Urgent prison member update

Firstly, thank you to everyone who completed the survey which closed yesterday. We have responses from 450 members in prison education, which is a fantastic response in such a short time. The data has now been collated and we are in the process of lobbying the parliament and HMPPS to close prison education departments, which we believe are a non-essential service at this time during a pandemic. This includes preparing a briefing for tomorrow's Justice Committee as part of our Justice Unions Parliamentary Group and questions to be put to the Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland.

Secondly, many of you have been in touch in the last few days with questions and to air your concerns about the dangers posed to you and others around prison education departments remaining open at this time. We totally understand your fears, and as I have already said UCU's position is that prison education cannot continue in its current form (i.e. with face-to-face teaching) if we are to stem the transmission of COVID19/coronavirus and protect the NHS. You can read some of what UCU has been doing on this issue here, including a letter from the general secretary to the director general of prisons.

As set out to you last week, the government has issued clear guidance on who should be self-isolating already.

The government have said that they are advising those you who are at increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus to work from home, where possible, and your employer should support you to do this. This group includes those who are:

• aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions)
• under 70 with an underlying health condition listed below (i.e. anyone instructed to get a flu jab as an adult each year on medical grounds):
  • chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis 
  • chronic heart disease, such as heart failure 
  • chronic kidney disease 
  • chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis 
  • chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy 
  • diabetes 
  • problems with your spleen - for example, sickle cell disease or if you have had your spleen removed 
  • a weakened immune system as the result of conditions such as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or chemotherapy 
  • being seriously overweight (a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above) 
• those who are pregnant.

There are some clinical conditions which put people at even higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19. People falling into this group are those who may be at particular risk due to complex health problems such as: 

• people who have received an organ transplant and remain on ongoing immunosuppression medication
• people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radiotherapy
• people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia who are at any stage of treatment
• people with severe chest conditions such as cystic fibrosis or severe asthma (requiring hospital admissions or courses of steroid tablets)
• people with severe diseases of body systems, such as severe kidney disease (dialysis)

If you live with or care for somebody with one of these conditions, you also shouldn't be attending work. No one should risk bringing the virus home to a loved one who may have a very negative reaction.

Remember the government has said that everyone should be trying to follow these measures as much as is practicable, and your employer cannot exempt themselves from this guidance. UCU has drafted a model letter to help you set out your position to your employer.

UCU will support you if you experience any issues with your employer as a result of trying to follow the government guidance. Should you have a problem please speak to your local rep, or branch committee rep first, or contact a regional UCU office; details of office contacts can be found here.

Prison education - too dangerous to continue?

We have also been asked by some members whether staff can walk out of work if they feel that their workplace is too dangerous and that they are not being adequately protected by their employer. 

UCU cannot lawfully advise members to withdraw their labour without conducting a ballot of the affected membership.

However, in the immediate and urgent short-term, UCU can advise you when the law allows you to withdraw because of serious risk. Legally speaking you must meet these three tests:

• are the circumstances of danger such that you reasonably believe them to be serious and imminent? 
• have you taken or do you propose to take appropriate steps to protect yourself or other people from the danger?
• have you taken steps to communicate these circumstances to your employer by appropriate means explaining that you believe you are being put in serious and imminent danger as per the management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999?

Please see model letter here for you to complete and send to your employer.

Examples that could be cited include:

• observing social distancing (2m) - is this being done on entry to the prison, within staffing areas, classrooms, corridors?
• wings being classed as 'households' - no requests for entry onto wings to facilitate learning/outreach/enrichment
• no learners to be taken to education from a wing where there have been suspected or confirmed cases
• access to adequate hand-washing facilities upon entry and on a regular basis throughout the day; 'adequate' includes, soap/hotwater/drying facilities
• classrooms regularly and thoroughly cleaned
• equipment cleaned between users. 

If any member faces any issues as a result of taking a decision on grounds of health and safety to not attend work, then UCU will give you our full support in challenging the employer.

I know that the last few days have been worrying and stressful for our members in prison education, but we are doing all we can to advise individuals on their own circumstances, together with collectively challenging the decision to keep prison education running at an unnecessary risk to you and your learners.

In solidarity

Marianne Quick
UCU bargaining and negotiating official