We are 6 weeks away from when all care home staff in England must be fully vaccinated against COVID to continue working in the sector unless they are exempt.

There is a new consultation that is currently underway that extends the scope of the vaccinations requirement to all of health and social care; this will include domiciliary care and supported living services.

“The Government estimates that 35,000 – 70,000 care home staff face dismissal for refusing to be vaccinated. Surprisingly, this didn’t make the Government think twice about introducing the requirement given the impact it will have on residents and care providers, who are already in the midst of a workforce crisis, with over 100,000 vacancies and poor staff retention rates which have not been helped by Brexit and the pandemic. Many care providers and recruitment agencies are reporting the most challenging recruitment environment they have ever seen.” James Sage Employment Partner and Head of Health & Social Care at Royds Withy King via Care Management Matters (CMM).

What do you need to know?

Exemptions
There is a temporary exemption process that allows workers who assert a medical exemption to self-certify. This process will be in place until the NHS COVID Pass system is launched, whereby care workers will need to apply for a formal medical exemption. The self-certification will expire 12 weeks after the NHS COVID Pass system is launched.

What classes as a medical exemption from the COVID-19 vaccination:

• Individuals receiving end of life care where vaccination is not in the individual’s interests.
• Individuals with learning disabilities or autistic individuals, or with a combination of impairments
  which result in the same distress, who find vaccination and testing distressing
  because of their condition and cannot be achieved through reasonable adjustments
  such as the provision of an accessible environment.
• Individuals with medical contraindications to the vaccines such as severe allergy to all COVID19 vaccines or their constituents.
• Individuals who have had adverse reactions to the first dose (e.g. myocarditis).

To find out how workers are able to submit a self-certification, click here.

Vaccinations that have been administered abroad
Similarly, there is a temporary exemption process that allows workers who have been vaccinated outside of the UK to self-certify and they will be allowed to continue working in a care home for now. Currently, there is no means of evidencing a vaccine status through any of the required methods if a vaccine has been administered abroad. Further guidance is required around this subject as it is not clear whether the exemption is intended to cover workers who have been vaccinated outside the UK with non-UK-approved vaccines.

To find out how workers are able to self-certify a vaccination that has been administered abroad, click here.

Evidencing vaccinations
Under the guidance, it is necessary for evidence of vaccination to be provided as CQC will inspect this. Vaccinations can be evidenced through the NHS app, NHS website or NHS COVID-19 pass letter. Having reviewed the evidence, it must be accurately recorded to include the vaccination status and the date it was reviewed.

If you would to discuss the above, or about how we can collaborate, please let us know. To get in touch, 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 within Social Care. 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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