We have written recently about the difficulties being faced by both English social care providers and NHS England regarding mandatory vaccination against COVID-19. This is a real concern in view of staff shortages in the social and health care sectors.
At present, the issue of staff shortages in social care are extreme and anything that further impacts on the workforce is going to have a major effect. For example we have seen recent news reports where families have had to resort to their own ways of funding care – see here. Whilst in this instance it's unclear why the private provider could not continue the care package, we consider such scenarios are sadly likely to become commonplace.
We have had significant experience in handling claims that have arisen from domiciliary care usually due to issues involving carers missing appointments.
However there has been a hint today that the government may relinquish the policy of requiring mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 for health and social care staff in England, in view of the lesser severity of the Omicron variant, and in view of the unpopularity of the decision with the workforce and unions. A decision will apparently be made by the government in the next few days. See here for further information.
It's unclear however how those staff who have already lost their jobs due to the vaccine requirements will view any potential change in policy, and whether they would seek legal redress on this issue.
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