You will be aware of the Scottish Government’s intention to push on with the full re-opening of Early Years and P1-P3 education services from 22 February.
The UNISON Stirling branch remains concerned about the pace and breadth of the plans despite the reassurances offered by the Scottish Government and the wider societal pressure to reopen schools and nurseries.
The UNISON Stirling branch is therefore continuing to pursue discussions with Stirling Council over how this will be managed including the need to maintain robust risk assessments and the associated mitigations. The national guidance on the two metre rule should be strictly adhered to and rooms/work areas must have signage stating how many adults are permitted. This means that the capacity of services will be reduced. Guidance on ventilation and the maintenance of “bubbles” must also be strictly adhered to across the city.
The Scottish Government have now confirmed that testing will be rolled out to everyone in stand-alone Early Years Establishments. We are pushing for the quick implementation of this.
Those who are clinically vulnerable should not be pressurised to attend the workplace. Those in the extremely clinically vulnerable group (shielding) should not attend the workplace.
The UNISON Stirling branch asks that members raise concerns on any of the above matters with their workplace steward or directly with the branch. The branch will give clear advice under health and safety regulations and Section 44 of the Employment Act on an individual and collective basis where necessary. We will raise matters on your behalf with local and senior management in Education and resist any breaches of agreed mitigations.
We will do all we can to protect members at this time.
Stirling UNISON 