Coronavirus guidance for Council employees

Updated on 3 February 2022

General advice

1. Colleagues should continue to work from home wherever possible and shouldn’t go into a place of work unless it’s necessary for service delivery.
2. When in a council workplace, colleagues should keep a one-metre distance from others, wherever roles and services allow.
3. Face coverings must be worn when moving in communal indoor areas.
4. Face coverings can be temporarily removed indoors where there is a partition in place or where one-metre distancing between people can be maintained.
5. Follow all relevant safety measures put in place by your service when carrying out your duties.
6. Risk assessments should contain information on outbreak management response.
7. Please use Microsoft Teams for meetings whenever possible.
8. Follow the latest travel guidance at all times.
9. In person essential learning events are now taking place and will continue to be stepped up over the coming months. Many learning events are also being offered virtually using MS Teams. All digital learning is now available on myLearning Hub.

Keeping up to date

Keep in touch with your manager and make sure they have your latest contact details. Please also add your home phone and personal mobile phone numbers to myHR so we can contact you in an emergency or ask your manager to add them for you using myPeople.

As well as regularly checking these Coronavirus pages, you can get further updates about Coronavirus through:

• Line managers
• News Beat
• Coronavirus absence guidance.

Annual leave/foreign travel

• Everyone needs to take some time to look after their wellbeing during this difficult period. We understand that some people may be reluctant to take leave while some protection measures are still in place but, where it’s possible to take annual leave, you should continue to do so.
• The Scottish Government issues regular updates to their guidance on non-essential travel worldwide, including any quarantine/testing arrangements required when returning from foreign travel.
• New National control measures may be brought in with little notice. This means you might need to self-isolate for a period after you return from foreign travel, even if that wasn’t the case when you booked your travel or left the UK, so you must check this guidance and have a discussion with your manager before you plan any foreign travel.
• No paid special leave is provided for any period of self-isolation/quarantine that may be required on returning from foreign travel, so you'll need to discuss whether there's an option to work from home, or take unpaid leave/additional annual leave should you need to quarantine.  

You can read more about annual leave in our Coronavirus absence guidance.

Highest risk (previously shielding)

• As we moved beyond the Protection Levels system in August 2020, the Scottish Government advised those at ‘highest risk’ that they no longer needed to shield and were able to attend work if they’re unable to work from home, providing it was safe for them to do so. 
• If you were shielding, and were unable to work from home, your manager should have had a conversation with you about attending work. As part of this, they'll have carried out an occupational risk assessment with you and discussed any measures that needed to be put in place to support you back to work.

You can read more about high risk groups in our Coronavirus absence guidance.

Pregnant colleagues

• If you’re less than 28 weeks pregnant and your workplace is open, you should attend work as long as a risk assessment has been carried out and appropriate measures have been put in place.
• If you’re in your third trimester the updated guidance from the UK Gov/RCOG is a move away from isolation at 28 weeks. You should complete a pregnant worker's risk assessment with your line manager to record and respond to identified workplace hazards. Unless otherwise advised by your clinician or GP, pregnant workers can continue to follow the same advice as the rest of the population.

You can read more about guidance for pregnant colleagues in our Coronavirus absence guidance.

Wellbeing support

During these difficult times, it’s important we look out for ourselves as well as our families, colleagues and customers. This includes talking about our challenges and helping others with theirs. Read the Coronavirus wellbeing pages to learn about the support that’s available for you.