Care providers could face having to sack a fifth of its workforce if government proposals are taken forward to make vaccination a condition of employment, according to law firm Royds Withy King.
Ahead of the closure of the Department of Health and Social Care consultation on 21 May, Royds Withy King social care lead James Sage said ‘no jab, no job’ measures could lead to a high proportion of staff being dismissed from their jobs and excluded from the sector because they are hesitant about having the vaccine.
In England, 80.4 per cent of care home staff have had the vaccine but recent data also indicates that 76 of 149 local authority areas do not have at least 80 per cent of care home staff vaccinated, while 17 have less than 70 per cent vaccinated and the lowest rate of uptake is 52.4 per cent.
“It is perhaps understandable why the government might wish to make vaccination a condition of employment in care homes, particularly given the large number of care home deaths during the pandemic, but has the government considered the catastrophic implications for staff retention and recruitment in the sector?,” said Sage (pictured).
“If the government were to adopt its proposal, care providers face having to dismiss, on average, 20 per cent of their workforce and for some providers it would be significantly more,” he added.
“The prospect of losing such a significant proportion of care home staff when the sector is already facing a jobs crisis, with over 100,000 existing vacancies, increased restrictions on overseas recruitment, and growing demand for staff from retail, hospitality and leisure sectors emerging from lockdown, is unthinkable.
Sage said the consultation document has been drafted on the premise that care staff who refuse to have the vaccine can be redeployed - an approach adopted by the NHS - but that is “simply not possible in the care sector”.
“In light of these concerns it is entirely possible this proposal is quietly kicked into the long grass.”
