Return to campus

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is designed to discreetly show that the wearer or someone with them has a hidden disability and may require some extra help, understanding, or patience.

View the What is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower? YouTube video to find out more.

There is no qualifying list of disabilities for the scheme.

You do not have to wear a sunflower lanyard if you have a hidden disability, but wearing it means you are discreetly showing that you have an invisible disability, that you may need some assistance and in some cases that you are exempt from face coverings.

This is the Government guidance on exemptions and the University also has its own face coverings policy. This includes (but is not limited to):

• people who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability
• where putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress
• if you are speaking to or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate
• to avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury, to yourself or others ‒ including if it would negatively impact on your ability to exercise or participate in a strenuous activity.
• police officers and other emergency workers, given that this may interfere with their ability to serve the public.

Please be mindful and respectful of such circumstances, noting that the reasons for this may not be visible to others. Regardless of whether or not you wear a sunflower lanyard, it’s not ok to experience any kind of bullying or harassment. If you experience or witness any such behaviours involving students, you can report it online at Report and Support. Staff can report incidents to their line manager or to a Staff Harassment Adviser.

If you cannot wear a face covering, wear a transparent shield, if possible.

Wearing a sunflower lanyard – should you choose to do so - helps show that you are exempt from wearing a face covering in a discreet way. While it is not mandatory to wear a sunflower lanyard for this purpose, it does indicate to University staff that you have a hidden disability and may require some extra help, understanding, or patience.

Students and staff can purchase a sunflower lanyard from the student online shop. The University will not require staff or students to provide any personal information in order to purchase this lanyard. If someone is wearing a sunflower lanyard, we will respect this and we will not challenge the wearer. 

No. The sunflower lanyard should only be used by people with hidden disabilities so they can make themselves visible.

You can show your support by downloading a Hidden Disabilities logo and adding it to your email signature.

The campus will look physically quite different when you enter.

• There will be various directional signage and some one-way systems in place across campus, which will be clearly marked out in order to keep social distancing.
• You should keep to the left on stairs and corridors and follow the signage.
• To maintain social distance many tables and chairs have been removed, rearranged or blocked off.
• Campus Monitors will be able to help you on your way and answer any questions you may have.

Teaching will have staggered start and finishing times to control movement of people around campus and there is a protocol for filling teaching rooms from the furthest point from the entrance.

Everyone is expected to wear face coverings inside, which includes during teaching and practical sessions, unless there is a medical reason why this cannot be done (more information about face coverings above).

The University is operating a Five Steps process to working safely at Oxford Brookes, and which aligns with Government guidance on reopening workplaces. The five steps are:

1. Carry out a Covid-19 risk assessment
2. Develop cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures
3. Maintain 2m social distancing, where possible
4. Where people cannot be 2m apart, manage transmission risk.
5. Help people to work from home, where possible

Further detail on each of these steps are detailed in the answers below. The full Five Steps plan document is also available for you to read. 

Department Managers must ensure that the following five stages are followed before the reopening of their business area is possible:

1. Seek internal approval through either your Faculty Executive Team or Directorate leadership team that the business activity is deemed essential to reopen on campus. If approved, a member of these committees will add this business activity to the Reopening Tracker.

2. A risk assessment of the activity to be reopened must be undertaken if it is not already covered within the existing workspace risk assessments.

3. The risk assessment will be reviewed by Health & Safety for approval.

4. Once approved, each business area will be responsible for ensuring the measures in this risk assessment are carried out, prior to returning to site, and communicating this with impacted staff. These measures may include procurement of PPE, installing signage, hand sanitisers, moving or removing furniture. For some of this activity, staff may need to raise a request with Estates and Campus Services (e.g. installing sanitiser pumps on walls or removing large furniture) by emailing:

• Headington Campus: facilities-headington@brookes.ac.uk
• Harcourt Hill Campus and Marston Road site: facilities-harcourt@brookes.ac.uk
• Wheatley Campus: facilities-wheatley@brookes.ac.uk
• Swindon Campus: lmitchell@brookes.ac.uk

5. Simultaneously with the above space/activity risk assessment, line managers also need to ensure that all staff required to return to campus undertake an individual health risk assessment. See guidance for staff returning to work.

