Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (): I wish to inform the House of actions we are taking
to improve uptake of vaccines across the adult social care
sector.
In February 2021, we published the UK COVID-19 Vaccines Delivery
Plan setting out the significant programme of work underway to
drive vaccine uptake, including actions to improve access and to
address the concerns of those who may be hesitant to receive the
vaccine.
We have been working to make the vaccination accessible to people
living and working in care homes. Vaccination teams have visited
all older age care homes in England and are running a minimum
four-visit schedule for each. For those workers who may not have
been present when the vaccination team visited the home, access
via other vaccination services has been available. We also opened
the National Booking Service for seven weeks so that frontline
social care workers could book their own appointments, and care
home workers can now arrange vaccination directly through their
GP.
We have worked hard to address concerns among the adult social
care workforce by delivering an extensive communications
programme, running targeted advertisements and issuing a
stakeholder toolkit containing regularly updated Q&As,
guidance and communications materials. Positive messaging using
influencers, leaders and care home workers who have already been
vaccinated has boosted confidence and tackled misinformation, as
have briefings with different faith groups who have become
ambassadors for getting a vaccine.
We continue to do everything we can to increase vaccine uptake.
We have targeted support at older adult care homes where vaccine
uptake is low, such as in London. As of 4 April 2021, vaccine
uptake among eligible workers in older adult care homes in London
is 68%, compared to 82% in the South West. Local efforts, by
employers, local authorities, public health teams and others,
supplement this government’s support.
Despite efforts, vaccine uptake amongst care home workers is not
consistently at the level we know from SAGE advice is needed to
minimise the risk of outbreak, which is a minimum vaccination
rate of 80% staff, and 90% of residents within each home and this
level must be maintained. Only 53% of older adult homes in
England are currently meeting this recommendation.
It is imperative that together we now take every step necessary
to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to those most at risk
from COVID-19 and those who care for them. We must protect people
living in care homes, and we must protect the workforce who
perform such a vital role.
Vaccination is a safe, effective way of preventing the spread of
COVID-19. It is therefore right that the Government acts now to
ensure that those working and assisting in older adult care homes
are vaccinated to protect everyone in these settings.
From today, we are consulting on taking steps to require care
providers to deploy only staff who have been vaccinated within
older adult care homes. This measure would be intended to protect
the people most at risk in our society - around 90% of those who
died from COVID-19 were people over 70.
Making vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care
home provider in this way, would help to further protect older
people living in care homes, who are among the most vulnerable to
Covid-19, and ultimately save lives. A five-week consultation
launches today to help inform decision-making around how the
change could be implemented and whether respondents think it will
be beneficial. This will include areas such as potential impact
on staff, safety and who could be exempt. Staff, providers,
stakeholders, residents and their families are being urged to
take part to have their views heard with an outcome expected by
this summer.
I will provide an update to the House, following the completion
of the consultation.
