*A message from Richard Middleton, Chief Operating Officer *
Dear Colleagues
As you know, it is Government advice to continue to work from home where possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are not able to work from home, please discuss this with your line manager and look at the guidance for making a case to return to work on campus.
With a high proportion of you now working from home, and the likelihood of this continuing for the foreseeable future, I am pleased to tell you that we’ve published guidelines on this subject, which you can read on the Health, Safety and Risk SharePoint site.
Working from Home is the third set of guidelines produced by Silver Command to prepare our community for a gradual return to normality, the first focused on the partial re-opening of laboratories, the second was on non-laboratories.
This latest advice covers workstations, health and wellbeing, caring responsibilities, technology and software, data management and line management. At all times it focuses on working from home whilst ensuring your safety and wellbeing.
Included in the information about workstations is support for staff who want to take their University desktop computers home to help enable remote working and iSolutions has produced an app to help with this process.
I know many of you will have questions about your continued working from home and I understand that this situation is affecting everyone differently. These guidelines are there to help support you in making working from home as safe and practical as possible.
I’ve asked all managers to ensure they are having open discussions about the guidelines with you. Please take the time to read them and talk to your line managers if you have any concerns.
The situation will of course continue to evolve and the next big milestone will be the welcoming of our students to the University on 28 September. As part of our preparation for this, and the ongoing support of our students’ experience, there will be an increasing number of colleagues who will need to return to campuses. This is a complex operation and one we must get right, so I thank you for your patience, and your advice, as we put plans in place to manage this safely and effectively.
Thank you for your continued support during these challenging times.
Richard Middleton
Chief Operating Officer