6. The responsible business owner is accountable for the final sign off to confirm that all measures identified through both the space/activity risk assessment and the person risk assessment have been completed before the service reopens.

PPE for faculties and directorates must be procured in line with the University’s procurement framework and usual procurement processes and all costs associated with orders for Covid-19 PPE must be attributed to the Covid-19 Activity code. Please refer to the Requisition of PPE process for further information.

Due to stock availability and lead times it is important this is undertaken as soon as possible. The Procurement Team has advised Directors and Faculty Heads of Operations on the deadlines and arrangements for this. 

The Print Services Team (Brookes Print) have provided appropriate generic signage via an online shop. When using the online shop staff will be required to log in using their staff details. Covid-19 work space signage can then be selected from the drop-down menu. Bespoke signage must be procured directly by the faculty/directorate by emailing printservices@brookes.ac.uk.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government’s advice is to increase ventilation in buildings where possible. Research shows that being in a room with fresh air can reduce the risk of infection from particles by over 70% - further detail and a video can be found on the Government website.

Oxford Brookes’ Health and Safety Group has reviewed the types of ventilation systems within buildings and their optimal use. The University has considered the potential transmission of Covid-19 and is drawing upon latest Government and industry advice, including best practice from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning and the Building Engineering Services Association.

In accordance with this guidance, windows will be open and the heating on as appropriate in University buildings. It is therefore advised that you dress appropriately for these conditions, take regular breaks and keep yourself warm if you need to be on campus inline with latest guidance.

Any further enquiries related to ventilation should be raised via Service Now.

It is widely accepted that wearing a face covering helps protect others. For this reason, everyone (students, staff and visitors) to campus will be required to wear face coverings while indoors on campus (except where there is a valid medical reason).

Students, staff and visitors will all need to bring their own face coverings. As long as it covers the nose and mouth it is the individual’s choice on the design and style.

A visor has been provided for teaching staff and should be used in all classroom situations. A visor will suffice in teaching rooms where there is 2m space around you but in 1m situations a face covering should be worn. You may wish to use both. Unless by exception you have been given specific Occupational Health advice on what you should be wearing.

A new type of transparent face covering is now available to colleagues. It offers the full protection of a face covering and helps ease communication with those who have a hearing impairment, or who are communicating in English as a second language. Visit the Hub for information on requesting a transparent face covering.

Exemptions:

Exemptions to the Brookes policy on face coverings will follow the government guidelines on exemptions. These guidelines explain that there are some circumstances, for health, age or equality reasons, where people are not expected to wear face coverings.

Students and staff who are exempt from wearing a face covering under Government guidelines will be able to collect an sunflower lanyard to show that they are exempt from wearing a face covering.

For more guidance, please refer to the new Face Coverings Policy and see above. 

• Observe social distancing.
• Encourage others to maintain social distancing.
• Use the one way systems and adhere to signage.
• Seek guidance from Campus Monitors if you need help.

Where people cannot be 2m apart, manage transmission risk-Where it is not possible for people to be 2m apart, you should remain at least 1m but with additional mitigations. Other practical measures will be implemented to manage the transmission risk:

• Oxford Brookes are delivering smaller scale face-to-face teaching, all larger lectures will be online.
• Academic teams have reviewed the delivery of programmes and modules where they can to help minimize the transmission risk.
• Oxford Brookes and our partners have installed sneeze screens at appropriate places throughout the campus.
• Timetabling has been adjusted to accommodate staggered arrival times.
• All students, staff and visitors to campus will be required to wear face coverings while indoors on campus (except where there is a valid medical reason or while eating). Face coverings will be optional outdoors on campus.
• Those who are exempt from wearing a face covering under Government guidelines can collect a sunflower lanyard and are advised to wear a face shield, if possible.
• Beyond the arrangements for teaching rooms, where it is not possible to be 2m apart we should:
• Take additional measures to help ensure students, staff and visitors remain safe.
• Provide additional supervision to monitor and manage compliance.
• Carry out assessment and review of these activities to identify all repeatable tasks.

