Government consultation into revoking COVID vaccine for all social care staff now open

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched its consultation on revoking the requirement for health and social care staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of their employment.

Under the current rules, social care staff must already be fully vaccinated to continue their work, while health care staff needed to have had their first jab by February 3 to meet the fully vaccinated mandate as of April 1.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons last week that he believes it is “no longer proportionate” to require vaccination as a condition of deployment under law.

Mr Javid explained the U-turn was due to a return to Plan A with face coverings no longer mandatory and the limit lifted on visitors allowed into care homes.

He added that when the government consulted on the mandate for NHS and home care staff “the evidence showed that vaccine effectiveness against infection from the dominant Delta variant has been, or was, between 65 and 80 per cent depending on which vaccines you had received”.

Since then Omicron has become the dominant variant, representing over 96 per cent of infections, and being “intrinsically less severe”.

Mr Javid added: “We have to consider the impact on the workforce in NHS and social care settings. Especially at a time when we already had a shortage of workers and near full employment across the economy.”

'The government has consistently chosen to ignore the advice of those who work in the care sector'

There have also been calls for the government to apologise to care homes that have had to sack unvaccinated staff.

Around 40,000 care home staff have lost their jobs since the vaccination was made compulsory and it was estimated the NHS would be hit by a loss of over 70,000 frontline staff if the mandate was introduced in April.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents care homes in England, voiced the thoughts of many in the care sector, saying: “Care homes have been the scapegoat and whilst the government claims that health and social care are the same system it is clear that they are operating under different standards; once again social care is the poor relation.”

Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum called for an apology from the government to care staff who lost their jobs due to the vaccine mandate and to care providers who had to enforce “a chaotic policy that is now considered obsolete”.

“The government has consistently chosen to ignore the advice of those who work in the care sector, and has steam rolled through a chaotic policy with long term detrimental impacts on those who work in care homes and receive care and support.

“Care homes have been the unwitting guinea pigs through the implementation of this policy, and the impact on people must not be swept under the carpet.”

She called the decision by the government welcome but added “it is vital that the government learns from this experience and makes policy decisions that are well thought-through and takes seriously the long term impact it has on people’s lives”.

According to NHS England, the latest statistics show 88.3 per cent of domiciliary care staff had received a first dose as of January 30.

To participate in the survey, click here

The survey will close at 11.45 pm on 16 February.