Here you'll find a range of coronavirus/Covid-19 related HR and Employment resources; if you have any resources you would like to share with other colleges, please email covid19@aoc.co.uk.
Please note that guidance documents have been provided in good faith, are accurate at the date of issue and may require tailoring to your college's particular circumstances.
Documents are generally saved in date order with the most recent first; however, as Government guidance is normally automatically updated as changes occur, these documents are placed towards the top of each section. Due to the amount of information gathered over this period we have 'archived' some of the older documents, and you'll now find these towards the end of the page.
Employment Helpline:
The helpline, run by Irwin Mitchell LLP, is fully operational and available for members to contact about all employment related issues, including Coronavirus/Covid-19. You can contact them here: AoC Employment Helpine
BREAKING NEWS:
Below are links to the current government guidance impacting our sector:
- Face coverings in education
- Guidance/local covid alert level medium
- Guidance/local covid alert level high
- Guidance/local covid alert level very high
- Guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19
- 4-week lockdown related: Guidance on new national restrictions from 5 November
- 4-week lockdown related: Guidance/Education and childcare settings new national restrictions from 5 November 2020
- Coronavirus covid 19-maintaining-further education provision - what fe colleges and providers will need to do from the start of the 2020 autumn term
Remember that any queries regarding your workforce can be referred to our employment helpline at aocemployment@irwinmitchell.com
General advice, guidance and comment:
- Govt. guidance - Guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 (updated 4 November)
- DfE - Face coverings in education
- DfE - What FE colleges and providers will need to do from the start of the 2020 autumn term (issued 16 October 2020)
- Irwin Mitchell advice: Self isolation advice for schools and colleges dealing with outbreaks - 10 September 2020
- DfE - What to do if a student is displaying symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) - 07 September 2020
- Irwin Mitchell comment - Face masks in Schools and Colleges - the new rules - 26 August 2020 (a few months old, but still relevant outside of November national lockdown period)
- Govt. guidance - Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) - 12 guides
- Irwin Mitchell Holidays and Quarantine – school and colleges questions answered - 28 July 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - Coronavirus: tips to help staff work and care for their children - 03 July 2020
- Irwin Mitchell blog: Do you need to include bame and obese workers in your return to work risk assessment? - 04 June 2020
Job Retention Scheme/Furloughing related:
Listed below are the links to government guidance on the job retention scheme - which are automatically update. Below this are further JRS related guidance documents, advice and blogs.
- IM comment - Extended JRS - extended to March 2021
- IM comment - Extended JRS announcement on 31 October 2020
- People Management - FAQ on extended JRS announcement 31 October 2020
You will need to write to staff again, and you can find the template letters on the AoC Employment page
The following documents were provided in relation to the first round of the JRS (i.e. before it was extended from November 2020 to March 2021) - they are still useful and relevant:
- Govt. guidance - Check if you can claim for your employees' wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- Govt. guidance - Steps to take before calculating your claim using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- Govt. guidance - Check which employees you can put on furlough to use the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- Govt. guidance - Calculate how much you can claim using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- HMRC - Further Treasury Direction re JRS made on 25 June 2020
- Template Flexible Furlough Letter - can be found on this Employment Resources page (26 June 2020)
- Irwin Mitchell: summary of updated JRS (includes links to a number of current Government guidance pages) - 12 June 2020
- Irwin Mitchell blog: parents returning from parental leave can be furloughed after 10 June - 10 June 2020
- Irwin Mitchell blog: Employers will not be penalised by HMRC for genuine mistakes - 09 June 2020
- Irwin Mitchell blog: Government explains how holiday entitlement and pay operate during Covid-10 (includes sections on furloughed staff and deferring holidays into another holiday year) - 15 May 2020
- Irwin Mitchell: Coronavirus - FAQs on returning to work - 14 May 2020
- Govt. guidance - claiming for wage costs through the job retention scheme - updated regularly
- Irwin Mitchell blog: FAQ on furloughed staff and redundancy - 01 May 2020
Employment and T&Cs - including pay, annual leave and sickness/SSP related:
- SSP extended to people in 'support bubbles' - 07 July 2020
- Govt. regulation - The Statutory Sick Pay (Coronavirus) (Suspension of Waiting Days and General Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 - 6 July 2020
- Irwin Mitchell note - Travel quarantine rules - employers' questions answered- 18 June 2020
- ACAS: Disciplinary and grievance procedures during coronavirus - 06 May 2020
- Irwin Mitchell article - SSP scheme extended to cover the extremely vulnerable - 20 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell template coronavirus policy for schools and colleges - updated 06 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - template homeworking policy - March 2020 (note: this is a generic homeworking template policy)
Reopening including H&S Risk Assessment related
AoC has developed a section dedicated to college reopening support which can be found here. Contained within this section are example risk assessments, many from other colleges and unions. The document below was developed by the AoC and national representatives from UCU, NEU, Unison, Unite and GMB and provides a checklist for reopening.
