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Reopening buildings and campuses: updated government guidance

on Thursday, 24 September 2020.

With students returning to campus, the Government has recently updated its reopening buildings and campuses guidance.

With the mass movement of students from across the UK and overseas, the updated guidance has been drafted to assist Higher Education Institutions in minimising risk whilst providing an enjoyable student experience. The guidance aims to provide a practical framework to be considered as part of an HEI's wider approach, including reference to further information provided by local authorities and other agencies to control and manage the risk of local outbreaks.

Overview

Consideration needs to be given to ensuring that the legal responsibilities and duties of care towards staff, students and visitors are at the forefront of planning and implementing a return to university.

HEIs are responsible for ensuring that they are following health and safety and public health legislation and government guidance to ensure appropriate COVID-secure measures are in place and that staff and students are aware of the measures and guidance and take action to promote the importance of complying with these.

The updated guidance references the following key points:

Risk assessments

Risk assessments are key. All HEIs are required to clearly set out what steps have been taken to ensure that staff and students can return, with confidence that these have been taken to reduce risks in their working or student environment, in accordance with government guidance. This is best done within a COVID-19 risk assessment.

HEIs should communicate to students the importance of adopting safe behaviours. They should also provide COVID-secure environments (an example being a campus bar) and, working in conjunction with the students union, identify safer social activities for students.

Reopening building and campuses

HEIs should take account of public health guidance on staying safe, including reducing social contact, maintaining social distance, adopting good hand and respiratory hygiene measures and self-isolating and getting tested if you have symptoms.

There is a 4 tier system in place. The current default position is Tier 1 where HEIs should identify the appropriate mix of online and face-to-face content for each subject. As we move through the Tiers, stricter measures are required and HEIs are advised to prioritise face to face learning for priority courses (eg. clinical and medical courses) through to last resort (Tier 4) where the majority of provision would be online, with buildings open for essential workers only.

Segmentation

Effective segmentation could reduce the potential size of outbreaks. Segmentation of student/staff populations by course, year group, accommodation, site and in teaching and accommodation settings would support easier detection of linked cases and, if necessary, enable more targeted closure or quarantine.

Social Contacts - The Rule of 6

Whether indoors or outdoors, people from different households must not meet in groups of larger than 6. This limit does not apply to:

  • gatherings for educational or work purposes when reasonably necessary
  • meetings of a single household group

Venues following COVID-19 secure guidelines can host more than 6 people in total but no one should visit or socialise in a group of greater than 6. HEIs should ensure that all official events are in compliance with the guidance.

Accommodation

Within student accommodation, HEIs should seek to identify ‘households’, within which routine contact can be managed safely. These households will also form the units by which HEIs will manage any response to a suspected or confirmed positive case.

Students living in halls of residence, or houses of multiple occupation (HMO), who develop symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) should self-isolate in their current accommodation. Students should discuss this with their HEI and with the manager of their halls if they are privately owned, or the landlord of their HMO.

Test and Trace

HEIs should ensure that existing government guidance regarding contact tracing has been implemented. Anyone who displays symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) can and should get a test as soon as possible. HEIs should ensure that different elements of their premises, such as cafeterias, canteens or university libraries, maintain records of those using those services in order to support NHS Test and Trace.

Response to Local Outbreaks

HEIs should have a plan in place that assumes there is likely to be an increase in the number of cases, or an outbreak associated with their setting and they may have to adapt elements of their provision at very short notice.

Staff and Student Wellbeing

Many students and staff are facing additional mental health challenges, due to the disruption to study and working practices and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. There may be a need for continuing support as campuses start to reopen, and the protective measures to keep people as safe as possible whilst away from home take on even greater importance.

We have prepared further guidance with additional information from the Government guidance that is located on our free to access, HE OnStream platform.

Coronavirus HE blogs


For further information, please contact Natalie Wargent on 07468 698955 in our Regulatory Compliance team, or fill out the form below.

 

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