Dear ,
Return of School Camps
As you will no doubt be aware, the Victorian Government has released its Roadmap which is tied to vaccination rates.
As published the key dates are
1. Phase B: (70% double dose) – effective 11.59pm October 21st
2. Phase C (80% double dose) – indicative November 5th
Importantly at Phase B a raft of restrictions are eased and then at Phase C, regional and metro Victoria are combined under the same rules.
Within Phase B, within the accommodation section, there is a provision for regional schools, in areas WITHOUT lockdown restrictions to use accommodation services. To quote:-
“ An exception to the density quotient and booking limit applies for exclusive use by a single school, provided only students and workers attend (no other guests).”
This would suggest that effective Friday October 22nd, regional schools are permitted to attend regional campsites as long as there is no intermingling between groups. This is similar to the provisions we faced in parts of last year.
However, at this stage the Department of Education has not updated their Operations Guide and thus public schools still cannot attend camps.
Outdoors Victoria, on behalf of CVA and ACA sort advice from the Department of Education around this change (which was only published on October 17th and identified by CVA and advised our partners on October 18th).
The response to date from DoE acknowledges this change to health policy but has not as yet given a commitment as to when the Operations Guide will be amended.
IMPLICATIONS
- In my opinion there is no legal reason why a regional NON-GOVERNMENT school cannot attend a regional camp (unless the school or camp are in a regional lockdown area).
- Logic would suggest that this same principle would apply to all camps and non-government schools from Phase C (likely to be November 5th).
- We await advise from DoE regarding state schools but are encouraged by their acknowledgement that they are aware of this change in health policy and are working towards changing their guidelines as well.
Vaccination requirements for Guest Groups
We are aware of considerable confusion around whether adult guests (currently defined as aged 16 and above) are required to be vaccinated when they visit our premises.
Whilst the published Roadmap would indicate that vaccinations are required for venues such as dining facilities, at the time of writing the legal instruments to support this, namely the Directions issued by the Chief Health Officer, have yet to be published to support the statements made in this Roadmap (all current Directions expire at midnight on October 21st).
Thus, we need to wait and see what the new Directions are and hopefully any ambiguity will be cleared up by these.
I will advise of the changes when they become available.
Blessings
Graeme
