Outdoor Education Update Following last Sunday's announcement by the NSW Premier on the Return to School Plan, Outdoors NSW & ACT has applauded the strategies put in place including recognising the importance of Outdoor Education in the plan. We sent correspondence to the NSW schools on Sunday following this announcement to ensure they knew that we were here to assist them in their risk management processes and how to communicate the benefits of Outdoor education to parents, teachers and students. You can view this email here. COVID Cases in your Business As employers or employees, you have a legal responsibility in keeping people safe in your workplace. As you review your processes with Omicron in mind, please ensure you review the processes for 'when' you have a Covid case identified while on your program or activity. To protect all staff and the business in question, written procedures are incredibly important for ethical and legal reasons and they need to be communicated well with staff to ensure they are followed. The chances of having a case on your watch are now very likely, if not inevitable, and to protect those that are more vulnerable to this disease we need to put in the best processes to keep everyone safe. If you are unsure if your processes are suitable, please contact us for assistance.
Pandemic Leave Payments
If you or any staff members are having to take time off work due to self-isolating because of COVID-19 and are financially disadvantaged because of no available sick leave, the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment may be an option for assistance. You have to self-isolate or quarantine for one of the following reasons:
you have coronavirus (COVID-19)
you’re a close contact of a person who has COVID-19
a child you care for who is 16 years or under, is a close contact of a person who has COVID-19
you’re caring for someone who has COVID-19
you’re caring for someone with a disability or a severe medical condition who must self-isolate or quarantine because they’re a close contact with a person with COVID-19.
For more information see the Services Australia website.
Mountain Biking Survey still open... If you are engaged in Mountain Bike management, activities, or aligned in some way, please spend 10 minutes of your time to help us to path better opportunities and conquer the challenges associated with this Outdoor activity. This survey and its results will inform the Outdoors NSW & ACT Mountain Bike Sub-Committee of the issues, challenges, and opportunities to be considered in the compilation of a Mountain Bike Discussion Paper for the activity, its stakeholders, and long-term planning. To understand more about Outdoors NSW & ACT or the Sub-committee or to complete the survey go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mountainbikesurvey This information is for members of Outdoors NSW & ACT. If you forward to potential members, they can join us by clicking here. Broader sector newsletters are sent once a month.