Call to scrap mandatory social care staff jabs

Social care providers have called for the requirement for front-line staff to be vaccinated against coronavirus to be abandoned.

The Home care Association said "further serious harm" is likely to come to older and disabled people and their families if between 15% and 20% of home care staff cannot work.

It said the Government has "seriously misjudged" the balance between the risk of infection and the risk of people going without vital care.

But Downing Street said there were no plans to change the implementation date for mandatory C ovid vaccinations for NHS staff.

Two vaccine doses for care home staff in England have been mandatory since November and the new policy affects wider NHS and social care staff.

The deadline for these workers to have their first vaccine doses is February 3, and they must be double jabbed before April 1.

The Association said it is concerned the safety and wellbeing of older and disabled people will be "dangerously compromised" and called on the Government to withdraw the regulations now - before employers start serving notice on unvaccinated employees.

Chief executive Dr Jane Townson said: "We have consistently argued that persuasion would likely be more successful than compulsion in achieving high vaccine uptake.

"And we have repeatedly stressed the need to balance the mitigated risk of infection with the risk of older and disabled people going without vital care at home. In pressing ahead with regulations requiring vaccination as a condition of deployment, we believe the Government has seriously misjudged this balance of risk."