Since 11 November 2021, workers in Care Quality Commission regulated care homes in England must be vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they are exempt. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No 2) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/15) then extended mandatory vaccination to all workers in the health and social care sector who have face-to-face contact with service users, which was due to come into force from 1 April 2022. Many employers had already started the process of dismissing (or had dismissed) employees who were refusing to be vaccinated.
On 9 February 2022, the government launched a consultation process seeking views on the revocation of vaccination as a condition of deployment across all health and social care in the light of the changed clinical guidance and the developing Covid-19 position.
On 1 March 2022, the government published its response to the consultation. 90% of the 90,000 responses to the consultation supported the revocation of mandatory vaccination in the health and social care sectors. There was some variation between different groups, with members of the public most likely to support revocation (96%), whereas 30% of managers and 22% of organisations providing health and care services opposed revocation. The government has, therefore, decided to introduce revocation regulations that will come into force on 15 March 2022.
While mandatory vaccination is no more, the government has made it clear that it considers that workers in the health and social care sectors have a professional duty to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Therefore, the government will work with the NHS and social care stakeholders as well as professional regulators to increase vaccine uptake. A separate consultation will consider amendments to the Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infections to strengthen requirements in relation to COVID-19.
Some employers have already confirmed that - notwithstanding the change in the law - they will be maintaining a compulsory vaccination approach to their staff. Other employers have welcomed the change, not least because of the recruitment struggles that are at play in the sector already.
