Coronavirus (Covid-19)

We wanted to let you know about the latest changes to NCL’s Covid-19 measures, as part of our route back to a more normal college life.

Face Coverings

At NCL, we have now moved to an advisory position that encourages face coverings in certain situations. While face coverings will no longer be required in teaching areas, we will continue to encourage their use in indoor communal areas on campus, especially in busy areas. If any student wishes to continue to wear a face covering in any part of the college, this will of course be respected.

Testing and Isolation

• PCR testing is no longer available to the general population.
• Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) are no longer available free of charge to the general population, although you can still buy them.
• If you still have LFT kits at home and test positive when using one, you don’t need to stay at home unless the new ‘stay at home’ advice (below) says you should.
• You can read more about the changes to testing and isolation here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/test-protect-transition-plan/
  
  

The new 'stay at home' advice

The new advice from the NHS is to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection such as coronavirus and have a high temperature or do not feel well enough to carry out normal activities.

You only need to follow the ‘stay at home’ advice if you have a fever or are not well enough to carry out normal activities.

Reporting absence

From Thursday 12 May, we will stop the use of our online Covid-19 absence reporting form. If you have Covid-19 (or suspect you have Covid-19), you should now report your absence to Key Support using this link. 

When reporting your absence to HR or Key Support, please let them know that your absence is due to following the ‘stay at home’ advice. This will help the college to report any confirmed or suspected COVID cases and identify any trends or clusters.

We will be retaining the following Covid safety measures on our campuses:

• Ventilation, the use of carbon dioxide monitoring and our enhanced cleaning will form an important part of the ongoing approach to managing the risk of infection across our campuses.
• The most effective way to manage your personal risk is to take up the offer of vaccination. We encourage everyone to participate in the vaccination programme.
• Where protective screens are in place, these will be retained.
• We know that some staff and students would still prefer the people around them to give them a bit more personal space. We will encourage those staff and students to sign up to the Distance Aware This enables you to request a badge that signals that you would like people to respect your individual social space.

We know that while many of you will welcome the return of a more normal college life, it may cause anxiety for others. If you have any worries about any aspect of our next steps, please contact our student advisers on student.adviser@nclan.ac.uk.

From Thursday 12 May, we will stop the use of our online Covid-19 absence reporting form. If you have Covid-19 (or suspect you have Covid-19), you should now report your absence to Key Support using this link.

• We will be retaining the following Covid safety measures on our campuses:
  

  • Ventilation, the use of carbon dioxide monitoring and our enhanced cleaning will form an important part of the ongoing approach to managing the risk of infection across our campuses.
    
  • The most effective way to manage your personal risk is to take up the offer of vaccination. We encourage everyone eligible to participate in the vaccination programme.
    
  • Where protective screens are in place, these will be retained.
    
  Please remember to keep signing in every time you visit campus using our Envoy app. You can find a guide to using Envoy here.  

To ensure everyone can keep a safe distance from others while on campus, NCL staff and students will now need to check into a campus before attending, using NCL's contact tracing systems.

This process is quick, easy and completely touchless if you use the 'Envoy' app, which can be downloaded to your smart phone either from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. 

Full guidance on how to download and use the application can be viewed here.

Protecting and supporting the health and wellbeing of our students, staff and local community is New College Lanarkshire's priority.

Information and advice on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic can be found below.

Our guidance is frequently reviewed to provide you with the most up-to-date information in line with current government advice.

For the latest information, please check the Scottish Government coronavirus page.