- - 13 August 2020
Also below are reopeneing related articles by Irwin Mitchell:
Working from home related
- HMRC confirmation on coronavirus homeworking tax relief
- HSE dedicated coronavirus web pages.
- HSE protecting home workers
- HSE workstation schecklist
- HSE working with discplay screen equipment (DSE)
Safeguarding/DBS/ID check related:
- Irwin Mitchell article on government's new safeguarding rules for schools and colleges - 09 April 2020
- Coronavirus (COVID-19): safeguarding in schools, colleges and other providers - 27 March 2020
- COVID-19: Changes to DBS ID checking guidelines - 24 March 2020
- Home Office - Right to work checks: COVID-19 guidance factsheet - March 2020
Resources - including general advice and health & wellbeing:
- AoC - dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing pages have a wealth of general but also Coronavirus focussed resources for staff and students and is updated regularly.
- Acas resource pages are regularly updated, and they have published a recording of their recent advisory webinar accessible here: Coronavirus – an advisory webinar for employers
- HMRC new HMRC helpline number is 0800 024 1222 and is open from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday
- Confederation of British Industry (CBI) - Coronavirus hub
- CIPD Covid-19 resource pages.
- Irwin Mitchell have set up a dedicated coronavirus coronavirus resource page, and they have a dedicated LinkedIn group for employers, a regular blog that you can subscribe to, and a selection of webinars.
- National Cyber Security Centre: Home working: preparing your organisation and staff
- The Mental Health Foundation: Looking after your mental health during the Coronavirus outbreak
- Mind: Coronavirus and your wellbeing
- Young Minds: What to do if you're anxious about coronavirus
- Sports England: Stay in, Work out
- This Can Happen is a mental health and wellbeing organisation. They have developed some free wellbeing focussed webinars, and are aiming to produce more: This Can Happen webinars
Useful webinars (please note that you may need to copy the webinar link in to a suitable browser):
- Irwin Mitchell - Employment Issues In The New Working World - October 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - Supporting disabled employees in the workplace during Covid -October 2020
- Acas - Flexible Furlough Scheme - 21 July 2020
- MyHR Toolkit - Remote working: avoid the employment law pitfalls - 01 July 2020
- This Can Happen - Surviving the Summer Holidays - Family, Work and your mental Health - 01 July 2020
- CBI - Returning to work safely - 14 May 2020
- AoC - Managing Homeworking with Irwin Mitchell and College case study - 07 May 2020
- Acas - Furlough leave - HMRC Job Retention Scheme - 05 May 2020
- CBI - A case study on how to reopen - 01 May 2020
- This Can Happen - Managing mental health during these challenging times - 01 May 2020
- AoC - Managing staffing - 30 April 2020
- CBI - The practicalities of reopening - 30 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - The furlough scheme and furlough exit plans - 30 April 2020
- CBI - Lessons for reopening - 29 April 2020
- CBI - Planning for restart - an approach for business - 28 April 2020
- This Can Happen - How to sleep well in a changed world - 17 April 2020
- CBI - Productivity and working from home - 16 April 2020
- Acas - Coronavirus - an advisory webinar for employers - register for webinar playback at this link
- MyHRToolkit - Furlough Q&A - 08 April 2020
- This Can Happen - Tips on working from home - 03 April 2020
- CBI - daily coronavirus webinar.
Archived documents:
- Unions set out 5 tests government and colleges must meet before staff and students can return (taken from UCU website) - 13 May 2020
- Gov.UK - Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government's Covid-19 recovery strategy - 12 May 2020 (watch for updates)
- Irwin Mitchell blog: New Government Guidance to get England back to work - 12 May 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - 8 tips to support staff working from home - 21 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell summary of government's guidance update on social distancing in the workplace - 14 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell blog: TUC sets out strategy to get UK back to work - 30 April 2020
- DfE - Coronavirus (COVID-19): financial support for education, early years and children’s social care - 22 April 2020
- (please note comments in side bar of template)
- Furlough portal open - Irwin Mitchell guidance on what you need to know/do to make a claim - 20 April 2020
- HMRC - Claim for your employees’ wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) A step by step guide for employers - 17 April 2020
-
Irwin Mitchell Employer FAQs on Furlough (April 2020).pdf
02 April 2020 - Irwin MItchell - Agency Workers and Furlough FAQs - 09 April 2020
- Irwin Mitchell guidance - Which businesses can continue to operate - 24 March 2020
- Draft UCU response letter (note: you will be taken to the dedicated AoC Employment page to access this document)
- Irwin Mitchell Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme information - 23 March 2020
- Government guidance - rules on carrying over annual leave to be relaxed to support key industries during Covid-19 - 27 March 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - FAQs about self-isolation, pay and holidays - 24 March 2020
- Irwin Mitchell - FAQs about pregnant and high risk individuals - 24 March 2020