How Mandatory Vaccines Are Leaving Care Homes ‘On Verge Of Collapse’

Tens of thousands of care workers are set to leave the sector this week, as the law stipulating that care workers must be fully vaccinated comes into force.

Reports suggest 60,000 care home staff will be leave their jobs instead of getting their two Covid jabs. Data from the Department of Health and Social Care also suggests 105,000 domiciliary care workers (carers who offer support in the community) have not been reported as fully vaccinated.

The law, which comes into force in England on November 11, will have a life-changing impact on those leaving the industry, but also those left behind, including vaccinated care home staff and their residents.

Sandra*, who has worked in the social care sector for 14 years, says the past 19 months have been among the hardest of her career.

Like carers across the country, the 51-year-old from Greater Manchester worked through each of the lockdowns. She says the 150-bed home she works at was already short-staffed before the new law was introduced.

“The main problem was staff contracting Covid or their families, and then having to isolate for two weeks which left us short staffed a lot of the time,” she says. “We used agency quite a lot, but unfortunately not a lot of the people we used have been vaccinated, so we will not be able to use them again.”

Using temporary agency staff to plug staffing gaps is not unusual in the care home sector, but the pool of contractors is now likely to shrink, too.

For Sandra, the decision to get vaccinated was an easy one. She says most permanent staff in her home have done the same. People have also applied for open vacancies, with two new vaccinated staff set to start this week, so she’s hopeful they’ll be able to cope without agency staff.

“We were hit quite bad during Covid – residents and staff – I watched a lot of the residents pass away and I don’t want to have to go through that again,” she says. “That’s why I think all staff should be vaccinated to protect themselves and the people they care for.”