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Guidance on Mandatory Vaccinations Against COVID-19 in Care Homes

on Friday, 20 August 2021.

The Department of Health & Social Care (DHS) published some Operational guidance this month to help support the requirement to be double-vaccinated against COVID-19 when entering a care home (unless exempt), effective from 11 November 2021.

You can read more about the Operational guidance on the GOV.uk website, and find out more about the regulations in our previous article.

What Employers Need to Know About Vaccinations for Care Home Staff

  • Guidance around the medical exemption is still being developed and updates are pending.
  • Employers will need to keep records of staff vaccination/exemption status, and these must be kept up to date.
  • If you are a care home employer, a vaccination policy should be strongly considered.
  • Employers should liaise with their workforce between the publication of this guidance, and implementation of the legislation on 11 November 2021. This should include gathering vaccination status, and advising them of consequences of not meeting the requirements.
  • The guidance details a procedure that employers should be following with staff who cannot provide evidence of their vaccination/exemption status, making it clear that all options should be considered, including redeployment to an alternative role where vaccination is not required. This includes redeployment to an alternative role where necessary.

Can You Fairly Dismiss Care Home Employees Who Refuse Vaccination?

The guidance makes it clear that as long as the employer follows a fair process, the regulations may provide a fair reason for dismissal.

In our we advised that employers must always follow a fair dismissal process, which will involve meeting with the employee to understand the reasons for their refusal to take the vaccine and to allow an exploration of the alternatives to dismissal.

Employers should also consider the potential reputational risk and risk to workplace relations before dismissing an employee for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine before the new legislation is in force.

Care Home Worker Vaccinations and Discrimination Claims

Employers will be protected from discrimination claims on the grounds of age, disability, religion or belief and will not breach the Equality Act on these grounds by following their requirements under the regulations when working to make sure that unvaccinated care workers do not enter a care home.

These exceptions will be important for those employers who may have to dismiss staff as a result of the regulations, as long as a fair procedure is otherwise followed and the dismissal is carried out in a fair and non-discriminatory way.

However, employers should note that this exception does not apply to race, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership discrimination. Employers should therefore be exceptionally mindful of this.


If you are an employer and/or employee working in a care home, and/or have any queries as to how to implement this guidance, drafting a policy and the next steps that you should be taking to avoid potential unfair dismissal and/or discrimination claims, please contact Sharmin Chowdhury In our Employment Law team on schowdhury@vwv.co.uk, or complete the form below.

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