This is very interesting in terms of developments for me, because it highlights some differences between German culture (as my German friends and friends who live in Germany tell me, so not totally infallible) and Uk culture in terms of their approach to illness.
On Mn and I guess representative of the population here, people are always told to carry on with a cold, it's just a sniffle, if you have back to back sniffles, so what and that nothing less than full flu is a reason not to go into work. This came up on a recent thread. In Germany, it is considered wrong to infect all your co-workers constantly with horrid if not very serious viruses and people are much more likely to stay off. This is also exacerbated by more generous sickness policies in Germany whereas lots in the UK get SSP which is measly and a risk of losing their jobs. So people prioritise naturally their need to work, take Lemsip and infect the whole office.
So basically, this new policy means become more like Germany and take better care of yourself when you have a cold or respiratory symptoms and stop bloody spreading it. It is a political issue though not just a social one, because it relates to zero hours contracts and crap sick pay.
Also, they need to contain the peak in the UK very strategically because they have 1/4 of the ITU beds per 100,000 population than Germany. So timing is more important to us as we have fewer resources and are already at almost peak capacity without corona, not like some other better resourced health-care systems.
I am not against this policy as I always work from home or try not to go in if I have a cold anyway but I know this is because I am lucky enough to have flexibility in my working.
Children staying home from school when sick should NEVER have been penalized and criminalize and parents harassed if they don't go in, attendance % targets have made us do counter-intuitive things in this country which are now putting us all at risk.