COVID19 | Lockdown 3

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced to the nation yesterday that we will enter Lockdown 3 across England. This was following the UK’s chief medical officer moving the nation into the highest possible Covid-19 alert level – Level 5.

The advice is to stay at home to help protect the NHS and save lives. The guidance should be followed immediately and the law will be updated to reflect these rules. With fines in place for those who breach these laws. You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.

Some of the main changes

• You may only leave your home for work if you cannot reasonably work from home.
• Shielding begins again for the vulnerable
• All schools are shut and learning will move to online until February Half Term except for vulnerable children and children of critical workers
• All non-essential retail, hospitality venues, accommodations (except for specific circumstances), leisure and sports facilities, entertainment venues, animal attractions, indoor attractions, personal care facilities, community centres (except for specific activities) must close

You may leave home under the following conditions:

• To shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person
• To go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home
• To exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person, this should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
• To meet your support or childcare where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one
• To seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
• To attend education or childcare – for those eligible

Should I work from home?

You can only leave home to work where you cannot do your job from home. This includes, but is not limited to people who work within critical national infrastructure, construction, or manufacturing that require you be there physically.

Public sector employees working in essential services, including childcare or education, should continue to go into work.

You are able to meet in larger groups for work or providing voluntary or charitable services, where it is unreasonable to do so from home. This can include work in other people’s homes where necessary – for example, for nannies, cleaners, social care workers providing support to children and families, or tradespeople. Other than this you should avoid meeting for work in private homes or gardens as Covid-19 Secure measures may not be in place. If it is not essential that a work meeting needs to take place in a private home or garden, it should not. For example, if you meet a personal trainer, you should do so in a public outdoor place.

Employers and employees should discuss their working arrangements, and employers should take every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home, including providing suitable IT and equipment to enable remote working.

The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if Covid-19 secure guidelines are followed closely. Extra consideration should be given to those people at higher risk.

If you have any concerns or if you require any advice on the recent announcement, please get in contact with the HPC team today. We are here to support you through these tough times. We hope you all stay safe.

T: 0844 800 5932

E: contact@highperformanceconsultancy.com

Twitter: @HPC_HRServices