The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that the mandatory Covid-19 vaccine requirements for health and social care workers are set to be removed from Tuesday, 15 March. The requirement for staff to have had a full course of Covid-19 vaccinations has been in place since November 2021.
This news follows on from the Government’s U-turn on its vaccine mandate for NHS workers in England, which was set to come into effect from the start of April 2022.
The Department of Health and Social Care’s decision to lift the vaccine mandate follows a public consultation where 90% of respondents supported the removal of the requirement.
In a statement published by the Department of Health and Social Care, it commented:
“When the original decision was taken to introduce Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of deployment, Delta was the dominant variant.
“This has since been replaced by Omicron which is less severe, with the percentage of those requiring emergency care or hospital admission approximately half that of the Delta variant.”
Adding that the UK population has built up sufficient immunity to the virus, echoing Boris Johnson’s earlier statement that the country needs to “learn to live” with Covid-19.
Despite the removal of the mandate, the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has said that he still considers it “a professional responsibility for health and care staff, and others who work in the health and social care sectors, to be vaccinated”.
Adding that the Government was “committed to working with the health and social care sectors to engage with those who are yet to make the positive choice to be vaccinated”.
Has the decision to remove the vaccine mandate come too late?
When the requirement came into force for health and social care workers to be double vaccinated it caused a number of challenges for employers in the sector, as many workers refused the jab and chose to leave their roles or their employer with no choice but to terminate their employment. This has left the already stretched sector with a shortage of staff.
According to the Chief Executive of Care England, Martin Green, the Department of Health and Social Care’s announcement has come too late for many social care staff and they are unlikely to return to the roles that they have left. He told The Guardian:
“Staff have already left residential care services and found new jobs in the NHS and home care. I seriously doubt we are going to see lots of them coming back.”
The General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, welcomed the news but said that the Government now needs to address the staffing crisis in the sector. He commented:
“Holding the threat of losing their jobs over the heads of the small minority of staff who had not been vaccinated was the wrong approach and this decision will be welcomed by those whose jobs were at risk,
“Ministers must now urgently address the health and social care workforce crisis which is undermining nursing staff’s ability to care safely for their patients. There are tens of thousands of nursing vacancies across those services.”
The Head of Care at Unison, Gavin Edwards, commented:
“There were always better ways of upping the jab rate in care. Making the vaccine mandatory meant thousands of experienced staff quit care homes. These were workers the struggling sector could ill afford to lose.
“Many won’t go back either. They have found better paid, less stressful work elsewhere. Ministers could go some way towards making up for the distress caused by ensuring every care worker is paid at least the real living wage. That would begin to solve the current staffing crisis.”
Advice to health and social care employers
As the mandate has now been lifted many employers in the sector will be wanting to, or will be wondering if they are legally obligated to, contact workers who have left their roles and can/are required to automatically offer them the option to return to their employment.
Whilst we await further detail on the revocation, it is unlikely that employers will be obliged to re-offer employment to staff who left or were dismissed during this process. It is also unlikely that staff returning to their roles will be legally entitled to have their previous service recognised in terms of continuity of employment.
How Nelsons can help
Laura Kearsley is a Partner in our expert Employment Law team.
For further information on the subjects discussed in this article or any related topics, please contact Laura or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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