Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

BSA guidance update

July 20, 2020

Dear members

This week’s Covid-19 communication covers:

New update as of 20.07.20
Links to previous advice.

As ever the update is issued by BSA in conjunction with our partners BAISIS and ISC. BSA reminds all schools that it is not a medical, statutory or legal authority and any advice is given on that basis.

This is the second of our summer briefings. The next will be published on August 6, 2020.

A.1: What has changed
In the two weeks since the last update, there have been almost 3 million more confirmed cases and 70,000 new deaths, according to WHO figures. The countries of greatest concern remain USA, Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa. Several countries in Central and South America have also seen further significant rises, particularly in Mexico. There has also been a significant number of reported cases in the Philippines, which is the only country apart from those mentioned above to report over 100 daily deaths yesterday. Publication of this figure has been paused in the UK pending a review, but cumulatively totalled over 45,000 when last published.

There have been two minor changes to the guidance on those exempt from quarantine on arrival in the UK. The first was to clarify arrangements for passengers with transit stops en route to the UK. Essentially if the stop was in a non-exempt country, the quarantine rules apply, even if the original point of embarkation was in a country on the list of exemptions. The second change was to remove Serbia from the list because of a spike in cases there. There are likely to be further changes to the list in the coming weeks.

The full list is available here, and BSA advises checking regularly for amendments or updates. Those from the Common Travel Area (Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands) remain exempt, as do British Overseas Territories.

The UK also reviewed travel advice for outgoing travellers, and the list is slightly different. The full list is available here and does include Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

A.2 Guidance on the return to school in England.
There has been a minor tweak today to the guidance on isolation for residential school settings. This relates to being “mindful that wearing a face covering may inhibit communication with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions and clear sound”.

A reminder also of some guidance issued just before the end of term: The new version of Keeping Children Safe in Education for September 2020. Colleagues at HCR Law have issued a briefing note about the changes.

Safer Recruitment Consortium issued an update to the Guidance on Safer Working Practice relating to the current situation which might also help with plans for reopening.

There have also been two updates relating to online learning:

A.3: Return to school: Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
As notified separately, Care Inspectorate in Scotland has released an update which includes a new Key Question, number 7 to be used as part of scrutiny where there are concerns relating to COVID-19 in a residential childcare setting.

The existing quality framework will be used as a basis of their scrutiny work where there are no COVID-19 concerns. Click here to read.

The full guidance for Scotland is available here, and links to the residential school guidance which references both SCIS and BSA.

New guidance was issued for Wales last week: OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE and GUIDANCE ON LEARNING

In Northern Ireland schools will reopen for Primary 7 and Years 12 and 14 on August 24. The advice is available here.

A.4: BSA Charter and Checklist
The list of those who have adopted BSA COVID-SAFE CHARTER is on the BSA Covid 19 page. Any school which has decided to adopt the Charter, but which does not appear on the list should please contact chris@boarding.org.uk. The BSA CHECKLIST FOR REOPENING BOARDING is still available, and all other guidance is on the BSA website.

A.5: BSA Covid supplier list
BSA has a list of suppliers of vital equipment on our website, and the list continues to grow. BSA does not officially endorse any of the products listed, and schools are urged to perform their own due diligence checks on any company they plan to approach:

Active Sanitiser & Protection Tunnel: PTC XtraSAN
Branded Face Masks: Funky Face Mask
Software: AssetPool Covid19 Safeguarding Compliance & Verification Software
Testing: Chronomics
Testing and Tracking: Taylor Education: Covid-19 testing and tracking app
Thermal Temperature Camera System: Eclipse Strategic Security Ltd
NEW: Testing: COVID-19 Rapid Test: Fortress Diagnostics.

For more detail on each of the suppliers, please visit the BSA COVID supplier page here.

A.6: #BSAheroes
Please continue to send good news stories to us at bsa@boarding.org.uk and nominate anyone worthy of a special mention by using the hashtag #BSAheroes

B. Links to previous BSA advice

If you would like further advice from the BSA, please email bsa@boarding.org.uk.

Best wishes

Robin Fletcher
Chief Executive, BSA and BSA Group