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?

@puptent

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!)

What a lovely pragmatic answer.

It suits the government to have students u25 being financially dependent on their parents for the purposes of assessment. The government can't have it both ways.

If it was my DCs I'd want to prioritise the balance between their mental and physical welfare. If Covid did not seem to be an imminent threat based on the current status of my child and those they are exposed to, they would be welcome home. If I had greater concern but they were struggling then I'd probably visit and spend the day outdoors with them to reduce the risks.

Mine are a long way off from university, but one has ASD and his mental wellbeing can be fragile and I have the long game of his wellbeing to consider.

I think coming home permanently/indefinitely bc all teaching and contact is online would be fine. Popping home for weekend and back to uni accommodation, no.

I cannot see an exemption in the SI that allows it unless the students are under 18 and therefore still children, when

for the purposes of arrangements for access to, and contact between, parents and children where the children do not live in the same household as their parents or one of their parents

would apply, they cannot be both part of the household at the university address, and the "family" household.

My daughter is in tier 2 and we're in tier 3 and she's coming come for a long weekend next week. I understood this was OK as she'd form a bubble with us?

Even if it isn't, I won't be stopping her. She loves alone in a small studio apartment, is only in her uni studio space 2 days a week (socially distanced) & doesn't socialise. She's finding it very lonely.

@JengaNonConfirming if she bubbles with you then your entire household has to act like you live in her tier 3 area even though you are in tier 2.

A radio presenter who lives in tier 2 bubbles with her mother in a tier 3 area so the radio presenter was told and does act like she lives in tier 3 herself.

@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.

This is exactly it for me. I will not stop my student DD, who only turned 18 in the summer, is in her first year at university and has fragile mental health from coming home if she wishes. I wouldn't stop any of my DDs. As far as I am concerned, this is their home too. Wherever they are. They always have a place with me and DH if they want or need it.

Bollocks to anyone who tries to tell us otherwise.

I would not stop my child from coming home for the weekend.

Advice is what you ask for when you already know the answer but wish you didn’t.

@cathyandclare I had to do the same thing for exactly the same reason before all this started. I would do the same now - nothing is more important to me than my dc's health, mental or physical.

Zaza, it's horrible to go through and it's particularly tough for students at the moment. Good that you managed to support your dc to stabilise things before this.

You're right there cathyandclare

I totally feel for students at the moment. IMO the main issue is around transmission. With many of the university areas in tier 2 / tier 3, it is campus and that locality, with the highest rates and thus travelling home seems very risky. I appreciate you want your DC to visit but what if everyone's DC does this, every weekend?

Covid is rife among university students at present, so regardless of the legal position I think most students should avoid popping home for the weekend at the moment. Obviously, slightly different considerations apply if a student knows that he/she has recently had Covid and completed the isolation period.

DC1 started uni this year on a 31 week accommodation contract. He has to come home for 4 weeks at christmas because his contract says he has to fully vacate his room at uni. Home is still his permanent address for the other 21 weeks of the year. So of course he is coming back here in the holidays. We will have to fetch him because his room has to be completely cleared out. There is certainly a question about random weekends, but he hasn't wanted to come back yet, so we'll cross that bridge as and when it happens.

My daughter is in tier 2 and we're in tier 3 and she's coming come for a long weekend next week. I understood this was OK as she'd form a bubble with us?

That is only possible if she lives in a single person household, that would is unlikely in student environments, shared kitchens etc. in halls mean not etc.

@Liking80

I totally feel for students at the moment. IMO the main issue is around transmission. With many of the university areas in tier 2 / tier 3, it is campus and that locality, with the highest rates and thus travelling home seems very risky. I appreciate you want your DC to visit but what if everyone's DC does this, every weekend?

I think this is the point. It may be unavoidable for student accommodation-based students to return to parental homes over the Christmas period (though I suspect if infection rates stay really high it may well be that universities allow students to stay - after all, no conferences are going to be happening this year). However, popping backwards and forwards, unless a child's mental health makes this essential for support needs, has to be a bad idea.

Is coming home for the weekend from university common, in normal times? DS never has, nor have any of his friends - just trying to work out whether this is normal??

No absolutely not if your following the rules, there is no ambiguity here. If they are living in student accommodation they cannot visit a different house it in Tier 2 or your in Tier 2, only meet you outside. That doesn’t mean I think it’s not cruel or I wouldn’t do it, just stating what the rules are. I would definitely do it anyway.

I previously understand that my DD is now part of a different household, and it wouldn't surprise me if there's problems getting her home for Xmas. She has work lined up so I can see her coming home early Dec and isolating in two rooms.

I have to say that when we waved DS goodbye in September, we were completely prepared that he might not be home until Easter at the very earliest, perhaps next summer. It seemed an obvious consequence of the already-rising cases.