Consultation outcome

Making vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care homes

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Detail of outcome

The government hosted a public consultation from 14 April 2021 to 26 May 2021 on a proposal to make COVID-19 vaccination a condition of employment in care homes with older adults. This is the formal government response to that consultation.

Following the consultation, the policy now applies to all care homes.


Original consultation

Summary

We are seeking your views on a proposal to make COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care homes.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The deadline for responding to the consultation has been extended until midday on Wednesday 26 May 2021.

Older adults living in care homes have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of their heightened risk to COVID-19 infection, often with devastating consequences, as well as the risk of outbreaks in these closed settings.

Ensuring very high levels of vaccination of people living and working in these settings is an essential public health intervention.

While vaccination uptake rates are increasing slowly week on week, there are still a high number of older adult care homes which do not have the level of protection needed to reduce the risk of outbreak.

To increase vaccine take up, the government is considering amending the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

This would mean older adult care home providers could only use those staff who have received the COVID-19 vaccination (or those with a legitimate medical exemption) in line with government guidance.

The ‘Social Care Working Group consensus statement, March 2021’outlines the SAGE Social Care Working Group’s methodology for determining the minimum level of vaccine coverage in care home settings.

The easiest way to participate is by completing the public survey.

The consultation document has been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Kurdish, Nepali, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian and Urdu.

Documents

Published 14 April 2021
Last updated 9 November 2021 + show all updates
  1. Added consultation impact assessment.

  2. Added the 'Statement of impact – The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021'.

  3. Updated to include details of the outcome of this consultation.

  4. Added the 'Social Care Working Group consensus statement, March 2021' outlining the methodology for determining the minimum level of vaccine coverage in care home settings.

  5. Updated to reflect the deadline for responding to the consultation has been extended until midday on Wednesday 26 May 2021.

  6. Updated to add translations of the consultation document in Albanian, Arabic, Gujarati and Nepali.

  7. Updated to add translations of the consultation document in 15 languages (Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French, Hindi, Kurdish, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian and Urdu).

  8. First published.