Early Years Development Zone
COVID-19 Furloughed staff & training (show/hide message)
Please note, you can ask furloughed staff to undertake training to remain upskilled whilst away from work under the latest guidance of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme criteria.
However, they must be paid at least the National Living Wage (NLW) / National Minimum Wage (NMW) for the time spent training even if this is more than the 80% of their wage that will be subsidised. This means that you will need to top-up staff wages to ensure that the additional hours of training (work) they are being asked to do, doesn’t take them below the NLW/NMW thresholds.
To avoid breaching this requirement and to demonstrate compliance in any potential HMRC audit you may want to set out the time you expect an employee to spend completing online training in a defined period (eg.4 hours per week / 16 hours per month) and pay them the statutory minimum wage for those hours. If you are confident that the 80% of their usual salary keeps them above the statutory minimum wage then this may not be necessary.
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What our customers said:
"The course could be completed flexibly, in my own time and when it was convenient with my schedule in nursery. I could take a break and return to the training material and my progress was saved.”
"Audio and video clips enhanced the learning experience. This helped me to retain the information.”
"The Development Zone is well-structured and makes the courses simple to follow.”
"The course is interactive with different quizzes and activities throughout. This allowed me to reflect and test my knowledge as I went along.”
"The resources provided will help me to implement changes in my setting immediately.”
