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The Carer Digital
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THECARERUK
Issue 77
Mandating Vaccination in Care Homes - The True Cost
All staff working in a care home must now be double jabbed or exempt – if not, they can no longer cross the threshold into a care home, and industry observers are warning of mounting staff shortages, with many more job losses to come from the policy and its extension next year to home care. In a recent National care forum (NCF) survey to members operating care homes, findings show that care providers fear they will lose around 8% of their care home staff as a direct result of this policy. This is a very serious loss of staff and one which, given the enormous workforce pressures now, the care sector can ill afford. Everyone running care services is committed to achieving as high a level of COVID vaccination as possible. However, NCF say its members have consistently stated that they do not believe mandation is the best way to achieve this; rather, finding the best results from persuasion and encouragement, with good information and support, taking the time to address concerns with respect and discussion. And, indeed, when the government consulted on this policy earlier in 2021,
the majority of the general public and people using care services did not support mandation of vaccination for care home staff. What does this tell us about the true cost of mandating vaccination? • For the people living in care homes and their families, it means that long serving experienced staff with whom they have a trusted relationship will no longer be there to care for them and support them; • For the staff who have lost their jobs it means that they can longer do the job they loved as a direct result of the government’s policy of vaccine mandation – a policy that is not yet being applied to any other workforce in the country; • For care providers it means they are facing even more pressures to have enough staff to provide high quality, consistent care at a time when recruitment and retention are increasingly difficult, and • For the wider health system and the NHS, it means that more requests for help to discharge people from hospital into care homes cannot be met.
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