Tier 2 student visiting tier 1 family home?

[covidity]

Can anyone with a better grasp of the new rules than I have please clarify:

Can a student living in a tier 2 area come home to a tier 1 area and stay in the family home?

Yes because anything else is actually cruel.

Is it your child? Let them in to their home! They won't forget how you act now.

I have not been able to find a definitive answer to this question. Home is their lawful permanent residence. Uni halls are a temporary address whilst studying away from home. Might be different for private accommodation.

@Grobagsforever I do agree but the Covid related restrictions are not known for being terribly gentle at the best of times.

@covidity my reading of it is that travel into & out of Tier 3 areas is discouraged (not banned) but travel into Tier 2 areas is reasonably ok. Assuming you’re not planning a jaunt into Wales en route.

It is their uni halls of residence which has sent out quite a threatening email saying students are not allowed to stay anywhere else due to the new rules and specifically include the example of their family homes which is understandably upsetting for them.

You can travel from tier two. That is not the issue. The issue is whether the student ‘belongs’ to the household of their family home (which of course they do, as it is their permanent residence), but also their uni household.

@covidity they should challenge that and ask for where it is set out that it is against the law.

If you have a contract with the uni they can set their own rules, but it may not ne illegal.

Students who don’t live at uni, commute several times a week between uni and home. So I don’t see a difference personally. You’d still be mixing with other students.

I think the uni is correct. People in tier 2 areas are not supposed to visit people they don't live with indoors. They live in their student households during term time, so shouldn't be visiting other households including their parents (unless they can day trip and visit just in the garden/outdoors)

@Firefliess

I think the uni is correct. People in tier 2 areas are not supposed to visit people they don't live with indoors. They live in their student households during term time, so shouldn't be visiting other households including their parents (unless they can day trip and visit just in the garden/outdoors)

But surely a student is still part of their parent's household, they are just temporarily living elsewhere?

www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-level-high#going-to-school-college-and-university

Here is the guidance. It says that you must not move backwards and forwards between permanent address and term time address during term time unless an exemption applies. Whether the courts would agree with this interpretation is, I think, open to debate. It appears to rely on a presumption that a student cannot be a member of two households and is therefore not a member of their parents' household during term time.

I understand that like when anyone switches household they are mean to self isolate for 14 days. I also see that it is highly impractical for students to do this.

Surely students going back to parents got say Xmas would want to protect them and isolate on return?
I am a student with Own house but can't now visit parents as I am tier 2, they are tier 1. Even though I only live with one other, neither of us mixing much outside the house. I am probably safer to visit my folks than sone one living in halls and attending in person lectures (mine all online)

I looked up the definition of ‘backwards and forwards’ as used in the latest government rules and it seems to be defined as repeated movements, not just once in each direction.

On that basis I’m not going to dissuade my student child returning home for a weekend to have a break from what seems to be a pretty difficult and expensive uni experience.

Of course they can. Let her know she is welcome.

I think officially they can't but I would let mine come home if they needed to. The restrictions have made criminals of people who are instinctively rule-followers. It's depressing.

I don’t think so unless they are moving back
I don’t think they can back and forth, with tier 2 you can only meet outside for example but 1 you can meet inside

@cathyandclare

I think officially they can't but I would let mine come home if they needed to. The restrictions have made criminals of people who are instinctively rule-followers. It's depressing.

It isn’t about being people who are instinctively rule followers (I assume that’s derogatory?)

Quite obviously the rationale is to avoid moving from an area with high incidence to an area with low incidence, bringing infection and spreading it by close contact. It’s not a difficult rationale to understand, even for the less bright members of the population. So the question isn’t what is legally possible if I shut one eye and squint with the other, but how much do I care about containing the virus.

I think officially no but if it was my child I couldn’t say no.
I think going to and fro is probably a bad idea tho.

I agree that it does sound like they should flit between both and given that the universities have had so many cases I can see why.

How much face to face teaching is happening? Would she be better moving home for a longer period rather than going back and forth?

My priority is my child's mental health. Measures to contain the virus that are actively harmful are not acceptable. Isolating vulnerable young adults is one of these measures..

Absolutely not. I am instinctively a rule follower- but I also have DC who struggled seriously with their mental health as students, such that I had to sleep on the floor of their hall of residence while they started medication, and worry if I hadn't heard for a while that they may have harmed themselves.

My DC is fine now, but I empathise with parents of students living through being lockdown/ isolated/ banned from seeing a boyfriend or girlfriend. I care about more than just the virus.

Well technically not no. Id discourage coming home just for the sake of it

But I think if your child is struggling or needs to come home I wouldnt be stopping it

My reply was to Mypersona not to you OP.

So the question isn’t what is legally possible if I shut one eye and squint with the other, but how much do I care about containing the virus.

Exactly. The 'rules' are red herrings. We need less rules and more common sense.
What is the end game here?
It's to not to spread the virus.
If your DC has been self-isolating/tested negative/had the virus recently and is now clear and is travelling to your house where they will stay for the weekend in a household which is presumably symptom-free and not vulnerable ( and not go and visit Granny in the care home) then you can reasonably assume that that will be OK.
If you or they have symptoms of illness and they are planning a weekend of socialising within your community then obviously not.

(I realise that's not a definitive answer to your question, is it against the rules? So on BBC London last night - my local news - someone asked exactly the same question and the 'expert' in the studio said it was a grey area but 'morally' the answer was 'probably' No. So it's a moral, not legal issue!)