BASW ENGLAND SURVEY: Making vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector
In April 2021 the government ran a public consultation on making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment for those working in adult care homes. The government recently announced COVID-19 vaccination would be required of people entering a CQC registered adult care home, unless exempt, to protect vulnerable residents.
Following on from this, The Department for Health and Social Care have now launched a 6- week consultation on whether to make vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector.
BASW England are asking members to take a survey which will help us formulate a response to the proposals and to ensure we can properly scrutinise the Government on their plans.
Closing date Monday 11th October 2021
National Consultation: vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector.
The government is now seeking views on whether or not to extend vaccination requirements to other health and care settings for COVID-19 AND also for flu. Recent research has shown 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. This is the rationale provided for both vaccines being considered in this consultation.
When considering widening the scope of making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector, supporting information to the consultation highlights three areas of risk that should be considered:
- risk of interaction (that is the numbers into and out of the setting, for example, a GP practice vs a more ‘closed setting’ such as a care home)
- risk of vulnerability of the individual
- risk from settings with high- risk procedures (for example, dentistry procedures)”
If you want to learn more about the proposals you can engage with the Government’s full consultation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-vaccination-a-condition-of-deployment-in-the-health-and-wider-social-care-sector