page
• UNISON Scotland will post updates on its website and Facebook page
• UNISON Northern Ireland will post updates on its website

Covid-19 There for you response fund (all)

UNISON's welfare charity There for You has set up a special response fund to help members in immediate financial difficulty due to coronavirus. We can provide a one-off grant of £250 to help with essential expenses such as food and bills.

Please note that this is a limited fund and grants will continue to be paid until the fund is exhausted. All the details about eligibility can be found on the website. 

Education unions send clear message to Government: Pupil and staff safety must come first (England)

UNISON, GMB, Unite, NEU, NASUWT and NAHT have come together as affiliates through the TUC to issue an urgent statement to the Secretary of State ahead of an anticipated announcement about increasing pupil numbers in schools. Thank you to those who have sent us your comments about this which we reflected in our contribution to the statement. Support staff unions were at the forefront of bringing the unions together through the TUC.

Earlier in the week we also gave feedback about our concerns to the Department for Education and published a second joint support staff union statement on this issue. 

UNISON press release on protecting staff who live with vulnerable people (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

We issued a press release on Wednesday calling for the government to do more to protect staff who live with those in a vulnerable group. This follows cases in schools where some employers are defaulting to Public Health Guidance rather than following NJC guidance, and refusing to allow such staff to work from home to protect their families. One example given in the press release is of a caretaker forced to choose between his income or protecting his family's health. UNISON has asked the government to extend the furlough scheme beyond private companies to enable keyworker roles to be covered.

The NJC guidance on critical workers has a very helpful section on workers, or any people they live with, with underlying health conditions, or pregnant or 70 and over. This section can be found at top of page 1 and bottom of page 2 of the circular. 

It makes clear that these employees should not be expected to attend the workplace. The same applies to employees who live with and/or have caring responsibilities for people meeting these criteria. All options for working at home should be considered, on full pay. 

Online learning resources for schools members (all)

UNISON is currently offering various options for online learning for schools members. All members can email l.organising@unison.co.uk with their membership number to be signed up to UNISON's CPD Skills Academy. This gives 12 months' free access to over 550 fully certified CPD courses. In addition, there are specific resources for school staff, including catering staff, on the UNISON learning website - just scroll down the page to the relevant buttons.