The government is expected to announce a U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccinations for health and social care workers in England.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is considering reversing the policy with a final decision expected today, according to reports.
The development comes after warnings that almost 80,000 healthcare workers would be forced out by mandatory jabs.
Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told Times Radio that “the situation has changed fundamentally” since the policy was announced in the autumn, with Omicron more transmissible but “somewhat less dangerous”.
“The question is whether it’s sufficiently less dangerous to allow us to revisit this question and that’s something which the health secretary and others will be looking at,” he added.
National Care Association chairwoman Nadra Ahmed said social care had lost around 40,000 people by the ‘no jab, no job’ rules for social care staff that come into force on 11 November.
"The people who we've lost, we hope they'll think about coming back and we will do everything we can to try and encourage them to come back, but they will have found other roles and they may be happier in their other roles now and not want to move again," she added.
There are no plans in Scotland and Wales to make Covid jabs mandatory for NHS workers or care home staff, while there will be a public consultation on the issue in Northern Ireland.
Access Social Care, a charity providing free legal advice and information to the social care sector, welcomed the predicted U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS and social care staff, but said it would be “too late” to avoid a staff crisis in the sector.
“The government ignored the warning signs from the care sector about how the mandate would deepen the staffing crisis in November and ploughed ahead with the policy. Social care has been used as the trial run for the NHS,” said chief executive Kari Gerstheimer.
"Recruitment and retention problems in social care existed before the pandemic, but the Government's mandatory vaccination and Brexit policy has driven the sector to near breaking point,” he added.
“Most of us agree that we want our loved ones to be cared for by people who are vaccinated, but in some parts of the country the choice is between care from someone who is unvaccinated or no care at all.”
