The Prime Minister has announced a move away from government restrictions to personal responsibilities in England, as part of his ‘Living with Covid plan. This includes:

• No legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive Covid test from the 24^th of February

• Fully vaccinated individuals and under 18s will not be told to test themselves for seven days after coming into contact with a positive case. Unvaccinated close contacts will also not be legally required to isolate.

• The £500 payment to support people who are self-isolating will be removed this Thursday (24^th February)

• A return to pre-pandemic SSP rules from 24 March

• From 1 April, free Covid testing will end for the general public

Alan Price is CEO at BrightHR. He says,

"This is a complicated and confusing time for employers in England, who are now left wondering if they will have to manage employees coming into the workplace whilst they are Covid-positive. There are also many people who are clinically vulnerable and will be especially concerned following these announcements.

"Employers will have to look closely at their H&S policies and procedures, to ensure the workplace continues to be safe from Covid; this might mean (re)introducing safety measures such as face masks, hand sanitiser, etc.

"Some employers will want to introduce a contractual isolation requirement, so they can tell employees not to come into the workplace if they have Covid. It will be up to individual employers to decide how they want this to work in practice. Until 1^st April, there is still guidance in place to isolate for 5 days if you test positive for Covid, but with the lifting of free testing from the 1^st of April, it's important for employers to decide what their testing policy will be, will they provide tests for employees or do they expect employees to pay for them themselves?

"Employers will also need to make decisions about pay for employees who are test positive for Covid. SSP for Covid absences has been payable from day 1 of absence throughout the pandemic. This will stay in place for the next month, before returning to pre-pandemic allowance from day 4 of illness. Whilst this will reduce the amount of SSP to be paid to eligible employees and standardise the payment of SSP, an impending removal of the SSP Rebate Scheme for smaller employers will mean that all employers will, once again, have to foot their entire SSP bill.

"Businesses will need a sound business case to explain very clearly why a Covid isolation policy is needed - e.g. to protect vulnerable staff/clients. The best advice I can give right now is for businesses to communicate openly and honestly with employees to allay any fears they may have."

https://www.brighthr.com/