Updated staff FAQs: volunteering and car park charges

31 Mar 2020

Staff FAQs will be updated regularly

This advice is correct at the time of publication of this news article.

If you have health concerns then you should refer to the NHS website as recommended by Public Health England, however to make other queries regarding the current situation you can email coronavirus-info@manchester.ac.uk.

We will be updating the staff frequently asked questions on a regular basis.

The latest staff questions are:

I would like to volunteer either in the NHS or a charity related to the coronavirus support – am I ok to do this?

There are two ways in which staff can volunteer.

The Government’s new Emergency Volunteering Scheme places a duty upon employers to grant leave in blocks of 2/3/4 weeks for employees with specific health and social care skills, who wish to volunteer their time. Staff need to have been certified by an appropriate authority and should submit this certificate to their line manager in the first instance. You need to give at least three days’ notice.

We want to support you if you are considering other types of volunteering and have put together some guidance to help you decide the best way to contribute.

Will car parking charges for staff be suspended during this period?

If you make a regular monthly payment to use a University car park, payments will be suspended from 1 April 2020 until further notice.

Barriers at Cecil, Dilworth and Charles Street car parks are currently in the ‘up’ position which means that if you’re an ‘essential’ member of staff who needs to come on to campus to work you can use these car parks free of charge. Essential staff who usually use the NCP-owned Aquatics Centre car park (which is currently closed) can also use these University car parks during this period. Booth Street West Car Park is closed for security purposes.

Those University car parks which are open are also being offered to NHS staff to use free of charge.