NHS admin role - Coronavirus

[Rinkytinkpanther]

Just a question that I hope someone can help me with.
I work as a band 3 admin for an NHS trust. We are a small team of three. Two of us want to work from home during the current situation, the third member of our team is happy to come in every day.
The issue is they say we are key workers and it is essential we are available to assist the wards (we are based in another building on site).
Can they stop us from working at home? We can complete all our work remotely.
Also, one member lives with an elderly relative who is classed as vulnerable and they have a sibling (also living with them) who has received a letter from the government saying they cannot work for 12 weeks. My colleague believes she can work from home as this would be shielding. Is this correct?
Any help much appreciated.

What do you do, are you clinical coders?

As usual different Trust's and different managers apply the rules to suit them. I agree there are many nhs admin roles that can easily and safely be undertaken at home but in our Trust there is an attitude of presenteism (?) regardless of what is safe for staff. I'd push them on it.

Thanks for your replies. We are administrators and provide pretty much a secretarial service to the consultants and the wards. We arrange a lot of meetings all by email. We are usually expected to go to the wards on a daily basis (every morning) to see if there is any admin support that is needed but since Coronavirus we have been told not to because they have had suspected cases. They've now changed their minds, said we are key workers and PPE will be provided when we go to the wards. They say it is essential we remain on site.
Sorry for the ramble but we aren't being unreasonable to say that if government guidelines say work from home then we should be allowed to?

Watching with interest. Have you approached your union to ask for clarification. If they agree it is not safe to go in a ward and you are worried about it even with PPE, then you are entitled to say no. However they will try to placate you as obviously they need staff at work albeit physically or remotely.

If you are deemed essential workers and needed to go into work then you must do I think.
I am key worker and wfh but we have been told to expect to be redeployed possibly . However anyone in shielding group obv wouldn’t be expected to go in and also my line manager would def protect those with kids and prob try to do it on a voluntary basis where possible ..

You should have been risk assessed - everyone in my trust has been and if they are at increased risk or live with someone who is shielding then they are given the option of working from home. This includes admin workers AFAIK.

Thank you all. We are happy to work from home. Laptops were promised but not signed off for some reason. They have implemented a rota where one remains in the office at all times and the other two work two days from home one week and three days the following week. The colleague with the elderly mother is not happy as she feels she is exposing her mother to risk.
Our manager is WFH; she is classed a vulnerable person though her two adult children (who also work for the same trust) will be WFH for the next two months as they are shielding her. Seems to be different rules for different people.