Dear colleagues,
Following last night’s announcement, it is tough facing another national lockdown which places significant restrictions on the daily lives of us all. I am optimistic that the position will feel different by the spring, but I recognise that the months ahead look long and that everyone will face challenges in this next phase.
I urge you to think seriously about steps you can take to maintain your mental health and wellbeing. I encourage you to connect with others, whether via screen or phone, and find ways to keep active. With daylight reduced at this time of year, if you wish to adjust your hours to take exercise outdoors when it is light, please speak to your manager.
Working on site
We are required to stay at home except where we have a ‘reasonable excuse’ which includes work, where it is unreasonable for that to be done at home. Therefore, at St George’s, you can continue to do work onsite which cannot be done at home. You can see details of control measures we have in place to ensure our site is secure in our Covid information hub.
Working at home
If you are now working at home, having been based on site in the previous phase, please remind yourself of the guidance about setting up your home work station correctly and complete the display screen equipment (DSE) self-assessment via the Britsafe system.
Schools closures / eligibility for critical worker places
We understand that some staff will be impacted by the schools closures. As would be the case with any unplanned caring responsibilities, we ask managers to be as flexible as possible to help staff manage online schooling alongside their work.
The Department for Education confirmed late yesterday that teaching and support staff involved in the delivery of higher education are considered critical workers, vital to the continuation of education. Whether higher education staff are working on campus or working from home, their children can attend school for face-to-face teaching.
If you need to provide evidence of your critical worker status, please approach your line manager who should liaise with HR via HRhelp@sgul.ac.uk.
Impact on education
We have written to students with details of the impact on education activities. You can read the message here. I know that many of you have already worked tirelessly to adapt your teaching. Thank you for all that you are doing to give our students a high-quality education in such challenging circumstances. If you would welcome any advice, both the Centre for Innovation and Development in Education (CIDE) and Centre for Technology in Education (CTIE) would be happy to offer support via the Online Education Exchange site on MS Teams. We encourage you to raise any queries through the Q&A channel located within this site. Further resources are also available via the Online Education Framework website.
Support available to you
If staff would like to talk confidentially to someone, we have a counselling service that can be contacted by email. Sessions are currently taking place remotely.
The Confidential Care Employee Assistance Programme will be continuing to provide their telephone service during this time. If you would like to use the service, please follow these instructions:
Email assist@cic-eap.co.uk and include the following information:
If you are a member, the British Medical Association provides confidential counselling which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0330 123 1245.
In addition to University services and tools, there is also a lot of advice available through various media about how best to look after your health and wellbeing during the pandemic. The resources listed below offer good quality advice.
The national picture is evolving quickly and we anticipate further guidance from the government for higher education providers to be published soon. We will be in touch again with further information if required.
I send you my warmest wishes,
Professor Jenny Higham
Principal