Care homes in England risk losing as many as 60,000 front-line workers after 11 November following the government’s mandatory vaccination policy, according to social care lawyers Royds Withy King.
Data from the National Care Forum and Department of Health and Social Care Capacity Tracker, suggests that while vaccination rates in the sector are high, ten per cent of 600,000 staff have yet to be double-jabbed and 0.3 per cent of the workforce are exempt from the 'no jab, no job' rules.
, said: “Under the current Government regulations, care home staff who have not received both vaccinations and are not exempt will need to be redeployed or dismissed.
“Care providers are facing the unthinkable prospect of losing in the region of 60,000 valuable workers from the sector,” said Royds Withy King head of health and social care James Sage (pictured).
“There are very few opportunities for redeployment in care homes so many will be left with no choice but to dismiss those staff. Many of these workers are highly experienced and will, put bluntly, be irreplaceable,” he added.
“Others will simply choose to leave to work in other industry sectors that are also facing staff shortages but which do not require mandatory vaccinations.”
Sage said the pandemic and by post-Brexit immigration restrictions have exacerbated the “chronic staff shortages” in the sector.
“Changes to the immigration regime have made the hiring of staff more challenging and funding models simply do not allow care employers to increase wages to compete across other industry sectors, particularly where they have increased pay and are offering signing on bonuses to plug staffing shortages,” he added.
“Losing 60,000 key workers as we approach what the government is describing as a difficult winter is unthinkable, particularly given the lack of any coherent government plans on how to recruit more staff to the sector.”
