COVID-19: DHSC consults on mandatory vaccination for workers in health and social care sector

On 9 September 2021, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a consultation on whether the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirements for workers deployed in care homes with older adult residents should be extended to other health and care settings and on whether to include flu vaccinations in the requirements. The requirements would not extend to those who are medically exempt from vaccination.

In April 2021, the DHSC consulted on making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment to Care Quality Commission (CQC)-registered adult care homes (see Legal update, COVID-19: DHSC consults on making it mandatory for staff in care homes with older adult residents to have COVID-19 vaccine). It subsquently announced that the requirement will come into force on 11 November 2021 under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/891) (see Legal update, COVID-19: Regulations making vaccinations compulsory for care home staff come into force on 11 November 2021). In the initial consultation, views were also sought on whether to extend the requirements to include other health and social care workers; the DHSC has stated that responses made a "clear case" for the extension of the policy beyond care homes.

The consultation will consider the risks in clinical settings which could be mitigated by vaccination including the level of interaction between staff and patients, the vulnerability of patients and the high-risk procedures. The government has stated that the proposal to include flu vaccination in the consultation is supported by recent research, which has shown that people infected with both flu and COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to die as someone with COVID-19 alone and nearly six times more likely than those with neither flu nor COVID-19.

The proposed requirements would apply to frontline health and care workers, that is, those with face-to-face contact with patients as part of delivery of CQC-regulated activity.

The consultation closes on 22 October 2021 and responses should be submitted via the survey site.