We must all continue to follow the hygiene recommendations. Remember the 3 easy steps:

• Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds or sanitise your hands often
• Avoid touching your mouth, nose or eyes
• Protect yourself and others by routinely cleaning surfaces you have touched

Before entering a classroom or shared workspace you should sanitise your hands, and wipe down your work area, for example desk, chair arms and IT equipment. Before leaving the classroom or shared workspace you should again wipe over the surfaces with sanitising wipes.

It is important that everyone washes their hands regularly and frequently, using hand sanitiser where appropriate. There will be hand sanitiser stations around the University.

The University has worked with its cleaning contractor to provide an extensive cleaning process. This involves regular cleaning of all areas and identification of high intensity touch points such as door handles, lift buttons etc which will be cleaned regularly by clearly visible cleaning staff.

The cleaning staff will use a curative cleaning product which destroys pathogens that may leave a smeary finish but is an indication that the surface has been cleaned.

The cleaning areas will be regularly swab tested for pathogens as well as having random site inspections by staff.

There will also be antibacterial wipes at workstations and we ask you to use these before and after you have used a workstation or desk.

The Cleaning staff will safely dispose of any waste in a safe way.

Cleaning staff will pay particular attention to high-touch areas which will be cleaned regularly.

If there is a suspected or confirmed case the area will be deep cleaned using special chemicals to disinfect the area.

The University's contracted cleaning company, KGB, has also produced a helpful overview of the enhanced cleaning processes they have put in place.

Test and Trace

The University is promoting the Government’s new NHS Covid-19 App NHS Test and Trace app. and is working closely with the national Test and Trace service. In addition where it is possible, for example where we know who has attended a class with someone who later tested positive, the University has a team in place that will identify those people who were in closest proximity and take action quickly.

The University is also promoting the use of QR codes and it is important that everybody scans the QR codes located in teaching rooms to enable the university’s tracing team to quickly find anyone who has been in close proximity to a person who later receives a positive test result. Most phones have a reader embedded in the factory-provided settings. If not, there is also a URL on the QR barcode poster. Most phones can read QR codes via camera. If anyone doesn’t have a smartphone, students can ask others to register their attendance.

We strongly encourage staff and students to download the NHS Test and Trace app. NHS QR codes are being used in external campus areas such as the Co-op store in Headington and Brookes Sport, as well as social spaces indoors such as cafes.

Everyone (staff and students) should continue to check in with the Oxford Brookes QR codes in teaching rooms.

Both of these test and trace systems can help identify anyone who has been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case and help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus on our campuses.

In each room/area where tracking of attendance is required there will be at least one QR code which is specific to that location. The person registering their attendance will then have to:

1. Sign into Google myaccount.google.com (this will save time in filling out the google form later on in the process)
2. Scan the QR code on their mobile phone (a QR code reader/app may need to be downloaded for this if the device camera doesn’t scan the QR code automatically). Alternatively you can type in the short URL which will also be on the QR poster.
3. Once scanned, the QR code (or short url) will link to a google form where the following information will need to be filled out:

• Full Name.
• Email Address.
• Mobile Phone Number.
• Desk/Table Number (not applicable to all areas).
• The name of the Room/Area, which will also displayed on the QR code poster (if this has already been pre-populated in the form please do not amend the information).
• Once all fields on the google form have been completed click the ‘submit’ button.

Please encourage students to register their attendance, prompting them and giving them time to do so at the start of the session.

