Covid vaccine for care home staff in England will be mandatory from 11 November

The Covid vaccine will be mandatory for all care home workers in England from 11 November, with the government admitting that up to seven per cent of the workforce, equating to 40,000 staff, could lose their jobs.

In its impact statement, the government has set out the effect it believes mandatory vaccination will have on care homes. It predicts seven per of care home workers, which is around 40,000 staff out of 570,000 working in care homes in England will refuse to have the vaccine.

The government estimates that by the time the vaccine becomes compulsory, around 87 per cent of the workforce would have had both doses.

It announced a 16 week grace period from 22 July for all care home workers to be vaccinated, with 16 September being the last date for care workers to get their first vaccine so they are fully vaccinated before regulations come into force.

Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not-for-profit care providers said: “With the regulations now approved, the countdown to implementation begins. The regulations will come into force on the 11 November, and the delayed impact statement produced by the government earlier this week outlined the potential impact on the care sector across all care homes.

'Associated cost of £100m to recruit and train replacement staff'

“By their own assumption the government have determined that it is likely that seven per cent of the workforce will not be deployable as a result of this policy. The assessment claims that this is likely to mean that 40,000 staff are unlikely to be able to work in care homes within the next 16 weeks. In addition, the statement identifies an associated cost of £100 million to recruit and train replacement staff. However, this assumption does not bear any reference to the costs of implementation of the policy itself.”

She added: “With less than 16 weeks to go, the sector urgently needs guidance and sufficient resources provided in a timely manner for the sector to prepare for the implementation of this policy.

“On any given day social care has approximately 112K vacancies. The change to regulation could in 16 weeks’ time, without preparation or support, add a further 40K to that figure, something that we simply cannot allow to happen. The care workforce needs to be treated with the same level of respect and appreciation as NHS workers.”

In its statement, the government says there are ‘plausible reasons’ as to why it will be possible to find this ‘potentially large number of replacement workers’ who may be needed as a result of the vaccination policy.

The government cites the approaching end of the furlough scheme’ as well as ‘the limited level of requirements necessary for those entering the sector’.

Vaccination policy gives more protection and may 'incentivise some to take up care jobs'

It hopes the vaccination policy ‘may also incentivise some people to enter this labour market, given their increased level of protection against the spread of the virus at the workplace relative to other labour markets’.

‘There could additionally be workers who may not respond in time to the requirements initially and so will temporarily need to exit the workforce, but once having received both doses would be able to re-enter into the workforce.’

Barchester which has over 200 care homes has already made the Covid vaccine compulsory for all its employees with some exemptions including pregnancy.

HC-One which runs 326 care homes is currently carrying out a consultation with its staff on making the vaccine mandatory.

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