Key worker status

[JoPaV]

In Wales HE lecturers are very explicitly on the critical workers list: gov.wales/coronavirus-critical-key-workers-test-eligibility. The list in England looks to be the same but with less detail: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision.

Any clue whether we are classed as key workers. Need to tell the school by 9:30!

We were also told DfE confirmed we are key workers and this is an option for us, no-one is being pressured.

We have used our critical worker status to request two days of school. DH works out of the house, as he is part of the SLT responsible for keeping a research building open. I’ve been the sole home worker since June, we didn’t use keyworker status last time, but one of our children is autistic and it’s partly for his own wellbeing. I’m not a critical worker although some of my colleagues definitely are, but I’m working full time and on my own with a 6&4 year old.

Just out of interest are there many HE staff active in the campaign to move HE provision online now taking up key worker places at primary / secondary schools! Please say no.

Why? Teaching online is incompatible with doing anything else. Even I know this, and I don't have young children at home.

And furthermore, we're in a lockdown - we are being required to teach online, not in person. Otherwise we'd be breaking the effing law.

This is shit for everybody.

@QueenoftheAir

My hope is that the people within HE that are taking up the new right to keyworker provision are not the same people that have been declaring face to face teaching in universities to be unsafe. If they are not happy about the safety aspects of that (and rightly so I'm quite sure in many cases) then I can't see how they could justify putting a primary or secondary school teacher through similar risk. In the same way I would hope that any teacher who declared their intention not to work under section 44 is also not using keyworker provision for their children.

It is most definitely not a you must / must not do it this way or that post - as mentioned previously the situation is horrible and difficult and different for everyone but I do hope people are practising what they preach across sectors.

So if I am nervous about standing in a badly ventilated room with 10 unmasked 20 year olds where rates of infection are known to be madly high I shouldn't be sending my under 5s to a nursery where the government describe transmission as of low concern and where robust health and safety measures are in place? How do you suggest somebody with children of that age manages hours and hours of online teaching and the various pastoral imperatives linked to that?

I agree safety standards should be maintained across the uni sector- we have masks, ventilated rooms (though you might have to do this yourself), spaced out desks, track and trace QR codes on desks, hand sanitizer and the whole thing was very well done and by far the best Covid-19 secure place possible. The campus is now closed but personally I wouldn't hesitate to teach on campus if the conditions remained the same.

Schools are not nearly, in my experience, as Covid-19 secure! My teens were going to school on crowded buses, in classrooms with 30 other kids, no masks in classrooms only corridors and teens are often stupid and do things like cough on each other deliberately.

I don't know about nurseries, but it seems to me intrinsically unlikely they are super-Covid-19 safe because little children can't socially distance, and may spread covid even if they don't get it badly themselves, so the safety to staff in that context is probably less than in my teaching conditions at uni.

I don't think the government were wrong to leave nurseries open but it was a pragmatic decision, not because 3 year olds are less of a risk than 5 year olds who aren't allowed to go in, the risk is in the mingling of staff and the inability to socially distance of children who may unwittingly spread it (this new variant doesn't seem as adverse to children as the last one).

Totally with you on this @Rumblebuffin I have no children at home, but I've seen what impact it has had on my colleagues - mostly women, quelle surprise!

Thank you @QueenoftheAir, I really appreciate that

Those telling themselves that schools and nurseries are secure are kidding themselves. Nowhere that involves mixing people from different households is secure and all it takes is one case and suddenly the previously secure nursery is no longer secure. So I think those who have refused to teach on safety grounds (which has caused lots of extra work for those who have done it) are being slightly hypocritical if they now send their kids to school, as it puts teachers at the risk that they themselves won’t take. The universities need to furlough staff for childcare reasons but they seem to be refusing to do it so far.

The universities need to furlough staff for childcare reasons but they seem to be refusing to do it so far.

In terms of university staff who are employed on teaching & research contracts, who would do the teaching?

And frankly, I'd be pretty pissed off if a colleague was furloughed to do home-schooling /childcare and then managed to get on with some research - leaving those of us without that reason for furlough to suck up all the extra work ... even f you could buy in sufficient numbers of "cheap" teachers, what about all the admin?

Gosh, this government is putting us all in impossible situations ...

The majority of university staff can't be furloughed - they fall outside the furlough scheme. The government won't pay the furlough!

I don’t think there are easy answers by any means and I don’t blame single parents for using the critical worker status to get a school place. I am just pointing out that it does place teachers at greater risk and if you have been campaigning on the basis of your own safety, why does that not extend to school teachers.

