Care home managers demand help as 'No Jab No Job' law sees a fifth of their staff face dismissal

A total of 5,700 care home managers and care leaders are appealing to the government for assistance to tackle the mandatory vaccination law which is expected to cause up to a fifth of their workforce to lose their jobs.

The government has announced that from 11 November, everyone who works in a care home in England will be required to have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in order to be eligible to work.

Care home managers ‘genuinely concerned about safety of services’

In a letter sent on 18 August, members of the Outstanding Manager Network have urged MPs and Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, to demand an enquiry following 'eighteen incredibly difficult months' for the care sector.

Urging MPs to hold the government to account on its response to the ongoing care crisis, the care managers' letter stated: 'Many of us are finding our positions extremely challenging and are genuinely concerned about the safety and sustainability of services.

'There is an acute recruitment crisis, which is harder than it has ever been before. This is shortly about to be made significantly worse with the mandatory vaccines, many care providers are estimating between 10-20% of staff being dismissed as a result.

'There is no support from the Government or the regulators to help providers to navigate this.’

Referring to the Committee’s workforce burnout and resilience enquiry, the managers said 'people working in social care are exhausted and highly stressed. This extends to managers, who we are now seeing leaving the sector in large numbers. The Government response to this enquiry is now overdue and we feel strongly that things have become worse, no signs of improvement.'

Care home managers across the UK are also reporting a ‘lack of suitable staff’ which is causing existing workers to work ‘many additional hours’.

The care home managers expressed ‘concerns about safety in general' as 'care workers have been expected to pick up clinical tasks during the pandemic but with little or no training or support and much of this is continuing.'

With 'serious staff shortages' some care providers are concerned that they are 'not even operating at safe levels to do just the basic care'.

The letter also states that some home care providers are handing contracts back to local authorities because they cannot find the workforce to deliver them.

‘Angry rifts’ between care homes and families over self-isolation and visiting rules

Self-isolation for residents and visiting restrictions designed to keep residents safe from Covid, are causing angry rifts between care homes and families.

Care homes say they are ‘still struggling to find the right balance’ between opening up for relatives and friends to visit but remaining safe and maintaining infection control.

Many care homes still find themselves having outbreaks which means that ‘residents are then confined to their bedrooms for days’.

In particular they say this causes ‘significant distress’ on residents many of whom are reaching the end of their lives and also ‘caused an angry rift between families and providers which we fear will take years to mend’.

With no funding agreement or reform in sight, care home managers say too many care providers have operated at a loss during the pandemic and are having to pay staff increased wages to cover shifts (or pay high agency costs). Managers also argue hard-working care workers are not being recognised with higher pay or through parity of esteem with the NHS.