There may be occasions where a person will be unable to register their attendance (for example they don’t have an appropriate device). In these situations we want to strongly encourage students and staff to ask another classmate, friend or colleague to register their attendance on their behalf on their own devices. This would just involve completing the steps above again but making sure you fill out the personal information of the person you are registering on behalf of.

In order to further support the NHS test and trace it is essential that all staff who are working on campus at any time keep their google calendars up to date with the following information:

• The office/space that you were working in.
• The date and time of all meetings.
• The location of all meetings (even if it is just in a social/study space or in your office).

It is also important that all staff calendars are made ‘open’ so the information can easily be accessed in the event of an infection. (Please see a helpful guide with a video on how to make your calendar public if you are unsure).

It should be understood that in exceptional circumstances to support the tracing needs of the NHS, then we may need to seek access to a private google calendar.

By engaging with these measures it helps provide a safe environment to work in and helps us identify and isolate incidents if there is a confirmed case.

Refer to our Test and Trace Policy for more details.

Catering outlets will be open at all campuses and will have a takeaway catering offer. Seating and servery areas will be arranged to accommodate social distancing. For opening times and more information go to Catering Services.

Brookes Co-op

The shop in the Colonnade building on Headington Campus has reopened with an increased floor-space, improved layout and a more diverse product range. Open everyday from 7am to 10pm.

Library

The Library will be open but self-service will be in operation for loans and returns. Help and support will be through Live Chat and email (libraryenquiries@brookes.ac.uk). Study space will be open, but reduced in order to maintain social distancing. A booking system may be introduced in the event of heavy demand. No group spaces will be available.

Sports

Some sports facilities will be open but these will be on a reduced capacity. Pre-booking for all activities will be required either online or through the Brookes Sport app. Please check with the sports centre about what facilities are open as this may change as further government advice changes.

Other Facilities

• All sites will use cashless payments.
• Social study spaces and open access computers will still be available but with reduced capacity due to social distancing.
• Showering facilities will be open on a reduced basis and will need to be booked in advance online.

As soon as anybody starts to feel unwell at work they should go home. In the case of experiencing Covid-19 symptoms they should report using the reporting form. It is vital that the person self-isolates and arrange to take a test.

No. The rooms have been set up to ensure the appropriate distance between tables and seats and should not be moved as this could render the space non-Covid Secure.

Dealing with refusal to wear face coverings, failing to maintain a safe distance or not wiping down surfaces before /after teaching sessions is covered in answers 3 and 4 above. It would be very helpful if this could also be reported using the Covid Secure Feedback form as this will enable trends or themes to be identified and dealt with. Regular contact with the line manager will also enable issues to be dealt with locally. In an emergency situation contact security on 01865 483060 or security@brookes.ac.uk (24/7).  

The Alama Covid-age tool helps to assess an individual’s vulnerability to Covid-19. It is based on published evidence for the main risk factors, including age, sex, ethnicity and various health problems. It works by translating the risk associated with each risk factor into years which are added to (or subtracted from) an individual’s actual age. This then gives a single overall measure of vulnerability.

You can read all about the Alama Covid-age tool here. 

The advice is that you should still return to work and we will work with you to mitigate any risks regarding your specific situation. Any anxieties should be raised with your Line Manager in the first instance, who may then seek advice from HR or Occupational Health on how to ensure you keep household members safe. It is important that you keep communicating with us if your situation changes or you have any concerns. 

HR has issued the following guidance for Line Managers. 

The first self-assessment stage will give you and your line manager an immediate outcome. If, however, you need to go through to the second stage then this process may take a few weeks. Due to limited capacity in Occupational Health to process all of the risk assessments which come through to the next stage, we need to prioritise the order in which they are undertaken. This will mean longer waits for some staff and managers to receive the outcome. 