Anyway, this debate is probably slightly beside the point. Realistically, many people won’t get critical worker places and universities will need to think of a solution. I think that on some courses, this will mean reducing teaching on some courses. The zoom seminars I teach consist of 80% blank screens and students hardly interact at all. So many colleagues report the same. I could double the number of students in each group and they’d get the same experience because nobody interacts as it is.

If the furlough rules are changed, I’d hope that nobody does it to get ahead on research. That would be truly scummy. The fact that one or two might do that shouldn’t prevent it from being available though. I can’t see any other option for those who have to homeschool full time and can’t use a critical worker place.

we have been told that research staff can go on furlough but are ABSOLUTELY forbidden from doing any research on furlough. No writing papers or replying to emails or nice chats with collaborators or anything.

Seeing as homeschooling is pretty much a full time job, I can’t see many opting for this just to get ahead on research. It’s quite damning to our profession that the first thought for many is that it would be unfair because a person could use what would be leave for caregivers to get ahead on research. Presumably nobody would say that regarding maternity leave (albeit that that is lower paid).
I think furlough needs to be available to teaching staff too if they are unable to combine home schooling with their job.

Yes @parietal my post-doc went on furlough, and didn't do any of the work on my project - although they did finish a book from a previous piece of work - not mine.

Pota2: in my field it is quite common for men to regard maternity leave as an opportunity for women to get ahead on research.

My university has consistently said that staff can't be put on furlough unless funded by non-Government research funding e.g. charity or non-Government income e.g. sports facilities. There is no option for teaching staff to goon furlough and no signs of reduced expectations for live teaching.

I fear you are right re furlough @qudylogra
We have one of our DC in part time (DH was already keyworker in first lockdown) and we are working 50% each which is less than our normal working patterns but more than nothing.
HoD has recently said "oh some people are working unsocial hours, early mornings, weekends" which is all very well if you have a) an immobile baby or b) children who can amuse themselves for a good portion of the day without interruption or c) children who go to bed at 6pm and don't bother you for the rest of the evening.

I have one Infant and one Junior and I've already had one in shouting at me (excitedly) during a meeting, live lessons (not too many thankfully!) for both that require adult supervision and one that rarely goes to sleep before 9pm and honestly when am I supposed to eat/cook/sleep/put the clothes away/exercise if I start work at 9?
I know of one colleague that works early that has a baby and some that work late with either self-sufficient teenagers or tinies that go to sleep early.

We've just used "flexi" aka saying we'll get the work done some time without specifying when and we can have 3 weeks' emergency leave which I will be taking if both have to be home e.g. bubble bursting. Crossing fingers that will get us to half term/teachers vaccinated.

While completely understanding that teachers have a really hard time of it at the moment, and that many of them feel unsafe, in both my DCs' schools there have been no child cases, all the cases have been from adults and there have been several cases across both schools in these two weeks since the Christmas break. This means that teachers will obviously have caught it during that break and not from the children in their care; as we know primary school child-adult transmission is low and I feel like I want to ask primary teachers to try and protect US and the schools as well as us protecting them.
We hardly go out (I do record on campus but I go in and out and see nobody), don't get takeaways (occasional delivery), go to the chemist's and maybe once a week top up shop from a supermarket or once a week emergency at the corner shop. Everything else is delivered and we drop off the one child at school socially distanced, go out for walks at quiet times etc. etc.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just annoyed at this instruction to "do your home educating AND work but just don't bother with mental health/eating/exercising/sleeping".

Our uni has now said that yes we CAN be furloughed as teaching staff. I have no idea how they have come to this conclusion when other universities have said no.

@qudylogra

Pota2: in my field it is quite common for men to regard maternity leave as an opportunity for women to get ahead on research.

My university has consistently said that staff can't be put on furlough unless funded by non-Government research funding e.g. charity or non-Government income e.g. sports facilities. There is no option for teaching staff to goon furlough and no signs of reduced expectations for live teaching.

Then those men are total arses. Competitive fears that someone might secretly do research and get ahead should seriously not even come into the question of whether furlough should be available to staff who have to home school. It’s offered on the basis that someone can’t work due to caring responsibilities. If someone does research in the evenings while on furlough then so be it but it wouldn’t upset me particularly because I wouldn’t envy them the home schooling they have to do. Lots of employers also pay for several weeks of sick leave but I don’t object to that on the basis that someone might pretend to be sick to get ahead on research.

I am glad that it sounds like at least one place has offered it to teaching staff. Hopefully others follow suit.

I'm just rather concerned that it isn't legal!