People working in care homes from 11 November who have not received both Covid-19 vaccinations can self-certify medical conditions to be exempt, it has emerged.
Claire Armstrong, director of adult social care delivery for the Department of Health and Social Care, has written to local authority chief executives, directors of adult social services and care home providers and managers in England to let them know that people working or volunteering in care homes who have a medical reason why they are unable to have a Covid-19 vaccine will be able to self-certify that they meet the medical exemption criteria.
Today, 16 September, represents the last opportunity for care home workers to receive their first Covid-19 vaccination in order to receive their second by 11 November, when all staff working in CQC-registered homes will require full vaccination.
While not exhaustive, examples of medical exemptions for Covid-19 vaccination include individuals:
- receiving end-of-life care where vaccination is not in the individual’s interests
- with learning disabilities or autistic individuals, or with a combination of impairments which result in the same distress, who find vaccination and testing distressing because of their condition and cannot be achieved through reasonable adjustments such as provision of an accessible environment
- with medical contraindications to the vaccines such as severe allergy to all Covid-19 vaccines or their constituents
- who had an adverse reaction to the first dose.
As of 9 September, 90.4% of care home workers had had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 82.2% fully vaccinated.
Individuals that have received a Covid-19 jab abroad can also self-certify as medically exempt, since it is not “clinically appropriate” for them to be vaccinated in the UK if they have received a partial or full course of vaccination overseas.
Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum, an association for the not-for-profit care sector, described the announcement as a human resource nightmare for employers: “The pressure on social care employers in relation to the policy to mandate vaccination in care home staff remains relentless and they are working hard to implement this policy as fairly as possible. The updated advice today, 15th September, from the DHSC on how to manage the process for those staff who believe they are medically exempt to self-certify to this effect has just complicated an already difficult situation for employers and their staff.
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“The current situation facing the social care workforce is like nothing seen before, with many seeing an increase in staff exits and experiencing significant difficulties to attract new staff and retain existing staff. Given that the government is now consulting on widening the policy to cover all frontline health and care staff, they should delay the date of 11 November for the go-live of this policy in care homes and align the implementation dates across the whole health and care sector.”
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