As advised by our Secretary last week (please see update here), the recent review of the Risk management plan concluded that it’s no longer practicable or reasonable for staff to provide their vaccination evidence in a workplace health and safety context.

As a result of this review, our COVID-19 vaccination policy has been rescinded and staff and volunteers are no longer required to provide details of their COVID-19 vaccination status.

I do want to thank everyone who complied with this policy. This was an incredibly important risk mitigation strategy, based on the circumstances at the time, to ensure the safety of our staff and students. The fact we have such a highly vaccinated workforce, and Tasmanian population in general, helps to limit the impacts of COVID-19 on us and the services we deliver.

We currently have a number of COVID-19 safety measures in place in all Department of Education sites. It’s important that we all continue to practise COVID-safe behaviours, such as:

• staying at home if unwell and getting tested
• physical distancing where practical
• wearing face masks if you can’t physically distance or when working with students vulnerable to COVID-19 (noting: staff can wear face masks at any time and are strongly supported to do so).