Feature Articles

Laura King advises on the practical precautions organisations should take to manage their activities during the coronavirus pandemic.

In their efforts to minimise risks of infection to staff and others, collecting and disseminating information, organisations must not forget about data protection, Paul Clarke warns.

Caroline Hand investigates a new tool from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that can help organisations assess their current initiatives.

Now that we are in lockdown, those who can be working from home should be doing so. There are many short and long-term benefits to this move but employers must not forget their legally binding health and safety responsibilities. Jon Herbert reports.

What is coronavirus and what can care providers do to keep their service users and staff safe?

With the Government introducing plans for financial assistance to provide employers an alternative to redundancies, here are some FAQs on furlough and the Government’s Job Retention Scheme.

John Davison explains the Government COVID-19 assistance available to businesses announced to date. It is expected that further measures will be revealed and some detail of the assistance is not yet available. The situation is further complicated as there are different assistance packages for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, mainly effecting rates relief and grants.

The Government has announced its plans for financial assistance to help employers retain employees for an extended period of time, although offering no work, and avoid lay-offs. It is called the Job Retention Scheme and aims to avoid lay-offs or redundancies while employers are unable to offer work to their employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union was opposed by many in both Houses of Parliament, caused concern in groups ranging from the CBI to the TUC and resulted in serious warnings from, among others, the Bank of England, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Some of these objections certainly put obstacles in the path to Brexit, but the arrival of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and his significant victory in the December 2019 general election left little doubt that the UK now had a set date to leave the Union — by the end of 2020. If that date was to change, the Prime Minister warned, it would only be because the current trade negotiations were not heading in the right direction — in which case he was prepared to call an end to the talks and leave the EU in the summer.

Following the introduction of the SEND reforms, it is clear that early years practitioners play a key role in the new SEN support system, and it is vital that providers understand their duties and responsibilities in relation to the new SEND Code of Practice and the Children and Families Act 2014. Elizabeth Walker looks at the current guidance for early years providers on supporting children with special educational needs in their care.