The self assessment form is split into three sections, you will be asked questions about…

• Section 1: Your age, sex, ethnicity and BMI
• Section 2: Any health conditions you may have that fall into the Very High or High risk category for Covid-19, based on published evidence.
• Section 3: Your household context, caring responsibilities, occupational exposure and any anxieties you may have about returning.
• If you have no underlying health conditions in the Very High Risk or High Risk category, AND your Covid-age is low or moderate, then you will be assessed as fit to return to work.
• If you do have underlying health conditions in the Very High Risk or High Risk category, AND/OR your Covid-age is high or very high, then you will need to go through to a further Occupational Health stage risk assessment. Your Line Manager will also need to complete a role-based risk assessment.
• Section 3 of the form asks information for your Line Manager, rather than Occupational Health. They will follow up with you on the answers you have given to these questions, and will involve HR or OH if required.  

Please see the privacy statement for this form.

Your answers to the self-assessment form will be held by Occupational Health (OH).

The outcome of your self-assessment will be sent to your Line Manager, along with the answers you gave to Section 3. There will be no information about specific health conditions in this self-assessment form, only whether you fall into a general category.

In terms of the second stage assessment, your data will be treated with the same level of confidentiality as with any other OH assessment referral. OH will upload your health information onto the OH record system, and will provide you and your manager with an OH Outcome Report.  

Due to current circumstances, the University has agreed that there should be no large scale events on campus, unless there is an exceptional business case. All event requests will go through a central approval process.

The first step is to get in principle approval from the Director or PVC Dean. If approved, this request will then be submitted via the Event Request Form for approval by the Recovering Steering Group.

In many cases, for the above scenarios, you may be able to simply use your normal office (particularly if it is a single occupancy office). However, due to the requirements of social distancing which reduces the safe capacities of shared offices, it will not always be possible for everyone to use their normal office. In some cases you may need to use a local booking process (e.g. Google Calendar or equivalent) to secure space.

Faculty Operations teams have needed to look across all of the available space to make sure this is allocated according to need, as effectively and safely as possible. They will let all academic staff know what the arrangements will be for them.

Restricted Access and Visitors

Areas of the University will be restricted for access and your Salto card will be needed. This again allows the University to control the number of people in areas and identify who is on campus and you therefore should not let other people through doors without them using their Salto card. Campus Monitors and Security can be contacted if we need to challenge individuals if there are instances of "tailgating".

Visitors

The University campus should only have people on site who need to be there; our test and trace system means any visitors need to be logged and there is a protocol for booking visitors into the University. All visitors must follow our hygiene protocols, social distancing and wear face coverings. Please read the Visitors Policy for more information

We have worked with the Students Union to create a student behaviour agreement which outlines the expectations of students to behave in a socially responsible way.

We have also communicated to students about the protocols for teaching rooms, sent as part of the communications about their timetable.  

• Maintain a social distance on campus.
• Wear face coverings whilst on campus and when travelling between campuses on public transport.
• Not question those exempt from wearing face coverings.
• Respect the adaptations made to our learning environment for our own safety.
• Adhere to one-way systems to ensure physical distancing.
• Wash our hands regularly with soap and water and/or sanitiser.
• Clean personal spaces we have used in classrooms at the end of teaching sessions.
• Provide any necessary information for test and trace purposes.
• Support each other and be respectful of each other whilst on campus.

• Carefully plan all our teaching activity and support services to make social distancing possible.
• Have face coverings for sale on campus.
• Provide lanyards/cards for those students and staff who choose to indicate their exemption from wearing face coverings.
• Provide a safe learning environment.
• Provide clear signage and safe routes for movement around campus.
• Provide sufficient supplies of soap and sanitiser.
• Provide sufficient supplies of cleaning materials.
• Develop approaches to test and trace which are non-intrusive and easy to use.
• Have a behaviour policy to support students and ensure their safety and wellbeing.

The University is in constant contact with bodies such as Public Health England, central Government and local authorities. As and when advice changes we will react as swiftly as we reasonably can and advise staff.