UKLC Statement regarding Coronavirus
UKLC Statement regarding Coronavirus (Covid-19)
We have been carefully watching and monitoring the news about the Coronavirus in order to be well prepared and properly inform our partners.
The World Health Organisation has now deemed the virus to be a public health emergency of international concern and we have recently seen governments respond by imposing bans on travel for school groups.
Firstly, we want to extend our support and thoughts to our partners who find themselves impacted in this way. It is a hugely stressful situation for so many and we recognise that it is a time when our collaboration will be key to our survival as an industry.
With this in mind, we are working hard to collaborate with our own providers; homestay, colleges, coach companies etc. and agree a more flexible approach to cancellations and refunds than is usual. These are, of course, unusual circumstances.
If you have been affected by the above and have to postpone or cancel a group with UKLC, please contact our Head Office to discuss your group’s specific situation and we will work with you to find a solution.
We also wanted to reassure all our partners and agents that, as always, the welfare of our students is our main concern. We have a long-standing Health Policy promoting good health and hygiene to all our staff and students and we also have an Infectious Diseases Policy that is part of our staff manual and training and is based upon the Public Health England advice to schools known as The Spotty Book. We focus on prevention, early recognition and prompt action. All our policies are available in the Operations and Safeguarding Handbook in the Agent area of our website.
We will be taking extra precautions with our year-round groups to enforce good hygiene, educate them on symptoms and make anti-bacterial wash and gels available. We will be following the procedures of the institutions where we host our students and their recommendations.
With this in mind, we would ask you to work with us and to check whether your students have been to any Category 1 regions in the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival at a UKLC centre and to inform us if they have. We will ask you to check whether students arriving at a UKLC centre have been in close contact with those from Category 1 regions and again, we would invite you to report back should this be the case. Thank you for understanding that it is highly likely that we may need to cancel the student’s course accordingly.
We also recommend that you check the following links regularly: Public Health and also World Health Organisation for more updates.
Please also feel free to contact our Head Office on 00 44 1244 577 995 if you wish to discuss this with us further.