Important Covid-19 advice - working from home, 'critical worker' status and schooling arrangements

The ‘third lockdown’, due to rising infection rates and hospitalisations, is likely to be more stringent than the first in March 2020, and government restrictions are likely to increase rather than decrease in the short term. 

UCL UCU strongly advises against campus attendance for all but COVID-critical work, although, under current UCL and government restrictions, researchers and research students who require specialist facilities are lawfully permitted to work on campus. In particular we would warn against commencing lab-based work which may require regular repeat attendance on campus, as there is a real risk that this work may not be capable of completion.

In general, by minimising the number of staff on campus we reduce the risk to colleagues who are obliged to attend campus. Colleagues should be aware of reports that 1 in 30 Londoners are infected with COVID-19, and that the Mayor of London has called a state of emergency. Please, stay at home and stay safe if you possibly can.

UCL has committed to treating work during this lockdown as being on a ‘best endeavours’, ‘do what you can’ basis, as in the March 2020 lockdown. We will continue to consult with UCL about matters such as furlough of staff unable to work.

‘Critical Worker’ status

The UK government has made provision for children of ‘critical workers’ to attend school. University staff directly involved in teaching or supporting the delivery of education are classed as ‘critical workers’. Research staff and support staff involved in the COVID-19 response are also critical workers. Other staff, such as research-only staff not involved in COVID research or teaching, are not classed as critical workers.

Critical workers who work at home should not send their children to school unless absolutely necessary. (Exceptions to this principle will include disabled colleagues.) Schools are responsible for the health and safety of their teachers and children, and are entitled to turn away children if in their judgement they cannot be taught safely. So, if you can teach them at home yourself, then please do so.

Therefore, UCL UCU strongly recommends that staff in the ‘critical worker’ category avoid sending their children to school: 

1. Schoolchildren are bringing Covid-19 into homes. Evidence points to a high incidence of COVID-19 infection within schools. COVID-19 rates amongst teachers up to 333% above those in the wider community have been reported in schools. There is a shift in the age composition of new variant cases, with a larger share of under 20-year-olds being infected. Although children rarely have serious symptoms when infected by COVID-19, it seems they can still infect parents if they pick up an infection at school.
2. Schools are overloaded. Some school classes in London are over their safe capacity due to high numbers of parents claiming critical worker status, and the legal requirement to provide places for vulnerable children. This is in danger of negating the effect of school shutdowns in halting the spread of COVID-19. Please consider schoolteachers, healthcare, and other colleagues in essential services, and help give them the peace of mind that they and their children are entitled to be in a safe environment without risk of infection. 

Stay Safe.