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Mandatory vaccination for health and social care staff reconsidered

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By Udara Ranasinghe, Guy Bredenkamp & Joanne Bell Louise Bloomfield

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Published 02 February 2022

Overview

We reported last week here, about the potential impact on EPL claims of the requirement for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for staff working in the health and social care sector. 

Since our report, the government announced on 31 January that the requirement for social care and patient-facing staff in England to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of deployment is being reconsidered.

The government’s aim is to revoke the Regulations, subject to parliamentary approval. This is both the Health and Social Care Regulations which required vaccination as a condition of deployment by 1 April as well as the Regulations imposing a similar requirement on care homes in November 2021. The Secretary of State for Health cited the declining severity of the impact of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, along with widespread immunity, as the main reasons for the policy reversal. There will be a two-week consultation and then a statutory instrument will be presented to Parliament for approval. The consultation has not yet been published.

The government has asked professional regulators to review their guidance on vaccinations, to emphasise professional responsibilities of registrants. There will also be amendments to the government’s code of practice for CQC-regulated providers, relating to infection prevention and control and COVID-19.

What does this mean for employers:

The revocation of the Regulations does not mean that health and social care employers who consider that it is necessary to dismiss staff who are not vaccinated for health and safety reasons, cannot do so – however they will need to be mindful of the need to justify such a policy and consider whether it is proportionate. In the absence of regulations requiring vaccination for patient-facing staff, policies will need to be carefully drafted to balance effective infection control against the human rights and equalities issues which a mandatory vaccination policy might give rise to. This will be particularly important where employees reject vaccination for disability related or religious/ belief reasons.

We anticipate that most employers covered by the Regulations will discontinue any current processes relating to dismissal of unvaccinated employees. Employers may also need to consider ancillary grievances raised by unvaccinated staff although our view is these can now be dealt with summarily. 

It is still possible to insist on vaccination for new staff provided there is justification for it (we suggest a health and safety risk assessment as a minimum). COVID-19 vaccinations would then become similar to other health clearances and dealt with in the same way.

 

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