Thought leadership

Reducing educational absences by managing COVID in Risk Manager

25 January 2022
3 minutes read

After almost two years of disruption, schools are still facing the challenges of Covid-19 and with the combination of the post-Christmas return to school and a more transmissible virus, absences among staff and students are likely.

In late 2021 there was a funding extension from the government for schools aimed at helping to reduce staff absences, with the deadline fast approaching on 18 February 2022. The management of Covid-19 using Risk Manager’s modules are able to assist in reducing the number of absences and therefore reduce the additional pressure mounting within schools.

Risk Manager can be used by educational – and other – organisations to manage Covid through a number of modules. These modules and their functions can help staff to reduce absence rates through effective management and an automated, cloud-based approach, which in turn will reduce the pressure on operational staff within education facilities.

 

Managing Policies

It’s well known that the guidance relating to Covid-19 is ever changing and is likely to continue to do so as we move into 2022 and tackle new challenges or variants. Risk Manager allows ‘version control’ of policies, which distributes out and can be approved by users as and when new policies are introduced.

Relevant users will be alerted of steps to follow should positive cases be confirmed or if the government updates rules. This process helps staff stay abreast of rapidly evolving policies, ensuring that everyone adheres to the latest – and crucially same – guidance across the school to prevent the spreading of Covid-19.

 

Managing Risk

Having a risk register with built in mitigations means that if there is an outbreak of cases within the school, there is the relevant advice directly within the module for relevant persons to look to control the spread and follow the correct protocols.

 

Managing Incidents

The Accidents and Incidents module is a logbook that affords the ability to track and label all Covid-19 incidents within the system. When a pupil or staff has a confirmed case, this can be logged within the system, which will then alert the relevant parties linked to the individual within the system and investigated appropriately. This allows easy identification of those who have come into contact with the positive case and for the implementation of appropriate control measures.

Working towards continued minimising of disruption will be a huge focus for schools as we near the two-year mark of the pandemic. Implementing a system such as Risk Manager can move staff’s focus away from the churn of confusion in managing Covid-19 through automation, allowing staff to get back to what they do best in their roles.

The government’s additional funding window for tackling school absences is open until 18 February 2022, with schools looking to implement a centralised system that improves efficiency and reduces staff absence being able to seek support.

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