Management Information Sheet

Current Situation

Our colleagues in Public Health are continually reviewing measures to support education settings in Norfolk in light of the current approach of harm reduction. At this moment in time there are no plans to implement additional measures in line with the Contingency Framework. We are aware that there are different approaches in some other authorities. This MI Sheet provides key information to support the ongoing management of cases.

Education Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health, safety & wellbeing webpage

A reminder that the Health, safety & wellbeing webpage has lots of useful information and tools to help you in reducing the transmission risk from COVID-19 in your setting. We expect all local authority-maintained schools to make use of these resources. However, schools that are not maintained by the local authority may use them for help and guidance too. Our guidance takes all of the many different government and other relevant guidance documents that relate to educational settings and presents them in a single place to help you. The guidance and tools mentioned below can be found on this webpage.

Management of cases guidance

Our Management of cases guidance has been updated to clarify what happens when you contact the Outbreak Management Centre (OMC) and the different levels of support that may be appropriate depending on the nature and size of the outbreak in your setting. This will help you to determine at which stage different control measures may be escalated or introduced and what level of involvement you may expect from the OMC. The OMC works to this guidance.

Case Management Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Our case management FAQs have expanded to contain answers to ten of your most commonly asked questions.

Letter templates

Please note that we have updated and added to our library of Letter Templates.

We have added Letter 11 - Inform and Support (foreign language translations to follow). Following the changes to settings role in case management at the beginning of the Autumn Term a number of settings have fed back that they feel it is important to notify their communities when positive cases occur and to outline this change in role. Letter 11 - Inform and Support is a template you may wish to use to do this. It is Norfolk's version of a Warn and Inform letter you may have seen from the DfE

Please note, you are not required to notify parents of each positive case in your setting but if you choose to notify parents, remember not to share any personal identifying information of a positive case. We suggest you wait for PCR confirmation of a positive result before issuing communications. Please also note this letter is only a template and you can change it to suit your own settings scenario or needs, for example;

• Just to inform parents of a group / class / year group of positive cases as a courtesy and a reminder what they can do to support.

Or

• If your risk assessment identifies a recommendation for a specific group of children to test more regularly or seek a PCR and you want to use some wording from the template to signpost what more parents/carers can do to support.

The above actions would be based on information you are already aware of, your risk assessments and appropriate conversations with public health experts. Please note we are not recommending contact tracing.

Strategies to help encourage twice weekly testing

The DfE has worked with school leaders and further education providers to identify some strategies that have been successfully used to increase participation in testing. These are fully outlined in a new toolkit 'how to encourage pupils and students to test regularly'. We recommend our secondary school settings review this useful toolkit and where possible use the ideas to encourage and support pupil and student uptake of testing in your setting.

Individual Risk Assessments for Staff

You will be aware that the Government has recently ended the shielding programme. People previously covered by this have now been informed that in their social interactions they may continue to choose to show caution but they are not required to. So what does this mean from a work perspective? Health and safety law continues to require employers to identify employees that are at increased risk from harm and manage the risk. Despite the success of the vaccine roll out, research suggests some people remain at increased risk from COVID-19. We have therefore refreshed the guidance Your Health, Your Safety when working in Educational Settings. This provides a new approach to individual risk assessment based on establishing a person's COVID-Age to understand their level of risk in the workplace. This can help to provide assurance to staff about their actual level of risk as well as give clear direction on appropriate controls where an increased risk does exist.