Covid jabs will be mandatory for all care home staff and auxiliary workers in England from 11 November after the regulations were signed by care minister Helen Whately.
The approval on 22 July means the 16-week grace period will end on 11 November.
The National Care Forum said the social care sector now needs guidance and resources to prepare for the implementation of the ‘no jab, no job’ policy.
“Even the lower level assumptions recognise the very significant and potentially catastrophic challenges for the delivery of care if the right level of guidance and support is not available,” said chief executive Vic Rayner.
“By their own assumption the government have determined that it is likely that 7 per cent of the workforce will not be deployable as a result of this policy. The assessment claims that this is likely to mean that 40,000 staff are unlikely to be able to work in care homes within the next 16 weeks.”
Rayner continued: “In addition, the statement identifies an associated cost of £100 million to recruit and train replacement staff. However, this assumption does not bear any reference to the costs of implementation of the policy itself.”
