The following agreed communication is issued on behalf of the FET Stakeholders following an engagement on Monday 6th September:
Dr. John Cuddihy, Director HPSC, acting National Clinical Director of Health Protection has advised the TES group that:
Further and higher education and research is essential on-site and, as such, there will be instances and contexts in which adherence to the recommended physical distancing is not feasible. Current general public health advice contains a package of precautionary measures and physical distancing is one of these measures. There is no strict baseline with regard to physical distancing and the package of measures to be implemented is dependent on risk assessment informed by local engagement. It is key that where physical distancing is not feasible there are appropriate precautionary measures in place, particularly as they relate to ventilation, entry and egress to minimise congregation, hand sanitising and the wearing of face coverings and that institutions have the autonomy and flexibility to risk assess and adapt these in respect of their specific settings.
To support the implementation of this public health advice to return to on-site activity safely, the following process – as described above – should be followed:
Where it is the view of the ETB that the recommended physical distancing of 2m is not feasible the following steps should be followed in sequence:
- There should be local engagement with staff and learners.
- The ETB should make arrangements for a risk assessment to establish how best to mitigate the reduction from 2m (i.e. other measures including but not limited to those set out above – ventilation, quality of masks required etc.)
- Any remaining concerns should be raised through the ETB’s line management structure.
In the unlikely event that concerns are not resolved locally, such concerns will be escalated to the Director of FET and/or CE for resolution. If resolution cannot be achieved, it will then be passed to the Stakeholders group.