After a briefing session with our Health and Safety team and in response to an increasing number of calls from our clients to ask about the issue of “shielding workers” we have drafted this guidance. Of course, if you need additional advice, please contact us and we will support your immediate needs.
Employer guidance on who is and who is not required to be shielding during Lockdown 3.0
This guidance is for employers in England, to enable them to establish who is or is not classed as clinically extremely vulnerable and help them manage each situation appropriately with regards to employee shielding.
The current shielding guidance applies to clinically extremely vulnerable individuals only.
Any other individuals living in a household with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable are not classed as needing to shield and should follow the general advice and regulations set out in the national lockdown guidance that came into effect on 5 January 2021 and should either work from home if possible or continue to attend their workplace if unable to work from home.
Those informed to shield are required to not attend their workplace and should be offered the opportunity to work from home where possible. Where this is not possible alternative arrangements such as furlough should be considered. Pregnant shielding workers, however, should be suspended on full pay if home working is not possible.
Contact the Park City HR team for further assistance on these alternative arrangements.
The clinically extremely vulnerable will get priority access to vaccination against COVID-19 before the general population and before members of their households, in line with the priority order set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Even when shielded workers have had both doses of the vaccine, they must continue to follow shielding advice, until further notice.
Anyone in the shielding group will previously have received a letter from the NHS or from their GP informing them to shield or has been advised to shield in the past by the NHS or their GP. If you would like an example copy of what these letters look like then please get in touch with us.
