Recently the ‘Making vaccination a condition of deployment in care homes’ consultation closed, and the government have now responded with an outcome.

The government is now to make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for care home staff who work within care homes which have at least one person over the age of 65 living in their home.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic and have already saved thousands of lives – with millions of health and care staff vaccinated. Our priority is to make sure people in care homes are protected and we launched the consultation to get views on whether and how the government might take forward a new requirement for adult care home providers, looking after older people, to only deploy staff who have had a COVID-19 vaccination or have an appropriate exemption.”

As part of the government’s response to the consultation, they have taken on board the need for a suitable grace period for implementation of the policy and have amended the legislation accordingly to include a 16-week grace period from when the regulations come into force.

Whilst compulsory vaccination is unusual, it is not unprecedented. So, how do you encourage people to get the vaccine? Information and access to the vaccine are the key to persuading our dedicated teams to protect themselves against this virus and so fulfil their roles as carers to protect those they care for.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have created a range of resources to help care managers reassure their staff about having the COVID-19 vaccine.

They released a webinar with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van Tam and Dr Nikita Kanani, that answers any questions staff may have regarding the vaccine. It is really useful to share with your team, especially for those who are a little unsure about getting it.

CLICK HERE

to watch the webinar.

We have started to uncover action plans from a handful of our customers who are taking various measures to ensure their staff have been vaccinated to comply with this upcoming legislation. What is your stance and how are you managing COVID-19 vaccinations in your organisation or service?

If you would like any more information on the above or have any questions, please either reach out to myself or contact your lead consultant. To get in touch, please email [email protected] or call us on 03305 552233!

As a specialist, family run recruitment business, we provide a proactive and consultative approach to recruitment. We help organisations to target issues such as continuity of staffing, reducing spend where you have a high volume of agency usage and supporting those who have specific talent requirements or are in hard to fill locations. We can help with any immediate staffing requirements or longer-term recruitment projects to ultimately save you time and money on agency spend.

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