CEB Staff Newsletter #2 - 20 January 2022
Planned water supply interruption - Gillies St office
Central Highlands Water has notified us of a planned interruption to the water supply at the Gillies Street (Ballarat) office between 9:00am and 2:00pm on Monday 24th January. Staff should be off-site and work remotely during these hours for health and safety reasons.
CEB Staff Meeting 27-28 January shifted to online
Respecting the advice to limit the number of Victorian’s attending work premises, the Leadership team has determined that the CEB Staff Meeting planned for 27-28 January in Ballarat, will move to an online format. The timing and agenda will be adjusted accordingly. The revised agenda and invitation for the virtual meeting(s) will be shared in the coming days.
Staff announcement
Haiden McLachlan has resigned from his position as ICT Support Officer/System Administrator, effective from the beginning of February. We are indebted to Haiden for the skills and dedication he has brought to his role at CEB over the past 8.5 years, and we wish him well as he pursues a new position as ICT Manager with YMCA. We will commence advertising for an ICT Support Officer shortly.
COVID Update
As we commence our preparations for another hope-filled school year, we acknowledge the concern of our Catholic Education community with the continuing presence of COVID within the state. Some uncertainty regarding COVID protocols remains, and at this time, CECV and CEB have not received any formal advice from the Victorian Government regarding the commencement of the school year.
To assist CEB staff in planning for a safe return to work, information regarding school operations will be shared promptly as it becomes available. We encourage all CEB staff to continue to read each Executive Director COVID Update as they are published.
This update provides specific advice regarding attendance onsite in all CEB office locations.
Workplace Order
The Victorian Government have introduced a Workplace Order (No. 3) effective 13 January to 12 April 2022 inclusive, to limit the number of Victorian’s attending work premises to assist in reducing the frequency and scale of outbreaks of COVID-19 in Victorian workplaces and to establish more specific obligations for managing the risk associated with COVID-19 transmission in the work premises.
The Workplace Order, includes the requirement that:
- A worker must not attend a work premises if they have undertaken a COVID-19 PCR test, or a COVID-19 rapid antigen test and they are awaiting the result of that test except if more than 7 days has passed since the date of the test;
- Face masks must be worn when working at a work premises (refer below);
- Mandatory vaccination requirements for the (Education) sector are met (refer to recording of vaccination status below);
- Compliance with the Victorian Government QR code systems to record your attendance at the work premise on each occasion.
Therefore, we are required to be considerate of the number of people working on site. Many CEB staff have entered a Blended Working Agreement. Working to this Agreement supports this requirement.
Onsite attendance in the office or a school is appropriate, where necessary to undertake your work and is accepted for the Education sector.
Face masks
Wearing a mask is required for everyone attending CEB office locations in keeping with the latest Government advice (unless an exception applies, such as when in a home, when consuming food or drink, or when receiving beauty services).
For more information regarding where face masks are required and exceptions for not wearing a face mask refer to the updated information at www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks-when-wear-face-mask.
Close contacts
With the change to the definition of close contacts, i.e., to household or household-like contacts only, schools will not be required to compile the contact information (spreadsheet) for the Department of Health as we did last year.
For household or household-like contacts:
- Where someone has spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility.
- You must quarantine for 7 days.
- You must get tested on Day 1 of quarantine (or as soon as possible) and get tested again on Day 6 of quarantine - with a rapid antigen test or a PCR test if you can’t access a rapid antigen test.
- If you test positive on a rapid antigen test, you must report your result. Visit Reporting your result page for more information.
- Household or household-like contacts are also referred to as close contacts.
For education and workplace contacts:
- Where someone who has COVID-19 has informed you that you are their social contact, or a workplace or education facility has informed you that you are a workplace or education contact.
- If you have symptoms, you must use a rapid antigen test or get a PCR test if you can’t access a rapid antigen test.
- If you don't have symptoms, you are recommended to use a daily rapid antigen test for 5 days.
- If you test positive on a rapid antigen test, you must report your result. Visit Reporting your result page for more information.
- If you don’t have symptoms and cannot access a rapid antigen test, then monitor for symptoms and get tested if symptoms emerge.
We anticipate the Schools Operation Guide and DET advice will provide further guidance regarding instances of school-based exposure.
You can also refer to the coronavirus.vic.gov.au contact checklist for further information. You will need to follow the checklist for cases if you are a confirmed case. The Department will contact you.
General COVID Safe advice
We understand there are questions about upcoming PD, inductions, team meetings and a range of other activities and events taking place over the next few weeks. Until further guidance is received, in consultation with your Team Leader, consider the merit of each event/activity and the context in which it is to occur, asking yourself:
- Is the activity essential to support our governance obligations or students?
- Can it be delivered/undertaken differently (online, written correspondence etc.)?
- Can it be postponed/rescheduled?
If the event/activity is essential but can be delivered in an alternate way or postponed, we recommend you do so for now.
If the event/activity is essential and cannot be delivered in an alternate way or postponed, proceed ensuring you make it a COVID Safe event/activity adhering to current Victorian Government advice (e.g., face masks, distancing and density requirements, access to handwashing/sanitiser etc.).
Consideration may be given to holding the event/activity outdoors rather than indoors, reducing the duration and/or limiting attendance numbers.
Reminder: Staff Vaccination Status Recording on the PRS
A reminder that all CEB staff are required to record their vaccination status on the Personal Record System (PRS) via CEVN. As you are aware, the Chief Health Officer’s Directions require an education sector employer to collect, record and hold vaccination information about all ‘education workers’.
While you have already provided your vaccination status to CEB, it must also be recorded on the CECV PRS by the individual staff member by Monday, 31 January 2021. You should continue to update this for future COVID vaccinations (boosters) or exemptions.
Please refer to the CECV collection notice regarding the collection of your vaccination status, as required by the Directions. If you have not already recorded your vaccination status in the PRS, this video provides instructions.