Not in education but while you await some more specific thoughts.

I guess the real question is contractually or legally can you do this or would you be relying on goodwill?

I assume you have no contractual or collective bargaining rule to fall back on?

Which probably means you would need to rely on it being a reasonable management request. The challenge with that is that travel would only be to places where the Government allowed. Meaning at the time of travel would it be reasonable to say you can’t go just in case something happens?

So back to goodwill and asking nicely I guess. It’s as you identify a huge ask for people either to not holiday abroad or visit relatives. I would have thought good Will wouldnt be enough

In reply to Keith:

Thanks Keith - it's really difficult, particularly as if a teacher is isolating/quarantined, they'll probably still be able to do most of their teaching - as they can and have been working remotely to date, I can see that they might see it as less of a problem if they need to isolate.

However it means that their colleagues have to do additional duties actually looking after their classes, and their form or the pupils that they support pastorally don't have the normal level of care. After a difficult period for schools, the need to maximise the in-person support is vital.

In fairness, for most people, they do see the bigger picture and their goodwill and professionalism take us a long way. It's just hard to give a consistent message, when there are so many individual perspectives. Thank you for the input, it's much appreciated.

In reply to Nina Waters:

Maybe some general communications and advice may help people think carefully about their plans? Some people may think if the worst came to the worst, maybe they'd need to quarantine, without thinking through how that would impact on your wider team, especially if at the same time others may be off poorly or may need to shield or who may be required to isolate etc etc
Also I think over time people may forget some of the original messages so regular and informative comms may help.

In reply to Laura:

Thanks Laura - I agree. Our comms are likely to focus on the bigger picture and the need for us to all work together to support one another - and then hope that's enough! These are interesting times to navigate, that's for certain.